> Part two: Care and Maintenance
Fertilizer and nutrients: There are many nutrients and amendments one would want to add to promote health, growth and fruit production in your home citrus orchard. Here is my general best practices for this. (you can read the 'A Manual for Citrus Growers' for a super detailed layout)
- Cow manure (chicken, goat, etc) added to basins twice a year. Fall and spring. A couple shovel-fulls, more for bigger trees. This adds nitrogen for flowering and growth.
- Citrus and avocado dry fertilizer 2 to 3 times a year added to basin. This takes care of misc. minerals.
(https://www.homedepot.com/p/Vigoro-20-lbs-All-Season-Citrus-and-Avocado-Plant-Food-Dry-Fertilizer-6-4-6-160327/203091325)
- Nutritional spray for mineral deficiencies. Apply as needed. 2 to 4 times a years as needed.
(https://www.homedepot.com/p/Southern-Ag-1-pint-Citrus-Plant-Nutritional-Spray-100048939/100599817)
Trimming your trees:
- Citrus trees in their first few years of growth should have very minimal trimming. They are meant to be big fluffy cloud shaped. This promotes optimal sunlight absorption for growth and fruit production
- What should be trimmed? Any sprout coming from the root graft should be rubbed of before any branching occurs. These will rob strength from the variety you want to grow fruit from. If you have a wild divergent sprout, that can be trimmed. Keep it minimal. Too much trimming will put the tree into shock. Less fruit and general health decline occurs.
- Fall maintenance: Skirting a tree is trimming the bottom branches that are about to touch the ground. Branches should be trimmed about a foot about ground so dirt-based disease and mold cannot contaminate the fruit.
Fertilizer and nutrients: There are many nutrients and amendments one would want to add to promote health, growth and fruit production in your home citrus orchard. Here is my general best practices for this. (you can read the 'A Manual for Citrus Growers' for a super detailed layout)
- Cow manure (chicken, goat, etc) added to basins twice a year. Fall and spring. A couple shovel-fulls, more for bigger trees. This adds nitrogen for flowering and growth.
- Citrus and avocado dry fertilizer 2 to 3 times a year added to basin. This takes care of misc. minerals.
(https://www.homedepot.com/p/Vigoro-20-lbs-All-Season-Citrus-and-Avocado-Plant-Food-Dry-Fertilizer-6-4-6-160327/203091325)
- Nutritional spray for mineral deficiencies. Apply as needed. 2 to 4 times a years as needed.
(https://www.homedepot.com/p/Southern-Ag-1-pint-Citrus-Plant-Nutritional-Spray-100048939/100599817)
Trimming your trees:
- Citrus trees in their first few years of growth should have very minimal trimming. They are meant to be big fluffy cloud shaped. This promotes optimal sunlight absorption for growth and fruit production
- What should be trimmed? Any sprout coming from the root graft should be rubbed of before any branching occurs. These will rob strength from the variety you want to grow fruit from. If you have a wild divergent sprout, that can be trimmed. Keep it minimal. Too much trimming will put the tree into shock. Less fruit and general health decline occurs.
- Fall maintenance: Skirting a tree is trimming the bottom branches that are about to touch the ground. Branches should be trimmed about a foot about ground so dirt-based disease and mold cannot contaminate the fruit.
- Tree storage: Citrus fruit can be stored ripe on the tree for 2 or more months at a time. They can be picked as needed. (They start as a bit tart then slowly the sugar ratio increases as does the juice content. After a few months very little acid remains in the fruit. At that point it is tepid in flavor and then becomes pithy and inedible. These fruits can still be fed to livestock at that point)
- Washing the fruit after you pick it accelerates the ripening process ;-)
- If you get frost damage in the winter it is best to reduce your watering to half of normal. This allows the tree to slowly heal. Don't trim off any frost damaged limbs. Let the tree heal naturally. Some healthy limbs will continue to die while some damaged ones will regain their vigor. Give the tree until fall. Then only trim out any dead wood.