....make lemonade, right? Not this time. It seems my Eureka lemon tree has had a midlife crisis and made a pact with the Devil to become a grapefruit tree. Last Winter I noticed a branch forming at the base of the Eureka on the root stock. Curious about grafted plants, I decided to leave it alone to see what it would do. It became a branch that produced several small grapefruit. Of course, they never developed any sweetness and remained sour due to the lack of heat here in San Francisco. The fruit eventually fell off and I didn't give it another thought. Perhaps that was the time to cut off the rogue branch. Perhaps it was my failure to prune that branch back that gave the root stock the idea it could just take over the entire tree. That's exactly what it did this year. The blooms were profuse this year and I looked forward to a nice crop of lemons, only to notice that the small fruit looked rounder than before and their characteristic pointed end had not yet appeared. Upon taking a closer look, it was obvious that every branch on the tree had reverted back to the grapefruit root stock. The lesson in all this is to cut back suckers. It works for roses, and hopefully for citrus.
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