Wife likes flowers, mainly orkids. I plant things I can eat and I eat flowers also. In my yard; One calamansi-tree. One orange tree. Three sweet lanzones trees. Three different banana trees. Two Coco nut trees. Six Papaya tree Two Rambutan trees. One Bu-ongon tree, (a thick skinned grapefruit). I grafted a Lemon branch to the Bu-ongon and now I have a Lemon branch producing lemon fruit on the grapefruit tree. I am interested to see if I get a bitter grapefruit or a sweet lemon. Two other fruit trees that I do not even know the names of. A small veggy garden on the west side of the house. My orange tree is 8 years old and still not producing any fruit. I am going to graft grapefruit and lemon to it and see what I end up with.
Apart from a mango tree, I haven't got a clue what's in our fledgling garden. The wife won't let me anywhere near it.
Are you thinking there might be some crossing between the stock (the original tree) and the grafted part to produce fruits with different characteristics, such as flavour? In fact, there will be no mixing of DNA - the grafted fruit should be the same as if growing on a tree of the same species. The only factors will be the soil type (i.e. if the original plant was in different soil to the one you grafted it to), the conduction of water and nutrients up through the grafted part (as that may be lessened if the vessels within the plant stems are not connected well) and any changes due to growth differences because the grafts are now on a different lower rooted part. Other gardeners here may wish to add to this if I have missed anything as this is from knowledge and not experience.
Any of you know why my Orange tree is 8 years old and about 20 feet tall is not making blossoms or fruit? The trunk is a good 4 inches in diameter. I started several of these navel orange trees at the same time from seeds from the same store bought orange. The one I gave to my brother-in-law was making good oranges at 4 years. What did I do wrong?
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/fruits/oranges/hand-pollinating-oranges.htm I'm guessing orange trees can not self pollinate.
Grafting in any form will give you a consistency of tree and a reliability of fruit planting FRUIT trees from seed takes away all that, just lets you waiting wondering and hoping there is zero guarantee that seed will produce fruit, or how long it will take. Vegetables are a different story entirely. Fruit nurseries use grafting in all forms, for the reliabilty and speed of fruit producing, and indeed for the ability to manipulate the plants DNA, to produce hybrids, and become more disease resistant. I have growing Miracle fruit, red banana, double mahoi banana, cavendish banana, Dates from Syria, red and white dragon fruit, Snake skin fruit trees from Borneo, several different durian types, red and green grapes, rambutan, lychee, guava, seedless atis, latex free nangka, also have madre de agua, mulberry and super napier pakchong 1 (that i use for chicken feed), mangosteen, satsuma, kiat kiat, grapefruit, calamansi, golden hybrid and macapuno coconut trees, pomegranate, few different pomelos, for the life of me just cant get watermelon to grow, also have a good few Blackthorn and Whitethorn trees, i got from Ireland (bare root in the winter), some are doing ok, some went the way of the Dodo, some are hanging there trying. If its fruit trees your after go with the grafted forms, that way your three years ahead of the seed stage, and they are relatively cheap and are settled with good roots, I have pricked around with seeds bought from here and there, with very little success, when what i have growing now, is producing ona constant basis, i will start air layering/marcotting, was going to try purchase some banana suckers from thailand, but its expensive and risky, thought then of just flying to thailand and bringing back in my suitcase (just need to muster up the courage), i have heard of locals going over seas, to bring back eggs and the likes to upgrade their farm.
A post above makes the good point about pollination. Another points out that grafting is best - but you actually raised 5 trees and the one your BiL has IS fruiting. So, ask your BiL what he is doing. It may even be altitude or perhaps he does hand-pollinate. They usually fruit after about 3 years. Other than correctly feeding and watering, you could not do more. If all else fails then it might just be bad luck - you gave away the best one!
You are probably right. I did ask BIL, he said that all he did was to put lawn clippings around the base of the tree. I did that 3 or 4 years ago with no luck. Can't do much in the way of hand-pollinate if there is no flowers. I think I should try grafting from BIL's orange tree to my orange tree.
I thought perhaps your problem was getting fruit - now that you say you are not even getting flowers, did you have the trees spayed (neutered)? Are you sure these are orange trees and not telegraph poles? We all have deteriorating eye-sight as the years roll on. What about a night-time raid to substitute one of your trees for your BiL's? But, to be serious (I struggle with that at times!) I looked this up and plenty of sun is a must - did you plant your trees indoors by chance? Or, more likely, are they in the shade? Do you prune them? Is it at the right time? - in that if you prune when flowers are forming then you might be removing them.
