raw bud are starting to appear on many of my citrus fruit Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree . In the case of the Ponderosa lemon above , they popped a calendar week ago .
Most of the citrus fruit I have in my food for thought woods and cubic yard are at least three yr onetime . Some of them , like the blood orange , have produce rapidly . Others have n’t done as well .
I ’ve essay to be a good fiddling organic gardener and feed them with chopped - down weeds , chicken manure , mulch and other dainty ; however , I ’m threadbare of waiting around for big Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree .
I was at a local farm and hardware store recently when two men pulled up in a motortruck that had the logo of a local citrus plantation on the side . I took the opportunity to need them about greening and citrus fecundation .
On the greening front they told me their orchard were doing delicately so far , and on the fertilization front , I got some in - depth information . I actually took notes so I could share it here .
This is what the citrous fruit James Leonard Farmer advocate to me .
How to Fertilize Citrus
initiate in February , go for 1 lb of citrus fertilizer ( usually 6 - 4 - 6 ) for each inch of trunk diam . That mean if you have a tree with a bole that ’s 4 inches across , you ’d throw 4 lbs on the tree .
Continue feast the tree the same amount every month until June then renounce so you do n’t encourage the tree to put on too much novel growth that will be frozen off in fall . Five applications programme , once a month , start in February .
So … that ’s how professional growers are fertilizing citrus around here .
I ’ve read that you do n’t want to implement plant food during the bloom or you may have the flowers drop off – but you are supposed to feed before the blooms appear .
citrous fruit need a chain of nutrition so I ’ll be supplementing my feeding with additional micronutrients . I ’ve been looking for a way to feed citrus organically but that seems to be a tough wrangle to hoe with citrus fruit , at least if you require them to grow cursorily .
I imagine that a skilful mix of cottonseed meal / line meal , ashes , Epsom salt and bone meal might come near to being an organic citrus plant food , though . Compost tea would also be good for foliar feeding and warding off fungal and bacterial disease .
Perhaps I ’ll pick out a couple of trees and feed them different ways and see which one thrives .
Or maybe I ’ll just go the well-fixed route and gain all my citrus with chemical substance fertilizers , then repent AFTER the trees get big …
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