Q I left some of the kumquat fruit on my tree and with the extreme cold weather over the last few weeks, some of the kumquats froze on the tree. Now, I am seeing some of the fruit with large, black spots, others have turned white and collapsed onto themselves. What should I do with this fruit?

A: The same thing has occurred to the tree in our demonstration garden. I have been removing the damaged fruit as it can be a source of fungal disease which can easily be passed to other parts of the tree. The fruit is not good to eat so I would recommend you take all the damaged fruit off and compost it or throw it away. No reason to take a chance at potentially spreading disease. Any fruit which does not appear to be damaged, I would leave on the tree until it has matured. One of the nice things about kumquat fruit is it can remain on the tree for longer periods of time than other citrus like Satsuma.

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