On Wed, 1 Feb 2017 15:35:16 -0600, George Shirley
wrote:

Finally found a local store that sells citrus fertilizer, had two hard
freezes in two days and the leaves and fruit froze off the kumquat tree.
Had been looking locally rather than ordering on line and finally found
some at Walmart, a store I seldom go into except when I need sneakers,
which I did. My fifteen year old sneakers gave up the ghost this
morning, they were just starting to fit and feel real good. G

Got up this morning, got into long pants, long sleeved shirt, by 2 pm I
was in shorts and a tee shirt. I do believe spring is here, I hope that
is a tree statement as I abhor cold winds, and all the things that go
with winter.

Dear wife spent some time today looking at seeds and plants. I took her
credit card and hid it as we have a container full of all sorts of seed
packets. I'm fighting her to keep her flowers out from the base of my
fruit trees. Most flowers can't be eaten and they just suck all the
fertilizer away from my trees. It's a mighty struggle but some day I
will WIN.

We've been getting a bit of rain and it appears Ma Nature is turning
south to warm us up some nowadays.

I finally got the pear tree pruned and now I can fertilize the kumquat
and may be able to get it bigger and I need to open it up a little more.
My old kumquat was about seven years old when I left it behind when we
moved. Each fall we would pick about three five gallon buckets of really
nice fruit and make all sorts of stuff from the fruit. One of my
favorites was kumquat wine, nice flavor with a citrus back taste, next
up was kumquat marmalade, then jelly, then just eating out of hand or
putting on a shebab stick with meat in between. I do need to get that
tree bigger. Of course it's living in a hole in the clay with good stuff
in the hole, may never get bigger unless I can get a backhoe in the
backyard and make it a bigger bed. Did that with the pear tree and it is
going strong.

It's a beautiful, sunny day in the mid seventies, maybe spring is really
here or it is really April Fools Day.

George


Even a small kumquat can produce quite a bit. I have one here in my
office in a 12 inch pot. I fertilized it a month ago and it is all
abloom and starting to show new fruit. Granted, I went at it with a
q-tip to help, but that worked well. And I have fruit on the lime that
is in a similarly sized pot over near the window.

I take these plants home in the summer and keep them on my deck, but
let them overwinter in my southern exposure filing cabinet at work.