Hi, We just bought a house a few months ago and the guy told us there were
two fruit trees on the property. I know one of them is a lemon tree as we
have been getting some good lemons off it. The other he told us was an
orange tree. I am not sure what kind it is though. Right now it is pretty
small and hasn't grown much since we moved in. It has a pretty big piece
branching off it that grows great and it is very thorny. The part that is
thorny has grown at least twice as much or more as the other part of the
tree. The thorny part has started producing some kind of ball shaped fruit
about the size of a golf ball. It is green and hard and the inside is also
green at the moment. It smells sort of like a lime, but pretty hard to
tell. One of my friends said to cut down the portion that is thorny because
it is taking all the nutrients from the main part of the tree. He also said
it looks like an orange tree and that is why he said to cut down the thorny
part.

Please Help..
Thanks
John

Your friend is right. If your orange tree is grafted on to a root stock
(which is very usual), then, yes remove the sucker growing from BELOW the
graft. The graft will usually be a swollen spot on the main stem or trunk of
the tree. I have a lemon tree that regularly grows vigorous sucker growth
that I remove. The Oranges that you will get from the root stock growth will
be poor quality.


Ozzie