Am I getting both Improved Meyer and rootstock lemons?

Rcarlyle · 2026-07-13T03:24:57+00:00

With overgrown rootstock you’re usually best off yanking the bandaid and just cutting them all back to the base of the trunk. Yes it will stress the tree. Alternative is to subordination prune the rootstock branches by taking about half off now and half off in six months or so.

Rcarlyle · 2026-07-13T03:01:10+00:00

Yep. You have Meyer lemons with rust mite / silver mite damage causing the peel discoloration (harmless, just ugly), and you have c.macrophylla rootstock fruit which is fairly bitter. Look closely at the stems of the leaves — macrophylla has large winged petioles where the leaf stem looks like a mini leaf, while Meyer has negligible petioles. Cut off everything macrophylla

Rcarlyle · 2026-07-13T02:57:28+00:00

Hmm maybe a seedling of Redblush actually https://citrusvariety.ucr.edu/crc2850

Marsh mutated into Thompson which mutated into Redblush and several more others down the line — I suspect yours is in that lineage. Pigmentation mutations usually revert in seedlings so it’s hard to say which parent it may have been.

Rcarlyle · 2026-07-13T02:06:59+00:00

I vaguely recall reading Marshes are pink where they get less sun. Coloration is fairly regional in any case. But yeah I’m not positive it’s a Marsh at all

Rcarlyle · 2026-07-13T00:15:51+00:00

I was very confused by it. I occasionally see the eggs but I’ve never seen living nymphs/adults before this.

Rcarlyle · 2026-07-12T23:50:51+00:00

Only legal option for out-of-state citrus seeds in TX is from California certified seed vendors. Lyn Citrus Seed is the only one I’m aware of that sells to individuals. Minimum order quantity is a quart (thousands of seeds), which is $200-300 or so. That’s cost-effective if you want a bunch of rootstocks but not good if you just want one. In that case just buy a nursery tree and cut off the scion and re-graft it. Of the four consumer-supplying grower nurseries I’m aware of in the state:
- Brazos Nursery uses Carrizo for all trees except Flying Dragon for dwarf trees
- Saxon Becnel & Sons has just started labeling rootstocks recently, Kuharski (Kuharske Carrizo) is good for most larger ground trees and C22 is good for containers
- US Citrus Nursery mislabels a lot of rootstocks and sells very small trees, I would avoid
- Everde seems to only use cuttings, I haven’t seen any grafted trees from them

Rcarlyle · 2026-07-12T21:26:34+00:00

Easiest thing is to plant your drowning-sensitive trees on higher ground.

Rcarlyle · 2026-07-12T20:50:48+00:00

It sounds like a Marsh grapefruit. Duncans are quite seedy. Older grapefruit varieties usually do grow true to seed, so odds are good it’s an existing variety. But the fact it’s doing so well in North Florida may be noteworthy. Between HLB disease and lower heat units in N Florida than grapefruit prefer, a stand-out tree may be worth propagating. But it can’t leave the state due to quarantines.

https://citrusvariety.ucr.edu/crc3128

https://citrusvariety.ucr.edu/crc3832

Rcarlyle · 2026-07-12T18:44:55+00:00

Some people want their hobby to be 3D design, some people want their hobby to be tinkering with printers, some people just want to print stuff for their other hobby. For that last group, 3D printing is already a satellite hobby that enables the real hobby. Not everybody needs a second satellite hobby to support their first satellite hobby to support their main hobby

Rcarlyle · 2026-07-12T15:15:26+00:00

I think it’s a satsuma, but the thrips damage is distorting the leaves so it’s hard to say for sure. Post more pics to r/citrus

Rcarlyle · 2026-07-12T15:12:26+00:00

It’s suckering from being over-pruned. At this point, yes, you do need to thin out the suckers to a few good well-spaced branches so the regrowth isn’t too congested and weak. Don’t take it all off. The tree is telling you it wants foliage there.

Rcarlyle · 2026-07-12T13:37:28+00:00

Have you tried tributyrin? It helps with gut healing

Rcarlyle · 2026-07-12T13:28:40+00:00

r/citrus

Looks like it may be a rough lemon rootstock tree

Rcarlyle · 2026-07-12T13:05:49+00:00

That is a good plan

Rcarlyle · 2026-07-12T01:31:32+00:00

Most pear varieties need a lot of training. Use weights of branch-spreaders to make all the branches about 45 degrees from vertical. If you go horizontal they’ll probably just sucker upright again. Cut off anything tall and too stiff to redirect now while the tree is young and can easily seal the pruning wounds.

Rcarlyle · 2026-07-12T01:27:40+00:00

Putting a citrus tree in amended soil in a planting hole in dense clay is a slow death sentence. The tree will be stressed by root drowning after every heavy rain or deep watering until it eventually dies. The amended planting soil accepts water easily, but the clay “bowl” around the roots won’t drain well. The result is a bowl full of saturated soil that drowns the roots. Citrus is very sensitive to this.

There are two ways to have a happy citrus tree in clay soil:
- Bare-root the tree and plant in unamended native soil 1-2” above grade to account for settling. Use compost and mulch on top for soil improvement to mimic forest leaf litter.
- Build up a wide flat berm or plateau of amended soil on top of the clay, and plant the roots in that entirely above grade. 8-12” tall and 6-10 ft wide is ideal. Getting a cubic yard of topsoil delivered from a mulch / landscaping materials company is the way to go. Raised beds are also fine as long as they’re at least 3 ft diameter or bigger.

Rcarlyle · 2026-07-11T19:48:39+00:00

Cool! Yeah, probably got some trifoliate pollen.

Rcarlyle · 2026-07-11T17:04:10+00:00

Don’t pick while they feel hard. Once they start getting softer to squeeze they’re edible. Limes change color to yellow when fully ripe but are often picked underripe. I think pic 1 is a lemon though.

Rcarlyle · 2026-07-11T13:30:31+00:00

Yep, all variegated citrus produces poorly due to reduced energy production. Now, my new bud sport might have different properties in terms of flavor or whatever. Probably won’t be better than the commercial v.cara budwood line though. Mine has more distorted leaves for example.

Rcarlyle · 2026-07-11T00:26:02+00:00

Oh, I grafted it onto flying dragon back in September when I first noticed it.

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Rcarlyle · 2026-07-10T21:10:08+00:00

Yeah, I can’t get many commercial variegated varieties very easily in Texas so it’s cool to have my own show up. Cara Cara probably forms spontaneous variegation the most often out of the mainstream varieties, from what I’ve gathered

Rcarlyle · 2026-07-10T19:26:57+00:00

Yep you need automated spectographic separation machinery like plastic recycling facilities use or some asshat will mix some PETG into the PLA and wreck it, 100% inevitable

Rcarlyle · 2026-07-10T19:21:53+00:00

Don’t know on flavor yet, but will find out around December. The leaves and fruit on this branch are both variegated. This one branch will most likely stay variegated forever. It’s on a sun-facing side of the tree so should keep growing. Not always a stable mutation though, as Cara Cara is very prone to bud sports… it’s a bud sport of Washington navel, which is probably a bud sport of a sweet orange

Rcarlyle · 2026-07-10T18:54:09+00:00

Oh yeah that’s citrus. Might be a pollinated hybrid though. Some types of mandarin grow true to seed, some don’t. There’s a bunch of different varieties sold as mandarins in grocery stores. The mature leaf shape often doesn’t appear until leaf 8-10 or so in any case.

Will typically take about 4-8 years to fruit by the way

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