Fruit Tree of the Day: Pumelo
12This is the first in a series that will last a while into my goathood. Most of these will be tropical fruit trees, which means you guys in the Great Cold Wasteland (otherwise known as any state besides Florida, California, and Hawaii) won’t be able to plant these—unless you have a greenhouse. Hopefully it’ll still be interesting.
First up is the pumelo tree 
It’s a type of citrus; it tastes like a grapefruit minus the bitterness. It’s what a grapefruit should taste like. In fact, this is one of the original varieties of citrus—grapefruit is actually a cross between orange and pumelo. Some stores carry this fruit when it’s in season (in Florida, that’s November-January). They look like a giant, oblong grapefruit.
Unfortunately, if you live in Florida, you may not want to grow this, or any type of citrus. There’s a disease going around here that affects citrus trees called Huanglongbing, or HLB. It has such a weird name because it’s Chinese for yellow-leaf, and, as you would expect, it originated in China and, among other things, turns leaves yellow. It basically acts like bad cholesterol in humans, clogging the plant’s “arteries” and making roots not be able to pass nutrients to the rest of the plant very well, and making the leaves not be able to pass sugar to the roots to help them grow. If left unchecked, trees will drop fruit before allowing them to ripen, and the trees themselves eventually die after slowly losing all their leaves. When I was a kid, the family used to go around to friends’ houses picking grapefruit and oranges during the season. Now, all those trees are dead because of HLB. Worse than that, Florida’s production of citrus has dropped something like 75%. There’s not really a permanent cure for the disease yet.
All hope is not lost, though. You can still grow citrus; it just takes a lot more work. I’m currently growing one. To help the tree thrive, get a citrus fertilizer and a nutritional spray, triple the recommended amounts, and divide that up to apply it much more regularly than suggested–even during harvest season (Only if you’re sure it has HLB! This amount of fertilizer could kill it otherwise). I’m applying it once every other week, and the tree is recovering, with two buds that may turn into fruit. We’ll see.
There are also lower-maintenance options for fruit trees in Florida, that are “set it and forget it” like citrus trees used to be. Stay tuned…
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I tried to add context to the pictures at the end but “Something Went Terribly Wrong®”
The first one is my pumelo tree. It looks so scraggly because of HLB.
The second one showed a baby fruit. If I keep up fertilizing, it should develop.
The last picture is of a leaf that shows that the tree is infected with HLB. Look at the yellow spot and the inconsistent shape and color. The second picture also showed leaves with a weird “bubble” on them–that’s a sign it’s being fed on by the insect that spreads the disease.
I’m excited! I’m in Florida and been toying with growing some fruit trees. I still need to cut down my areca palm. Then I have oaks and a pine tree to compete with… My one oak is giant and beautiful, but it shades almost half my backyard.
Is HLB the same thing as citrus canker? We lost a grapefruit tree to that a long time ago because they were trying to quarantine it. It wasn’t that big of a loss because it was a yellow grapefruit, so, pretty bitter.
@RiotDemon Cool! At least one person will appreciate my posts. And you’re in luck having a giant oak: One of the things they have found studying HLB is that trees planted close to oaks are resistant to HLB. So if you do get a citrus tree, plant it as close as you can to the oak while still getting as much light as possible. Also get one that’s covered with a net, as that one won’t have the infection because it won’t have been fed on by the insect the spreads the disease.
Canker is similar, but not as aggressive in spreading, since it’s spread by water in places trees got pruned. HLB is spread by insects, so it can move between groves over miles. It’s also more aggressive by going after the roots of the tree, where it can do more damage. The main way to stop them both is by breeding resistant cultivars. Since HLB is newer, there are only a few that are slightly more resistant.
@Weboh hmmmm. I was told after I’ve removed my palm tree, I would have to wait a little while for the earth to get back to normal before I can plant anything anyway. Maybe by then they’ll have some HLB resistant citrus available locally. I just wonder because I’m about 2 mi away from a bunch of citrus groves, and where I would buy my citrus from is right down the street from them. They do not net their trees.
@Weboh also, I’m sure other people will enjoy it. There’s quite a few Floridians here
@RiotDemon Yeah, you’re pretty much guaranteed to get HLB. You could always buy a citrus tree from a different grower and keep under the net as long as possible (usually 2-3 years) to give it a chance to get established. As soon as the net comes off though, you’d probably get it.
But as long as you keep up fertilizing, it may not be a big deal—especially since you could plant it under the oak tree. Mine was infected from the start, so it has a longer way to go to get strong enough to fight it.
UF is working on HLB-resistant cultivars now, but they’re a few years out. They’re also working on a treatment derived from oak leaves that seems to work, but that’s also a few years out.
Or you could plant tomorrow’s Fruit Tree of the Day…
@Weboh I’m excited to see what it is!
You sound tree knowledgeable. I am considering an apricot (zone7). I think I need to plant in spring but this spring ,well simply 2020 spring stressful.
Thoughts on type, care, if good idea?
@CaptAmehrican I don’t know much about temperate fruit trees; I can’t grow them here in Florida. I do know that if you buy a tree, like in a 3 gallon pot or bigger, you can plant it whenever. It’s better off in the ground than it would be in a pot in a nursery. You may not get much growth the first year, but if you don’t have the tree you wouldn’t get any growth on it.
You also need to consider the type of soil, (sandy, clay, etc) how good the drainage is, the pH of the soil, and how much room you have between other trees/plants. Different plants like different soils, but you’ll probably find something you like that you can grow.
If you go to a local nursery, they’ll be able to give you advice for how to grow things in your area. They know the area a lot better than I do. Plus, they usually don’t even sell plants that won’t do well anyway.
@CaptAmehrican
I had talked to someone about planting a willow tree I’m zone 6 and they said spring or fall. I was surprised by the spring answer too and as long as the temp is above 50 (Daytime) continuously (Meaning it’s not spending days in the 30’s here and there still) your good bc the ground will be that temp too.
Your fruit tree post are gonna make me crazy for fruit. Live in MI and don’t have the same kinds of fruit.
Isn’t that pomelo not pumelo?
@msklzannie Or pomello or pumello, or however someone decides to spell it. I’ve seen it spelled all those ways and I’m not sure what’s the actual correct spelling.
@Weboh Only reason I knew the spelling is because it’s a tree in TS3 (in the World Adventures EP)
Let’s get some Durian up in here.
/giphy smell something funky