I feel it is best to grow citrus that are not readily available in stores. Obviously lemons and limes will do fine most places in the bay area. Variegated Eureka is an interesting choice with attractive foliage and unusual stripped fruit. Orange: Trovita does not require the same heat as most other orange cultivars. It is flavorful and does not have many seeds. Cara Cara Navel orange has pigmented fruit and is spoken of very highly by many people. Mine is very young and has yet to bear fruit. Mandarins: Kishu, Gold Nugget and most cultivars of satsuma are probably the best choices. Kishu and Owari Satsuma will ripen very close to one another. I highly recommend tasting satsuma before purchasing it. Many people love them, but I am not a big fan. I much prefer the flavor of the clementine-type mandarin. The Gold Nugget ripens in late winter/early spring and will keep on the tree through most of the summer. It also requires less heat than most mandarins. Blood orange: Moro is the most colorful and Tarocco is the most flavorful. Moro ripens consistently in this region. Tarocco needs more heat than Moro and may be a bit more spotty in its ability to fully ripen here. Oro blanco is a pommelo/grapefruit hybrid that requires much less heat than traditional grapefruits. Hope this helps. -Brett

Yeah, I can tell the tree is not healthy. I am not sure it is overwatered or root rot, because I'm thinking I probalby didn't water it enough, it was probably only watered twice a week with a sprinkler that goes on for 10 ins each time. I did put some oragnic all purpose fertilizer some times, but not specifically for citrus, so it probably didn't help it much (or the kumquat tree in the corner of the picture that looks even worse). There is a bit of a tree well i put mulch on top so if i let a hose run slowly for a while, it does go down pretty quickly too. So I think the drainage is good? Yes, I'm located in southern california. The pomegranate on the right, i didn't do anything with that and it's on the same watering schedule with the sprinklers as the two sickly citrus trees. I don't even think I fertilized that one. Well, i'm going to buy the miracle grow citrus feed tonight at lowes, read a lot of good things about that, i think the composition is 13-7-13. So you guys are suggesting to fertilize once in april june and labor day? I have no idea how to fertilize. Any additional advice would be appreciated. Thank you all.

Thank you for your input Johnmerr. So I will go ahead with Epsom salts (they were fine and it happened pretty quickly and I was worried it's some kind of a disease). In regards to cow manure and fish pellets, how much is a lot? The guys at the nursery always say to use little and not in the summer. I still use more than suggested and I guess that's still not enough (I am now convinced they don't know what they are talking about). Considering we are practically in the desert how often should I fertilize? In regards to lemon I will probably protect it for next summer. We have extreme heat here in summers, and many plants stress out. Things are cooling down now. And it actually does receive water everyday, the soil is moist all the time, I check it occasionally and never let it dry out (except on a couple of occasions when I couldn't water for a few days).

Thanks Carol...these Citrus leaf miners have been a huge problem for me. I know its SO scary the amount of trees that are slowing declining in FL (and now other states as well) due to Citrus Greening. I know I'm on borrowed time and if I eventually have to deal with it, I won't be replacing my Citrus until they are able to graft them to rootstocks that are immune to this disease or find a cure...Very sad to see very productive trees 20-30+ years old decline. I'm SO sorry that your parent's beautiful Satsuma along with the other Citrus succumb to disease...at least you were able to enjoy the fruits for over 30 years, that's impressive!! I hope to one day taste some fruits off my tree before any disease gets hold of it...