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Arizona Gardening

Can I grow citrus in shade?

13 years ago

Hi,

My wife desperately wants a grapefruit tree and I would like an orange tree, but our silly HOA will not allow them. But we have a atrium (15x25) which is surrounded by the house but without a roof. I was wondering if we could grow our contraband citrus trees in this area? we could plant in ground (have a few 4-5 ft x 8-10 areas or in large pots (about 3/4 feet in diameter).

also, I was very interested in growing peaches. could these grow in there or would I be better with them in back yard?

thanks

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Comments (4)

neilaz
13 years ago
Citrus will be fine in that area. They don't really need direct sun, just warmth. Peaches i don't know
greendesert
13 years ago
I think the citrus would look beautiful in this atrium area... I wish I had something like that in my backyard... must be nice for privacy. I constantly have to worry about my neighbors seeing everything. I've seen citrus grown in partial shade and they look extremely beautiful here in AZ in such a setting, they become very green and just look very healthy. You'll probably get some fruit too, but maybe not as much as in direct sun and it might take longer to ripen. Also there's another advantage with the atrium thing: the fact that the trees are better protected and a lot less likely to freeze if it gets cold like last week. You probably would never even have to worry about covering them like the rest of us.
I have a little grapefruit tree on the north side of my house between two large trees. In the winter it gets very little sunshine. It's has been in the ground for 2.5 yrs and right now it has big huge grapefruits on it about to ripen. I'd recommend the Rio Red variety, and maybe Oroblanco (you can easily have more than one variety on the same tree. For orange, I really like the Trovita variety. Another citrus I've really grown to love is my Meyer lemon. That would do well in a setting like that as well. My 2 year old lemon tree is about 5 ft tall and I harvested about 100 big lemons last month and there are still a few left on it. A lot of people prefer them to regular lemons because they're less acidic and slightly sweeter. ok I'll get off my soapbox... gosh, now I have "atrium envy" I so miss having a private area outdoors.
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goofyyno
Original Author
13 years ago
thanks, to both of you.

Greendesert-You may have Atrium envy, but I have fruit envy. That's what I want. you are right about the cold , plus we have a fire place in there, so I bet we can avoid the freeze.
grant_in_arizona
13 years ago
I agree with the others that you should be able to grow some nice citrus (and I agree that your courtyard sounds nice). If possible, I'd search for fruit on dwarfing root stock just so they don't get too big too fast. I've grown citrus (and lots of them, LOL) at both of my Scottsdale gardens and love them. In my last garden I had a very nice variegated-leaf pink 'Eureka' lemon tree on the north side of my house and it did GREAT. Let us know what you select and how it works out!

Take care,
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