Some ten years ago I bought some grapefruit from one of my local markets. I enjoyed eating them so much I saved the seed and decided to try my luck at growing a citrus from seed. I like to garden and though friends and neighbors advised me that I couldn’t grow citrus from seed, I planted my seeds anyway.
Now, 10 years later I not only have a citrus tree some six feet high with a spread greater than its height but I have one that bears good edible fruit. While the fruit is not as large as some in the markets, I can vouch for it being as juicy and sweet as any that anyone have purchased.
Juicy, sweet grapefruit is unusual even on commercially grafted trees. The best grapefruit I know is grown down around the Indigo where both the days and nights are warm and the thermometer registers around 90 degrees at this time of year and it gets hotter and hotter as the days progress through summer into fall. Even the winters are warm which is good for both grapefruit growing and winter relaxing.
My grapefruit tree is a seedling and most seedling citrus revert to the tough, seedy fruit of the species as witness the seedling orange trees around the lawn of the Capitol in Sacramento. Of course, new varieties of citrus are obtained by crossing one variety with an other and planting the seed but my seed is pollinated and even then a large number of seedlings must be discarded.
I believe that adequate fertilizer is the answer to the good eating quality of my Zarcone grapefruit. I use a commercial fertilizer especially blended for citrus and avocado trees. It scatters a good handful around the tree each month and waters it down well. Also, the tree is at the edge of the lawn where it gets a share of the lawn water. In commercial citrus groves the growers siphon liquid fertilize into the irrigation water each time they irrigate. They say that unless they do this the fruit will be sour and lacking in juice.
Home gardeners who have citrus trees in their garden that are beautiful to look at but whose fruit is too sour and lacking in juice to eat should try one of the specially blended citrus fertilizers. Use it once a month water deeply and possibly more frequently, to see if the fruit is more palatable. This program should be started before the trees blossom. It should be carried on right through the year.
Citrus make excellent tub plants for porch and patio decorations and they also can be made to produce excellent edible fruit. However, plants in containers need more frequent fertilizing than the same plant needs in the garden. It also needs much more frequent watering. Fertilizing every other week is not too much and keeping the soil moist but never soggy is a must for good fruit.
