Lessons learned from past failures.

13 years ago

It has been quite challenging growing these plants over the years...

I remember having to buy a new tree every spring because I had a passion for citrus, and they would never survive a winter in my care...Plenty of failures.

With the help from this forums and it's many kind members I have learned many lessons to succeed my first winter with very healthy and happy plants, which in turn has given me a desire to build my collection and succeed with some of the toughest plants to keep happy..In fact, most people I now in my area fail every year until I direct here or show them..

Here are a few examples mind you for someone growing them indoors for 1/2 the year and outside for the other 1/2 of year..Feel free to share your lessons from you past failures, lack of experience, or lack knowledge, since I am deliberately going to leave many out..:-)

1: Stay away from mixes that compact, clog air spaces, take way to long to drain or dry out, using a very porous mix so the roots will be stay healthy and happy.

1A: Use a wooden dowel to check for moisture since "moisture meters" can be very unreliable giving false readings..

2: Use a good fertilizer that is going to carry all the important elements and nutrition to sustain your plants health. Ones that include calcium which many if not most fertilizers lack which makes a huge difference in my trees..

3: Vinegar can be a life saver for most nutritional uptake while the nutrients from your fertilizer that are locked up in the soil are release to become easily available , turning your leaves a beautiful rich green and usually solving most problems that show up in the leaves by causing a pH shift to be more on the acidic side, which my plants thrive with..

4: Make sure that if your providing lots of warmth that you also provide lot's of sunlight so that you encourage the tree to hold on to it's leaves and stay happy.

5: Watch for a quick spikes in temperature in order not to continually stress your tree out..

For instance: Cold to Hot..This time of the year, leaving your plants out in a very sunny location can raise the temperature so fast, that the sun and heat can draw moisture from the leaves quicker than the roots can warm keep up, causing your tree to wilt or seem dehydrated..Not good.

Many more lessons learned from failures that I would like to leave up to the group to share with us......How about watering, pest, light, temps and other possible issues that many of us need to keep in mind, lessons learned?

What have you taken away from your experience growing these awesome "Citrus" trees..?

Thank you

Mike

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Comments (3)

trianglejohn
13 years ago
I've learned that they are on average a much tougher tree than I originally thought. No need to baby them - let them stay dry for a while or let them go hungry for a while - my most productive trees are the ones I neglect the most.

I've also learned that they can usually handle much cooler weather then most people think. Rather then bring them inside the 70 degree house, I build a temporary greenhouse out of pvc pipe and plastic sheeting and store them in that for the winter. A small electric heater can keep it above freezing for winter nights and leaving the door open during the day time keeps it from overheating on sunny days. Temps from 35 to 55 during the winter seem to encourage a lot more flowers which leads to a lot more fruit.

I've learned that though they are easy to grow from seed you will rarely get them to bloom and set fruit that way. I've nurtured citrus seedlings along for more than 5 years without any flowering and I've heard stories of people having to wait over 15 years to see blooms. Sometimes it happens but not very often.
phebe_greenhouse
13 years ago
Yow, good advice about not bothering with seeds, at least not counting on them to bear quickly. A gazillion sellers on eBay sell seeds -- in many cases simply from their grocieries, I think! A co-worker was DYING to give me ALLLLL her six seed-grown lemons, 4 to 6 feet tall, for my greenhouse: I thought, nope. They'll take up my entire greenhouse and this rather unpleasant woman will come check on them for years. She didn't like to throw them away after growing them from grocery store lemon seeds, but I didn't see why that had to be my problem.

Mike, I'm not ready to go whole hog with the Al's Gritty Mix, but I am delighted with the idea of using poultry grower grit (Grani-Grit) for weight and porousity. I was using only builder's sand for that. AND we have a bag in the garage where the brooders are from raising goslings and chicks this spring. I'm going to take a cart and go and get it.

What have I learned in two years of citrus? Don't put them out in the south-facing cold frame, they sunburn. If I'm not there to water them, bad things happen. Citrus is more difficult than a lot of stuff, like begonias. But that makes them fun.
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greenman28 NorCal 7b/8a
13 years ago
Great list, Mike, and great idea for a Thread!

Since this is my first year growing Citrus, I'll stick to the soil mistake I've made in the past.

1. Sift and Rinse your ingredients!!!
- If you don't rinse the small particles and dust out of your mix, it will settle toward the
bottom of the container and will create a layer of fine particles where water will perch.

Josh

Lessons learned from past failures.

Comments (3)

trianglejohn

phebe_greenhouse

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greenman28 NorCal 7b/8a

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