Homegrown AZ Citrus

[Eric Alan]

Gotta love that citrus! We probably don't live that far from you (Mesa/Gilbert border) and get offered free oranges and grapefruit quite often. I honestly did not like grapefruit or oranges that much until I moved to AZ, never knew it could be so sweet.

How do you feel about lemons?

So envious. I'm struggling to just get plants to grow, here in Nevada. Lousy soil, lousy weather, blistering summers and bitter winters... no way I can have citrus outside. I have 29 little sprouts from Cutie Mandarins that I found this year - those things are prolific. If they do have seeds, they usually have a lot, and out of 29 seeds I've got 28 healthy sprouts and 1 albino. Beautiful to see.. but it won't survive. I raise them as house plants, and give them away, but with the weather here I don't expect they'll ever bear fruit - and if they did, it would be mystery fruit. Three apple trees, two apricots, a combo plum, honeyberries, strawberries, raspberries, a peach tree... all of those are planted outside, but nothing's bearing fruit. I only bought this place five years ago as bare dirt - so... someday....

I love the smell of citrus in bloom, let alone the smell of the fruit.

We were lucky enough to move in a few years ago with these trees already in place. We've been reaping the rewards ever since!

You can trash the grapefruit but I will take the rest.

Deal! If by trash you mean eat...

Oh i am so envious. I live in NY, so i am limited to apples, pears, and cherries. I have planted pawpaws and hope for my first crop this year. We just put in a glass ceiling sun room and was thinking about trying some meyerlemons and manderin oranges. the sun room is heated by wood stove and has never gotten colder then 45 in the coldest winter night. Any of you citrus growers think it might work.

It certainly could. Ours are doing great here with our 110+ degree summers and near-freezing overnight temps a few days a year with very little effort on our part beyond making sure they're watered appropriately and are fertilized quarterly.

Love all citrus, even some of the odd ones like Budda's hand (just for the looks), blood oranges, qumquats (spell), and those fancy Meyer (?) lemons. Tried to grow most of these in IA, in a heated green house, but scale was a never ending battle, which the dwarf trees and I eventually lost.

We enjoy apricots, figs, and persimmons here. I also grow apples, peaches, pears and plums. Lots of mullberry also, but I use them as forage (bunnies and goats munch on them) for silk worms.

I'm right there with ya - we're definitely not succumbing to scurvy in this household!

Looks like a nice haul there Eric!

Enjoy

It certainly is - thanks!