That's not the mulch I have in mind. Although they may retain water and fertilizer, it will consume nitrogen that is needed by the plant badly when they start decomposing. You could use that as top dressing but what I want you to use are compost that are already decomposted meaning already rutted. The color of this things are black. Even black soil is good to mix with your sandy soil because they were decomposted organic matters. That's what you want organic matters in your soil. You can buy this in store just buy garden soil or peat or what you can find. It will be impossible to have root rut if you have a very well draining oil. And I am not the one who told you you'll have root rut. The mulch that you put will not help your plant to improve pH. I'll give you a hint: It is black in color. You seem to see already by just adding that top dressing. What more if you add what I am telling about. Up to the drip line mind you. On the drip line is where you will find the most of the roots that are helpful. Even you can add, steer manure for fertilizer. And they are so cheap. %.99 a bag. put 2 or 3 bags around your plant up to the drip line. If you do what I tell you you'll se it will triple the buds and the leaves of your plant and most of all the leaves will be dark green. And don't be surprised that they will have flowers with them. then fruit.

I can only be sorta general here....perhaps someone else knows better... The cold (or drought stress) is to induce flowering, not really fruit set. Fruit set needs certain minimum temperatures, amongst other things. Sorta makes sense then why citrus often flower in the early spring (after winter lower temps and subsequent rises in springtime temperature) and then set fruit in that warmer temperature. A lot of citrus are not really tropical but subtropical. Some types (prolly more tropical ones like Keys or kaffir) instead get stressed by relative drought patterns (water stress). For some reason citrus flowers when under some sort of stress (I don't know enough to say if this is something that other plants tend to do since I frankly *don't care* lol...). I have come to recognize sudden, out-of-character, excessive flowering in a tree as a sign of severe stress of some sort (heck come take a look at my backyard I can show you plenty of examples, and for me that is usually the signal to *please remember to water*--oops--lol). I think of it as an evolutionary concept--if the tree is heading towards that great compost bin in the sky, then it should hurry and try to leave something behind for the genetic pool. I'd venture to guess that those trees that tend to be everbearing ones maybe get stress signals from smaller variations in temperatures (like typical diurnal changes) or perhaps from extreme sensitivity to changes in water availability. Which may explain why I hear of how some cultivars are everbearing in some climates but not others. I think the range needed to induce flowering is not very low. Like in the 50-60's range or something like that. I think I read it here on this forum from a long time ago? And so for the orignal poster of this thread, in theory you can try to induce some stress by changing irrigation patterns but I've never deliberately attempted to do so. The other option is to wait it out and see what the tree does. Maybe it needs more time between the chilling and spring temps to develop those flowers, since the colder weather was atypically late. Shuttin up now. HTH.

What you have is not unusual; it is likely an indication that you may be being overly kind to your tree in terms of fertilizer. The "second" set will ripen later, depending on your climate and the absence of frost. I don't know about your fert. schedule; but in San Bernardino there are quite a few commercial groves around, where you could stop and ask them what is the fert schedule they follow. Growers are usually willing to share with you what they know/do, if you show a little interest. If you don't find anyone in San Berdu, look around Redlands...the climate and the soil are the same.

We still don't have enough information to help you. It's one of those cases that we can only do so much to help without actually being there in person. I'd like to know what color your soil is. Color can hold some interesting secrets. You are correct about the problems associated amending the soil and/or the back fill with something different than the native soil. Clay soil, as long as it drains well, can be perfectly suitable for growing healthy plants of all kinds. Only YOU can be the judge of how well it drains. This is very important for citrus. "So so" drainage worries me a bit, since I don't know quite what you mean by that. For example, I have nothing but hard clay soil; brick hard when it's dry. But it drains well, even after hours of rainfall. Plants from the lawn to trees (and everything in between) thrive wonderfully with very little care. No amendments have ever been used to 'improve' the soil upon planting anything. It is also important, especially when planting into clay soils, that the hole be dug only as deep as the root ball requires for it to sit a little above the natural grade....but two or three times as wide. Break up that clay soil before putting it back into the hole. Planting high is VERY important in clay, and advisable in all soils due to the settling that might occur. SDdude, if you decide that the planting hole has become something of a soggy site, removing the tree could save it. If the roots have been struggling in that hole for 8 or 9 months, they won't have established much into the surrounding soil...making transplanting pretty easy. Use a sharp shovel to dig the root ball. Measure the height of that root ball with the end of your shovel so that you can dig the appropriate depth of the new hole into the shallow basin discussed earlier. When using mulch, be sure to avoid piling it up against the trunk of the tree, but pull it away from the top of the root ball surface. Apply your mulch in as large a circle around the trunk as you are willing to sacrifice to the tree. Since you aren't planting in a lawn, you could really mulch a pretty big area. Mulch encourages the growth of roots. Yet another factor in the success of planting into a clay soil is your watering routine. Clay soils (obviously) hang on to moisture longer than other soils with larger particles. Only you can decide if the planting sites are staying water logged or not. Be sure to let me know if I can help any further.