A second possibility is that this tree grew from a grapefruit seed and is a dud, only worth keeping as an ornamental.īefore doing anything, however, I would take one of the fruits to the former University of Arizona Citrus Agricultural Research Center 1/3 mile south of Greeway Road on 188th Ave (Perryville Road) in Surprise Arizona. (You do not mention if the tree is bearing flowers, but of course you will need flowers before you get fruit.) Leave the one small fruit in place to mature. Then wait for another crop to see if is good quality. (Grapefruit often cling to the tree without falling off.) In case that is the situation, I would remove all the fruit and fertilize it with an organic fertilizer recommended for citrus. One possibility is that the fruit hung on the tree too long. You will get bigger and better grapefruit by thinning and you can space them out better on the branches. As the fruits grow you can take off more if you see you have left too many on a branch. The point of thinning out the fruit on any grapefruit tree is to leave only as many as the tree can support without branches breaking. If your tree is ‘Melogold’, thin out a quarter of the fruits now but wait until you see what the tree does on its own before taking off more. ‘Melogold’, for example, does not hang on well to its fruit, so if you have that variety, don’t thin too much. If you thin too many fruits too soon the tree might drop off many of the one’s you left hanging. The tree will drop off many on their own. Aim to thin out one half to two thirds of the small fruits, leaving the healthiest and largest, but don’t try to do the job all at once. I know I need to separate them to have a healthy crop but don’t know how many to leave on each cluster…? Can you help me…?ĭue to their growth habit of producing their large fruits in bunches like grapes, grapefruit (Citrus paradisi) have the common name grapefruit-(Not “greatfruit”, as you have called this fruit, though that name would make sense!) Most grapefruit varieties set far too many small fruit in bunches, many more than branches can support to full size. but no evidence of infestation that i can tell.I have a dwarf grapefruit tree and it has lots of flowers this year and now has clusters of tiny grapefruit. also, I have a lot of nasteriums beneath the grapefruit tree for bug control.Ĭan anyone give me a clue what may be going on and what course of action to take. that is a younger tree (2 years) and has yet to fruit or flower. the crazy thing is less than a foot away is a dwarf cara cara navel tree that is doing great. I cut some limbs near the hybrid line again, resprayed today with nitrogen solution, and will discontinue water for a week or so. the tree is on my main lawn watering system so I thought maybe it's getting too much water - gets full sun from the west for about 5-6 hours per day. end of flower stems (where tiny grapefruits were) got all dried up and brown. things looked good, until two weeks ago, all the green centers fell out and the tree is looking yellow, lost of varigation on the leaves and some flat white color on the underside of the leaves. after the last fruit was picked in march, the tree began to flower (mid-April), and then new tiny green fruits appeared at end of flowering stems. I trimmed suckers below the hybrid line, sprayed with a mostly nitrogen solution, and the tree took off. Last year (picked in Feb-March '08) was a great crop - tons of red, sweet fruits - more than 50 in all. I have a 3.5 year old dwarf ruby red grapefruit tree.
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