And summer is gone! 17/09/2017

Well, i didn't post any update during this summer but as you can see the tree is still alive and it grew even more. In fact a brand new branches emerged from the bottom part and became bigger than the rest of the tree! This unexpected event changed my plan to put it on the ground because i think that maybe if it doesn't acclimatate well now with the growth so strong and fresh, i could make some serious damage. Therefore I've decided to transfer it in a bigger vase and I will do around mid october.
For the weather we had the most hot and dry summer ever here with no rain at all for almost 3 months, but now things are changed and the temperature are around 20°C and we are having some rainy days.

Almost Summer! 16/06/2017

Ok, first of ll sorry for the photo here but I am too lazy to take the tree to a nice spot. However as you can see it is doing very well. I was a little bit worried for the hailstorm of last month but seems that the event didn't had any effect at all.
I've also got rid of most of the weeds in the pot, except for a nice shaped one that seems to be a flower of some kind, and added some new fresh soil to see if this help with the yellow leaves in the bottom part.
Some people suggest me to prune it a little bit but I want to wait the transplantation on the ground.
The weather now is really hot with very few cloudy days, no rain and the temperature is constantly over 30°.

After a hailstorm! 16/05/2017

Yesterday there was a huge hailstorm here and I was scared for the tree but seems that it wasn't a big deal for it. Some leaves have been detached, some other are damaged and a few little branches has been broken, but overall the tree resisted pretty well to the calamity.
Regarding the overall growth of the tree, seems that in this moment it prefer to develop lot of lateral branches, expecially in the middle-lower part, respect a growth in height and this can be bue to a lack of space in the vase for the roots.
But next year it will be planted on the ground and will have plenty of space then.

Spring is coming! 26/02/2017

At the beginning of 2017 we had the biggest snowfall ever here and we had a lot of problem with several days without electricity, no phone signal, few strong earthquakes and it was impossible to go anywhere. Luckily the tree was in the greenhouse and it didn't had many problems as we had even if I think that the lack of sunlight and the cold temperature had some impact on it because some leaves fell off and the yellow color on the bottom part seems increased.

However two weeks ago I've decided to move the tree outside the greenhouse because the sun is now shining almost everyday. I am a bit concerned of the night hours because occasionally the temperature still drop below zero, but I think that the tree can manage a weather like this now. I also want that the trunk become a little bit stronger therefore I've removed most of the support sticks hoping that the tree will get used to the wind.

Almost autumn! 16/10/2016

The sky is becoming more cloudy and the days are gloomy but the tree don't really care. The summer make it grow a lot and now it is almost tall as me. In the current position it became difficult for to take an entire picture of it.
However in the cold season the growth should be much slower and it might be the right time to search a new and bigger vase where the roots can have more space. However i have no real plan about that at the moment. I also have to think about a new location because here the tree can enjoy some raindrops but it might be a problem when the real cold will began.
From the tree health side the leaves at the bottom are still yellow but I don't really think that it is a huge problem.

Summer! 19/07/2016

Finally it is the time for a new update.

Sorry for the photo but, due to the sunlight, you can't really see the top of the tree. However this means that it keeps growing and growing. You can't really confront this photo with the one of the Spring update because we changed the position of the various vases but consider that shortly after that update I've added the longest wooden support that you can see in this photo that was perfect for the previous size of the tree. Now is definitly too short and i need to change it.
As you can see there are some yellowish leaves around the bottom and internet say that could be a lack of iron in the ground. I've added a bit of powder recilcled from a used heating pack. Hope that it can help, however i'm not too worried about that.
The summer until now has been pretty wet and we had several hailstorm. But the tree held them pretty well. Now seems that the sun has finally took back his spot in the season and we have just sunny and hot days.

See you soon and have a great summer!

Spring is here! 11/04/2016

Well, in the last post I said that i would update this blog more often. This doesn't happened and we skipped all the winter. However if you were worried about the health of the tree here it is the new update!
It is still in great shape even if some insects has bitten some leaves in the middle section of the tree. Nothing to be worried about. Overall I can say that it survived perfectly at the cold season (that this year was actually not cold at all).
Now the days are mainly warm and sunny and the tree seems to become bigger and bigger everyday.
I've also bought a new smartphone and that means that now the photos should be a little bit better than before.
See you soon (or not too soon, we will see...)

Not a lemon! 20/11/2015

Finally I'm at home in Abruzzo and I can write some update of my tree! As you can see it is grown a lot since the last update. This first half of November was sunny and warm and the tree is having a great time.
However the big news is that I now what kind of tree it is!
Looking closely to the image you can see few spikes on the trunk (and my finger in the right corner). When i was planting the i used a lot of different seeds at the beginning but the only tree that has spike is the Bitter Orange. That is a little bit disappointing because the fruits of this tree are not really good to eat, but the full growth tree looks great and in a second time I can try to insert a graft of a sweet orange tree to make the fruits tasty!

Leaving my tree again and the new pot! 24/08/2015

Tomorrow i will go back to Milan and probably i will not come back in Abruzzo untill late October. However i'm happy to leave the tree so healthy and strong, even after that my mother changed the pot when I was away from home, even if she said earlier that was better to change it in autumn. Now the tree looks a little bit shorter becose all the roots are now underground, while before there were some of them emerging fro the bottom.
Whether report: the past two weeks were not really hot and there were even several stormy days. Even today is a bit cloudy but from tomorrow it is supposed to come back to be sunny but the really hot summer days seems ended.
See you around October, or even earlier. I don't really know now!

One month after 08/08/2015

What a surprise! I went back in Abruzzo after one month and my tree grew a lot! I didn't know that summer make the little trees grow so fast!
I had to put a little support for the tree because now is tall but the final part is not that strong and if there will be a windy day I'm scared that it can break. However i'm really happy to see my tree growing that much!
Now the pot is starting to be too little for it but my mother suggested me to wait untill autumn to transfer the tree on a bigger pot because in this period of the year it is in a germination stage and if i cut some roots now there is the possibility to create some serious damage to the tree.
Summer here is really hot and sunny, with no rain at all. However the tree is receiving a good amount of water and also some coffee grounds sometimes.

I will probably post another update in a couple of weeks, before to go back to Milan.

A new beginnig 11/07/2014

As I expected I got bored of this project and of the weekly update. Even because my "tree" was NOT a tree but just some kind of weed. However in the same pot now there is a friend that seems really a tree!

You can see it in the right corner or in this close up pic:

It has something like 2 months now and looks perfectly healthy. I'm not really sure of what kind of tree will be but i'm most likely for some kind of agrumes. Maybe lemon or mandarin.
It is summertime and my vase is 24h a day outside the balcony but it recive direct sunlight just until 10 am, so there is not a risk of burn the leaves. i'm also adding some coffee grounds sometimes to make the soil more nutrient.