10 Biggest CITRUS GROWING MISTAKES

citrus is easy to grow in warm climates but it's important to avoid a few key mistakes that many home gardeners make when they're growing citrus learn from others mistakes so you can enjoy delicious fruit for years to come if we haven't met before my name is angela from growing in the garden and i love to share garden inspiration and helpful tips so you can be successful growing your own garden in today's video i'm going to cover the 10 biggest mistakes that home gardeners make when growing citrus the first mistake that home gardeners often make is not trying the fruit before they plant the tree citrus trees are long lived and produce hundreds of pounds of fruit over the course of their lifetime it is definitely worth it to go to a local nursery and try the type of fruit that you're going to plant before you plant that tree the second mistake that home gardeners often make is planting the tree at the wrong time of year just because a tree is for sale in a big box store does not mean it is the right time to plant it the best time to plant citrus tree is in the spring after danger of frost has passed citrus trees grow really well in the spring it is a great time to plant and get those trees established when temperatures heat up in june through about september here in the low desert it is much too hot to plant there's a second planting window in late fall newly planted citrus are definitely more susceptible to freezing temperatures the third mistake that new gardeners often make is not allowing enough room for the trees to reach their mature size it's tempting to over plant and to plant a lot of trees in a small amount of space but for the health of the tree for enough sunlight and airflow for the tree it's best to allow the tree to have enough room to grow to maturity there are three different size types for mature citrus trees average sizes for standard are 20 to 25 feet tall and 16 to 18 feet wide semi dwarf trees are 12 to 15 feet tall and wide dwarf citrus trees are about 10 to 12 feet tall and 9 to 11 feet wide dwarf varieties produce the same quality and size of fruit but yield about half as much fruit our fourth mistake is one of the biggest mistakes that people make when planting citrus trees and that is planting the citrus tree too deeply citrus trees are grafted onto a rootstock do not bury the graft instead plant at the level of the root ball push that dirt back until the tops of the roots are exposed and that is the level that you need to plant your citrus tree at when you're digging your hole dig it just that deep not any deeper and then three to five times as wide if a tree is planted too deeply it will often have problems for life it is more susceptible to disease and pest problems it also will have less production and ultimately a lot of fruit trees that are planted too deeply end up dying our fifth mistake comes when we think we're doing something really good for the plant and that is when we're refilling that hole that we planted for the tree we add in lots of rich soil and compost instead of helping the plant you're actually hurting that tree you're telling the tree that you don't have to branch out and explore and send those roots out nice and deep and wide you can stay right here in this little hole and i'm going to give you everything you need back filling with native soil stimulates those roots to go deep and wide back filling with compost and rich soil creates a smaller root system and a weaker tree mistake number six is not watering citrus deep enough problems with citrus can often be traced back to incorrect watering learning how to correctly water your citrus tree is one of the most important things you can do for the health of your citrus tree your citrus tree is going to give you signs that it needs water if you see those leaves curling up that is a sign that it is under water stress and it needs water if the leaves are nice and shiny and open up maybe even curling down a little bit that citrus tree has plenty of water newly planted and young citrus are going to need water more often than older established citrus their root systems are not as developed and they will need water more often once established citrus trees do best with deep slow and frequent watering the goal is to water the citrus trees to a depth of at least 18 to 24 inches and ideally to three feet how do you tell how deep you're watering you can get a soil probe looks like a long screwdriver basically and put that in the ground and that soil probe will penetrate as deep as the water is so if you've watered to a nice deep depth that soil probe is going to go into the ground easily watering deeply encourages the roots to go deep and that's exactly what we want for our trees we want those roots to develop nice and deep below ground watering too often can also cause harm to your plants citrus roots need air as well as water and if you're constantly putting water on the citrus it's drowning those roots and the tree can rot the seventh mistake that happens way too often is skirting or over pruning citrus trees what is skirting skirting is removing the lower branches on the citrus tree citrus is actually a large shrub that's grown as a tree and when you remove those lower branches first of all you're exposing that bark to sunlight but if you leave those branches in place those lower branches actually cool the soil and help that soil retain more moisture the fruit on those lower branches is often the best fruit on the entire tree so when you remove those lower branches and skirt that citrus tree to make it look like a lollipop you're often removing the best fruit on that tree what you do need to prune are any dead branches or crossing branches or any suckers long tall shoots that come out below the graft union or long fast growing shoots heading straight up don't prune in the summertime pruning in the summer exposes new areas of bark to the sun if you're constantly cutting off new growth on your citrus you're reducing the amount that that citrus tree is going to produce our eighth mistake is not fertilizing citrus citrus produce a lot of fruit and they are heavy feeders and they need fertilization in order to do well and produce that fruit citrus leaf discoloration and pale citrus leaves are often caused by nutrient deficiencies those trees will often be lacking in iron or magnesium and nitrogen so how do you fertilize citrus you use an organic fertilizer formulated for citrus it's going to have some of those trace minerals that citrus trees need follow the directions for the amount and size of your tree remembering to give water before and after you apply that fertilizer here in the low desert it's easy to remember when we fertilize our citrus trees it's valentine's day memorial day and labor day your citrus trees will have what they need to produce that beautiful big fruit that we love so much the ninth mistake is exposing bark to sunlight citrus bark is easily sunburned it's important to protect exposed bark from the sun the easiest way to protect that bark is by not skirting your trees but if there is exposed bark on your trees it's important to either wrap it using a lightweight flexible wrap wrapping all of the exposed bark on that tree or by painting with a paint formulated for citrus trees and applying that to the trunk of the tree and that will help protect the tree from sun damage mistake number 10 is not harvesting all of that delicious fruit citrus harvests usually begin in late fall and carry over into spring depending on the type of citrus you're growing you're going to have a several week window of when to harvest that fruit the best way to tell if that citrus is ripe is to try it often if one citrus is ripe on the tree then all of them are ripe at the end of that window when they're ripe those citrus begin to get soft they'll often begin falling to the ground it's important at that point to get all of this citrus off of your tree leaving the fruit on your tree invites pests like bugs insects and rats to your tree and that can cause a lot of different problems it's also very helpful for the tree to have that fruit removed so it can shift its focus to producing blossoms for your tree now you know the 10 biggest mistakes that home gardeners often make when growing citrus trees you can avoid making those same mistakes with your own citrus trees thank you so much for watching

Channel: Growing In The Garden

Views: 198,860

Keywords: growing citrus, citrus, citrus trees, biggest gardening mistakes, growing citrus trees, citrus tree, tips for growing citrus, growing trees, growing organic citrus in florida, growing guide, garden mistakes, complete growing guide, citrus tree care, growing fruit trees, how to fertilize citrus, growing rare fruit trees, citrus fruit, fruit tree growing, fast growing trees, gardening mistakes, growing fruit, potting citrus trees, planting citrus trees, arizona citrus

Id: jEvBl7qLcyo

Length: 9min 13sec (553 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 19 2021