Satsuma Orange

Did I ever tell you I have a Satsuma Orange tree?

Well, I do.  I bought it a couple of years ago at the end of season sale.  It had oranges on it and it was getting cold so I was afraid to take it out of the pot and plant it then for fear I'd shock it, lose the oranges and kill it.  My plan was that I'd plant it in the Spring.

Then we got orders to move.  At the time we had three rooms in our house torn down to studs because we were updating/redoing it ourselves and this move was not supposed to happen.

What did I do?

I moved the tree with us.  I knew if I planted it and left it there on it's own it would likely die from no one taking care of it and monitoring it so, hey, if I bring it in a pot and it dies, same thing, right?

Well, it didn't die.  I didn't plant it up here because this area's winters are too cold for it and I knew it wouldn't make it.  Well, that, and the fact that it wasn't our place, so I didn't have the right to plant anything like a tree, anyway.

It didn't make any fruit the year after that move.  I'd had it in the house during the winter and I think it was too warm to trigger it to set fruit.  That's my theory, anyway.  I know nothing about citrus trees, so who knows!  lol

Then we moved again.  Still too cold for it to be outside year round.  I put it in the unheated garage during the really cold times this Winter.

It's put on some new growth in the last few months and I knew I needed to prune it.

Isn't it funny how you can look at someone else's tree and think, "Oh, I'd prune that limb and that limb," but when it's your tree you're unsure?  Like I had no questions or qualms about pruning the peach tree that's in the yard here.  The owner said it was fine if I pruned it so I did.  It looks good, if I do say so myself.  They had actually wired a limb to another limb because it had split from fruit weight years ago.  That lower limb shouldn't have been there to begin with, the angle was too great from trunk to limb, even just looking at it.  So it's gone now.  :)

I did prune it but I'm left with one question that I'd like your opinion on.

This is what it looked like before:

This is what it looks like after:

See that middle limb?  Shouldn't I whack the top off of it?  Yes?  No?

I'm not going to do it now because I actually have three little bloom buds out there so far (none of which are on that part) and I'm going to be thrilled if I can get a couple of oranges up here.  I have to re-pot it, too, to get it back straight.