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Yang Yilin
Dr. Dykhuizen
Expository Writing
July 5, 1999
How to Grow Grapefruit Trees
My hobby is to grow fruit trees. For the
past twelve years, I have raised grapefruit,
apple, and Japanese pear trees. Planing grapefruit
trees was particularly successful so far.
Therefore, if you follow these steps, you
will also succeed in raising grapefruit trees.
First, you must gather the equipment in order
to raise a grapefruit tree. You will need a small container that never
leaps water and a flowerpot that is as big
as possible. You will also need cotton, fertilized soil,
chemical fertilizer, a trowel, and a pair
of shears. What is more, it is very important to choose
a big seed in grapefruits that are sold in
general supermarkets because big seeds tend
to have much nutriment. Now you are ready to begin planting a grapefruit
tree.
Second, you should start to germinate the
grapefruit seed in spring, the best season
for germinating grapefruit seeds. You must put the seed that is covered with
wet cotton into the small container such
as a paper cup to germinate it in your house. The merit of using cotton is that it can
maintain appropriate, flesh air and water
among the cotton for a longer time. Then you need to add water as much as the
cotton can absorb regularly in order to keep
the cotton wet. In a few days, the seed will germinate, and
gradually the white and yellow germinating
part will grow. At the same time, the germinating part will
become a main stem and root. In the other side, the two parts of the seed
that look like fat leaves and include enough
nutriment to grow to some extent will try
to open to the opposite side. This is because a new light green stem and
two real green leaves that are held between
the two nutrimental leaves start to extend. Therefore, the husk of the seed will gradually
begin to crack and come off from the nutriment
leaves. After the husk comes off, the new stem and
two real leaves will grow rapidly with the
photosynthesis of the real leaves. In this time, the tree grows by using the
nutriment that is made from light and the
nutriment and that is in the nutritional
leaves. Accordingly, the nutriment leaves will wither
because the nutriment runs out little by
little.
At last, when another new stem and two new
leaves appear between the first real leaves,
you can plant the tree in the center of the
flowerpot with the wet fertilized soil outside. The main merit of raising the tree in the
flowerpot is to move it freely. In heavy storm, you can move the flowerpot
to the place that the storm is weaker because
the young stems and leaves aren�ft strong
to endure in the heavy storm. Also you can put it in the best sunshine
place according to the location of the sun
because the light of the sun promote the
tree to produce the nutriment. Even though the nutrimental leaves will become
dry and come off from the stem some day,
you never mind because it is natural. In addition to the photosynthesis, the tree
starts to use the nutriment that is from
the soil in the flowerpot from this time. Also, it is very important to give the tree
water after the sunset especially in summer
because the roots dislike the water warmed
by the sunlight and possibly die. You should regularly put the proper amount
of chemical fertilizer into the flowerpot
while following the instruction for the fertilizer
in order to promote its growth. Moreover, you should dig the soil out from
the flowerpot and put the soil into it again
with the trowel regularly while paying attention
to its roots in order to make the soil soft.
This is because the soil will become harder
and harder if you do nothing, and the hard
soil prevents the soil from absorbing water;
what is worse, the tree may die. In addition, in summer, you should take care
for yellow eggs that are born on the tree,
and especially on the leaves by white butterflies
because their larvae eat leaves of grapefruit
trees. Furthermore, it is important for you to control
its growth and especially the height by cutting
its invalid stems and leaves with the pair
of shears because it can make the stems thicker
and stronger. Also, when the flowerpot is small in comparison
to the tree, moving the tree in wider space
such as garden will be better for its growth
if possible.
As you can see, raising grapefruit trees
is difficult, but you will absolutely be
successful if you follow these steps. What is more, when the stems grow thick or
strong enough to support the fruits, white
grapefruit blossoms will be expected to come
out in the summer. After the blossoms die, small and green grapefruits
will appear and start to grow in the fall. Of course, you must spend more than about
four years at least in raising a grapefruit
tree until the time to be able to have fruits. You will feel happy while you are looking
forward to the growth of the fruits, and
still more it�fs the most pleasant moment
for you to taste the light yellow fruits
that you planted with daily efforts. In addition, the seeds of grapefruits are
good for health. These years, grapefruit seed extract has
been kept an eye on because of �gits ability
to reduce inflammation, lessen pain, and
lower fever�h (Grapefruit seed Extract, par.
2). Therefore, you should try to raise grapefruit
trees to benefit from the pleasure to taste
your own grapefruits and the effect of the
seeds.
Works Cited
�gGrapefruit Seed Extract ? What Is it?�h
How Does It Work?. <http://www.nutriteam.com/gsewhat.html> (25 June. 99).
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