The Mr Texas Place
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Grafting Tips:
TAMU Grafting: Fruit Trees: Citrus Trees: Around the yard: Useful stuff: Our Edible Landscaping:
Visitors since 20Feb05
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Planting/care instructions for Citrus in SouthEast Texas What kind of citrus should I plant? I recommend any variety of satsuma. There are no bad satsuma varieties. Plant an early bearing and a late bearing one and you can have your own citrus fruit from November 1 - January 1 or until the first 28F freeze. 28F will freeze and ruin most hanging fruit. Early bearing satsumas usually have "early" or "wase"(Japanese for early) in their name like armstrong early, okitsu wase, and big early. Owari is a late bearing satsuma. Meyer lemon is another good choice. However, a mature meyer lemon tree will bear hundreds of lemons. What will you do with hundreds of lemons? I plant lemons in pots for this reason. Note that meyer lemons have an insipid weak lemon flavor. I like to grow lisbon lemons, the grocery store kind with lots of lemony flavor. They may not be a cold hardy as Meyer lemons, however, I like the fruit better. Kumquats are also recommended. A large kumquat tree will give you bushels of kumquats. Meiwa is a good kumquat and changshou is also good and the fruit can be as large as a tangerine.
Planting time Most care-free time to plant citrus is in the spring after danger of freeze is over. This gives the tree a whole year to grow without danger of frost. Citrus trees are more resistant to freezes the larger they are. If planted in the fall, trees should be protected from frosts by covering or covering and heating with a light or heater underneath the cover for freezes. However, as satsuma trees can sometimes be difficult to locate, buy one when you find one and keep it in its pot on the patio over the winter.
Digging the hole Raised beds are best for clay soils. All my trees are planted in a raised bed of 6-12inches of pine bark grit. Citrus trees demand good drainage. Citrus trees grown in pots will die if water stands in the pot due to poor drainage. They can survive in clay however. When planting in clay, don't make a big hole and backfill with a different soil. This will create a "bathtub" for your citrus tree to drown in. Make a hole the minimum size necessary and backfill with the same soil that you dug out. Keep a 6 foot circle of grass from growing around the tree to keep down competition.
Spacing of trees Space your trees 16 feet apart. Citrus trees will eventually get 15-20 feet tall and around. Space dwarfs on flying dragon rootstock 8 feet apart as they are 40% smaller. There are no true dwarf rootstock for citrus like there are for apples.
Grass Get rid of it around your citrus trees. Citrus trees don't like to compete with grass. Get some curved landscape stones and make a circle of 6-8 feet around the tree and mulch or spray periodically with roundup to keep the grass out. You will have much better luck with your trees.
Fertilizing Don't fertilize your tree when you plant it. You can begin fertilizing a month after planting in the spring with half strength miracle grow fertilizer in water every few weeks. Don't fertilize after July 4. Fertilizing encourages growth and you want your tree to be dormant during the winter for maximum cold hardiness. Wait until the tree is one year in the ground to begin fertilizing with ordinary lawn fertilizer without weed killer. I've tried ammonium nitrate as my soil only needs nitrogen after soil analysis but it encouraged lanky growth. See the fertilizer schedule below. You have to fertilize to get good crops of citrus fruit.
Do I need two trees for cross pollination? The answer is no for most citrus trees. Some of the tangelos need another type citrus for cross pollination. You should plant two trees as you can extend the fruit picking time. A fully grown citrus tree will bear more citrus than a family can eat but this takes about 10 years to get fully grown.
How cold hardy are citrus in SouthEast Texas?? You can plant just about any citrus here in the ground if you are willing to protect it by covering/heating during bad freezes. A friend in Orange county has 50 fully grown citrus trees of all varieties planted in the ground since 1989. Satsuma trees are most able to handle a really bad freeze of 18-20F for a few hours. Next in cold hardiness are any of the mandarins/tangelos/tangerines. Round oranges like orange juice is made out of and meyer lemons of are good to 24F or so. Grapefruit are next in cold hardiness. Limes and true lemons are the least resistant. I have had a key (mexican) lime get damage from frosts. The last citrus killing freeze here in Southeast Texas was in Christmas of 1989 to 10F and freezing weather for 96 hours. All unprotected citrus were killed. One complicating factor to citrus cold hardiness is the usual warm weather we experience during the winter. A week of weather in the 80s followed by a mild freeze may kill satsuma trees if they are actively growing. A few weeks of cool but not freezing weather will help the cold hardiness of your citrus tree.
Will citrus come true from seed? The answer is yes except for pummelo and clementine and a very few others. The trees will tend to be thorny, have an upright and tall growth pattern and take 3-17 years before they fruit. Get a grafted tree for quicker fruiting and smaller trees that don't need a ladder to pick the fruit.
How long until I get fruit? About half of grafted trees will bloom the first year in the ground with the rest blooming the second year. However, I wait until the tree is 3-5 years or 4-6 feet tall in the ground before fruiting. This gives the tree a chance to grow. When a tree starts to fruit, it grows much more slowly. If first/second year tress are allowed to fruit, they won't grow much. Note how much the second year tree with fruit is stunted vs the second year tree without fruit
Schedule of fertilizer applications for Citrus
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