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Mulching for citrus fruit trees

14 years ago

I have just added a Pineapple orange variety into my little orchard area which currently has a few mature orange trees. The entire area has recently been mulched with pine bark. I have heard that citrus fruit trees don't like mulching and I do not know the reasons why. If you have any advise to offer as to what I should do around the base of the trees, I'd great appreciate it.

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Comments (8)

vy5e
14 years ago
citrus does not like mulch it keeps the roots to moist and can cause root rot its best not to mulch them best thing is dont mulch and keep it weed free so the tree doesnt have to compete for the nutrients and water
bananafan
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks, vy5e. Do you know how big a diameter around the trunk area should be left mulch free?
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As for the fig do a lot of research to separate the gems from the dogs. black berries are self reproducing. Plant them in a row and they will produce the second year and thinning the excessive runners can be done with a weed whacker. Kumquats have a sweet skin and the Meiwa variety has sweet flesh when ripe. Pop the whole thing in your mouth. Sweet lemons and limes are acid-less varieties of the sour fruit. They have low sugar so they taste mildly sweet. I eat them like oranges out of hand am very new at citrus growing but have over 2 decades with apple, peaches, pears, cherries, and plums. It is very important that you time the fruiting of each of your particular trees with the quality and quantity of available sunlight for the area it is planted. Trees that may not get enough sunlight from above will need to get sunlight from east and west and will need more space between them. I have only picked and eaten one citrus fruit (Cuban Shaddock) that I picked to soon. My trees are small and I have only eaten store bought citrus. I have however picked between 300-400 figs and they are much easier to grow, variety Hardy Chicago.
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I teach classes on this and the scientific evidence simply does not support it!! One of a series of articles published by a horticultural PhD (and professor at WSU) offers this: "Concern: Wood chip mulches will tie up nitrogen and cause deficiencies in plants. Evidence: Actually, many studies have demonstrated that woody mulch materials increase nutrient levels in soils and/or associated plant foliage. My hypothesis is that a zone of nitrogen deficiency exists at the mulch/soil interface, inhibiting weed seed germination while having no influence upon established plant roots below the soil surface. For this reason, it is inadvisable to use high C:N mulches in annual beds or vegetable gardens where the plants of interest do not have deep, extensive root systems." Full article here: https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/403/2015/03/wood-chips.pdf Googling "wood chip mulches and nitrogen availability" will confirm countless articles stating the same thing. The N issue is more myth than reality, as is the concept of mulches acidifying soil. It just doesn't work that way :-))
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vy5e
14 years ago
no problem umm to be honest im not 100% on the size it should be but i found a website that you might be able to get some help from on that

Here is a link that might be useful: Orange tree link
bananafan
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks vv5e for the link. I've read some about the mulching. It says at least one foot from the trunk. I'm going to go back and read more when I get a chance to again. Excellent link. Thanks again.
rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
14 years ago
A 4 to 6 inch layer of mulch in as large an area as possible around the trunk benefits nearly all trees. That 12 inch rule is also good to remember. No tree likes having mulch piled up against the trunk, citrus especially.

Disease is the reason why growers are warned about mulch. Citrus can be very susceptible to fungal infections caused by overly moist conditions. Though mulching can be of such good benefit to your citrus, you'll need to be certain that you don't over water, etc.
softmentor
14 years ago
In most of the country mulching is very good. In the west where it is dry and the soil alkaline, it is fantastic. I have over 100 citrus trees and mulch them all heavily.
In very wet areas, though, maybe not. MalcomManors, a very well studied visitor of this forum, recommends NOT using mulch in Florida because he believes it keeps the roots too wet and may increase the occurrence of root rot.
bananafan
Original Author
14 years ago
rhizo and softmentor, thank you both for your input about the mulching.

I've just finished mulching my little citrus area with pine bark mulch, so it would be too late to remove all the mulch now. What I did was I left 1-2 ft around the trunk area bare and hope that will help to prevent root rot. Before the whole area was filled with weeds. There's a golden rain tree in the neighbor's yard that overhangs. It keeps sending seeds that sprout like crazy. I was too tired to fight with them and of course other assortment of agressive weeds which was the reason for my idea of mulching.

Yes, rhizo, I'm weary of the fungus infection. I'll certainly take note to avoid overwatering from now on. The only problem here in Fl is sometimes we do get very wet rainy season that rains for days on end like at the present time.

Softmentor, you must have an incredible variety of citrus trees. 100 trees is a lot of trees. Are you growing all of them for a hobby? I wish I have that much land to grow that many. At the moment, I have 14 different kinds of citrus (5 of them are lemon/lime) and I have 3-4 spots left to plant orange trees. What would you recommend for my planting zone? I prefer those I can make juice out of and of course are disease resistant.

Thanks again for any help you can offer.
softmentor
14 years ago
hey, bananafan
yes, I have about 40 varieties, you can see a fairly current list at my "My Page" page here at garden web.
I'm not the best person to ask for what grows well in FL. Some of my favorites, though, are
Cocktail grapefruit - not actually a grapefruit at all, just marketed that way. Has a somewhat grapefruit flavor but much sweeter, very juicy.
Tahitian Pummelo - wow very juicy. very thin skin, which is a surprise for a pummelo
Daisey tangerine - early variety, very sweet, very full flavor, very juicy.
Kinnow tangerine - second only to Daisey, late variety for a much longer season of tangerines.

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