I'm originally from Seattle, but find myself stuck at 7000 feet in Colorado with nothing but quartz sand and gravel under me. It got down to 10 degrees last night - 23 April, so even my kale looks sad.

Planning a move to large acres in southern Arizona by the end of the summer.

I have a wide array of interests and experience. I'm a mechanic and inventor, pilot, musician and health nut. Right now, I'm really excited about biodiesel from algae and want to make that my polyfarm income source within 2 years.

I'm an expert at growing citrus in containers from seed!

Enough about me.... This place is GREAT!

Benjamin, I was lucky enough to work for a company ,that has now been bought out by a company, that is using bugs to convert syngas to fuels. Ever heard of Lanzatech?
So you are making a big move to Arizona. Can you tell me more about the place you found down there ?
Do you actually get fruit from your citrus? Do you grow it from seed? I had some small trees , grown from seed, for about ten years and they never even bloomed. They made nice house plants though.

Benjamin, welcome to permies.com.

If you haven't already, check out these 2 fora here @ permies
http://www.permies.com/forums/f-30/rockies
http://www.permies.com/forums/f-38/southwest-usa
...where you are, & where you're going. A lot of region-specific info.

Miles Flansburg wrote:Benjamin, I was lucky enough to work for a company ,that has now been bought out by a company, that is using bugs to convert syngas to fuels. Ever heard of Lanzatech?
So you are making a big move to Arizona. Can you tell me more about the place you found down there ?
Do you actually get fruit from your citrus? Do you grow it from seed? I had some small trees , grown from seed, for about ten years and they never even bloomed. They made nice house plants though.

Never heard of that co. I'm looking at expeller pressing the dried chips of algea because it can run straight with no refinement. Although I'd love to discover a way to make biobutanol so i can keep my gas guzzling hot rod.

Have not decided on exactly where in Arizona, but I have 4 areas in mind with multiple parcels and agents standing by to take my money.

On getting fruit from citrus, you gotta have an absurdly big pot with a large drainage saucer #1.
#2 They need to get sun light year round. - especially in the summer when small fruit need energy... by window with overhang blocks all the light inside.
#3 Gotta give them a give them a good soil mix with some sand for minerals and sawdust for acidic non-boggy water retention.
#4 Take special care not to let them dry out during blossoming or else all the blossoms drop off but don't give 'em root rot - that's the hard part.
#5 Get a product called Hygrozyme from any hydroponics store and use it once per month with distilled water. Dissolves dead root matter and clears mineral scale.
#6 They will burn up from UV shock and drop all fruit if you keep em inside all winter and then plop them on a south porch in the summer. Need acclimation time and a little shade.

Oh, I prune a lot to get the shape I want. Any time I'm unhappy with the shape, I give it away

I use Foxfarms liquid for them now, but I'm transitioning over to compost tea. Right now I have given away all but 2 keylimes, a calamondin and a satsuma (not from seed) that all bear fruit. I gave a lot of meyer lemons, eureka lemons and keylimes and now every tree - 20 or so - has been killed by the new owner. Good thing I'm not giving out goldfish or kittens.

I killed my 7 foot kumquat that bore a bumper crop every 4 months or so in a 5 gallon pot :\ I'll go with a 15 gallon on wheels next time. Any time you let it dry out too much, you have to use hygrozyme to get the dead root material out of the way, or you'll get root rot the next time you water. Tricky business.

Cheers!
Ben

John Polk wrote:Benjamin, welcome to permies.com.

If you haven't already, check out these 2 fora here @ permies
http://www.permies.com/forums/f-30/rockies
http://www.permies.com/forums/f-38/southwest-usa
...where you are, & where you're going. A lot of region-specific info.

Thanks! The amount of info here is staggering.

am curious about the hygrozyme. manufacturer website down.

we are under the impression that dead roots in the soil are a nitrogen and ammonia sink, storage of food for plants.

you are saying it is a reservoir for bad bacteria?


hmm.

think it is anerobic? you use sand tho.... wonder if the leaving roots in the soil thing is a good idea now....

Do you grow the trees from seed?

Morgan Morrigan wrote:am curious about the hygrozyme. manufacturer website down.

we are under the impression that dead roots in the soil are a nitrogen and ammonia sink, storage of food for plants.

you are saying it is a reservoir for bad bacteria?


hmm.

think it is anerobic? you use sand tho.... wonder if the leaving roots in the soil thing is a good idea now....

This is strictly a potted citrus thing in particular. They have notoriously finicky roots and yes, it's an anerobic environment when they are jammed up in a pot and the soil gets too wet. But, too much sand and you have to water every single day. I have done that. Pain in the butt.

Soil building in the ground is another world entirely. The more more rotten gunk, the better because you have so many beasties in there competing.

In place of hygrozyme, you can use a mycorhizal culture, but they are subject to die-offs with wide changes in PH and moisture. With citrus in pots, you just have to play their game

Miles Flansburg wrote:Do you grow the trees from seed?

Yeah, all but the satsuma, but I bought that because it had about 100 fruits on it just sitting in the home depot. Bugger never grows bigger at all but right now I have 300 fruits or more. So far I have gotten fruit from everything I grew from seed because they are all about 5-7 years old. Key limes will fruit in about 3 years. Meyer lemons and kumquats about 3- 4. If you kill it back to the trunk by doing something dumb (like I have done) it will skip a year or two. I REALLY need to move to Costa Rica to continue my citrus habit.