Our little citrus grove...three whole trees, dwarfs at that...is starting to bloom. Above, you can peer into the first little Cara Cara navel orange flower to open.
The fragrances we're about to experience truly need to be experienced to be believed. Nothing smells so sweet as a citrus tree in bloom.
We'll also be inundated with honey bees but that's OK, I don't bother them and they don't bother me.
Our Cara Cara can be a diva. Last year we got sixteen fruit. I really want to get much more, so I've been following some of my fellow garden bloggers, especially those that grow citrus, and hope to do much better.
The tangelo is a rescue that someone was ripping out of the ground and I've been performing gardening CPR on it for the last two seasons. It's gradually coming back and giving us some fruit again.
Our Meyer lemon is also giving us more and more fruit each year, even though it's a misshapen mess. Once it's well established, I'd like to prune it into a better shape.
I'm going to try to fertilize each two weeks and not get too lazy about that, keep the water flowing, and try not to shock the trees too much which ends up splitting the fruit.
One other thing you need to look out for is chlorosis...a lack of chlorophyll caused by an iron deficiency. You can tell when your trees have it because your leaves turn yellow and have a spider vein effect, like you see above.
Easy cure...get some soluble iron, like Ironite. Fill a small container (like the fabric softener lid above) with the iron pellets.
Sprinkle a little around the bottom of each plant.
Once on the ground, the water will leach the iron slowly into the soil to be absorbed by the plant, giving it the iron it is short of. I'll treat my trees on average twice a year.
It'll be a fragrant few weeks and then, some months from now, we're looking forward to some really sweet fruit.
Darryl
Copyright 2013 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved.
Mmmmm, I can only imagine how heavenly the scent of your citrus blooms! I remember the joy of fresh-picked Lemons when I lived in California for a summer. But I didn't experience the bloom time. I've only had a few sniffs of citrus blooms during travels here and there over the years. Lucky you!
ReplyDelete