Hi my name is Byron Martin, and today we're going to be talking about Kumquats,
which are in the genus Fortunella, or in the Citrus family. And
Kumquats are actually a plant that originated out of China and Japan, and
the one that we know in the US, as a plant in the store,s or as fruit in stores, is
'Fortunella Margarita,' which is the oblong Kumquat. Common kumquat, or the
kumquat that's known in the trade, is Fortunella Margarita which is this one,
right here-- it's the oblong fruit.
These are actually not quite ripe yet, but they are ripening up, and this fruit
actually has a sweet rind and a sour interior.
It's a very prolific tree, and
and that's what the tree originally was... on to that we've grafted the
Miwa Kumquat, which is the sweet kumquat, and this one actually is sweet all the way
through; it has a sweet rind and a sweet interior flesh; quite delicious to eat.
Also on this tree, we have the 'Changshou kumquat,' which is a kumquat that
originated out of China, and it is the best of the kumquats, in my opinion.
It has a very large fruit to it, the outside skin is edible; the interior is sweet.
It also tends to flower twice a year for us, so the plant is almost always in fruit,
and we have a graft that's been grafted up onto the top of this tree.
Kumquats are actually great container plants and, although this one here is planted in the ground,
they're wonderful plants for pots indoors, in that they are heavy bearers
of fruit, and they bear every year.
The flowers have a very intense citrus fragrance, and the flowering cycle,
actually, is later than most citrus, so it actually goes into spring and into summer.
Most all kumquats are grafted, although you can root them by cutting,
their generally grown as a graft on some other rootstock. One of the issues that we
faced growing kumquats, or citrus, in containers, is root disease. And that, really, is
something that has to be dealt with, in terms of culture. So, we go back into the
watering cycles, we bring them to dryness and thoroughly soak them.
This, actually, allows oxygen to get into the soil; keeps the root systems healthy
and one thing I think that many gardeners don't realize is, citrus can
take huge amounts of drought stress without damaging the plants,
so you can put them into a wilt and that's actually a good thing.
This young plant, here, is about a year or so from its graft, and maybe it has a
year of growth on the under stock.
Generally, when they're this small, we pot this up, it needs to get into a bigger pot,
and we may prune some of the top off,
preventing it from bearing at this time, so that it gets to be a little bit stronger
of a structure. But, you can count on them as being an every-year bearing citrus, and
as I mentioned before, they're prolific in terms of their ability to produce a lot
of fruit in a small container. When we're growing citrus, we really like to grow
them under full sun. And this is a greenhouse with glass glazing on it,
this plant is in blazing sunlight all year round; we never put shade on it. So, the
best thing to do is to grow them in a bright, sunny window; east to west if you
have it, best is the south. You can move them out in the summertime into a full-sun
exposure. As all citrus, they do have susceptibility to spider mite, and that
is actually easy to control; you can do that with cold water sprays or neem oil
sprays. If they are in the vicinity of a plant that has scale or has a mealy bug,
citrus are prone to that, as are kumquats. In growing kumquats, you're going to
need to fertilize them, and as a rule of thumb, it's better to give less
fertilizer more often. That means a diluted solution of fertilizer, whether
it's a top dress, or in your water. And in the next few months, which will be springtime,
these plants are going to start flushing growth, meaning new growth is going to
start developing all over the plant-- and that's a good time to begin your feeding.
Thank you for watching today, and
you have to remember that kumquats are great plants for the house,
and you can eat them just like an apple.