This is a very busy time in the nursery industry, garden centres are buzzing with excited “planties” warmed with the promise of sunshine and lovely long days to spend in their garden.
It’s also an active time in our production nursery, we are saying goodbye to our lovely Citrus plants as they leave home and travel into stores across the nation ready for your selection and planting.
Spring is of course the perfect time for getting out and tinkering with your Citrus, it is the most perfect time prune to and fertilise.
Time spent bonding with your Citrus in Spring will set you up for a strong and fruitful relationship as the years go on. |
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SNIPPITY SNIP - TIME TO PRUNE
Citrus are very happy to be left alone unpruned, they will still produces masses of fruit regardless, with no hard feelings. |
However just so that you remain in control of the situation a short back and sides every other spring is good practice and will temper larger growing citrus varieties.
In the case of Citrus Splitzer we encourage you to prune to ensure that the plant stays balanced, especially as it is establishing.
If one of the varieties becomes larger than the other it may dominate and in the extreme could take over the other variety.
One of the many benefits of Citrus Splitzer is that we have chosen two perfectly matched varieties, compatible in growth habit and style, so that they will grow evenly.
Citrus are extremely forgiving and it is hard to go wrong when you are pruning.
The golden rules are:
Sharp, clean pruning tools.
Take (prune) from the top. Trees grow up first then out.
Prune to a shape that works for your garden, you may wish to hedge or create a more tree like form that you could sit under, or you may wish to have a very open low shape so that you can easily access fruit.
Just have in mind the shape you are after, take a deep breath and prune away.
Hedge shears work just as well as secateurs, you are not performing intricate surgery you are simply shaping and reducing.
Pick up and remove all of your clippings, put them through a mulching machine and compost or dispose of the prunings in the garbage bin.
If you have a very, very old gnarly citrus, you can go your hardest, really, you can saw right back to a short woody frame, it won’t be long before your tree stumps are flushed with luscious new growth.
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FEATURE CITRUS
LEMONS
The most popular of all Citrus and often the most confusing:
Discover the difference between the lemon varieties. |
Eureka: Is a lovely big lemon tree with a spreading habit, fairly vigorous in growth, but is easily controlled with pruning.
The large fruit has few seeds, a bright, yellow thin rind and a sharp, tangy, very lemony taste.
Fruit is produced almost year round, most heavily in winter.
The Eureka is a very juicy delicious lemon.
Lisbon: Is a vigorous, large, upright lemon tree with dense foliage and thorns.
Having thorns is a useful thing, because those pesky citrus loving Possum’s hate them.
Lisbon is cold tolerant so very suited to milder regions it tends to have one heavy crop of fruit per year in winter- spring.
The fruit is very similar to Eureka in taste, tarty and deliciously lemony.
Meyer: Is a small compact tree introduced to America by explorer Frank Nicholas Meyer who discovered it in China. It is thought to be a cross between a lemon and an orange, which gives the fruit a very mild, no tang taste.
The fruit, is produced throughout the year and is almost orange in colour.
Because of their diminutive size the Meyer lemon of all the lemons is the most suited to growing in pots.
Meyer is the variety on the Citrus Splitzer
Lemonade: If you haven’t tried one of this, do yourself a favour!
The fruit is a combination taste of sweet and tangy, very juicy it really is a Lemonade flavour, easy to peel and looks just like a lemon.
The tree is vigorous and produces large crops. |
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Delicious
Lemon Delicious Pudding– and it really, really is delicious!
A soft sponge cake pudding that sits on a warm pool of
lemony custard.
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3 eggs
¾ cup of white sugar
1 tablespoon of butter
I cup of milk
1 tablespoon of self raising flour
Grated rind of 2 lemons
½ cup Lemon Juice
Separate the eggs and beat the yolks.
Beat the sugar and the butter until pale in colour –well mixed.
Gently stir in the flour – rind – milk and lemon juice.
Grease a ceramic baking or casserole dish.
Whisk egg whites till stiff and fold into the mixture.
Pour into dish and then sit the dish is a shallow pan of water and place
Into a moderate oven for 45 – 50 minutes. |
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What do Citrus Like to Eat?
Lets get this straight - Citrus are
gluttons, they like to eat and they
like to eat often.
Spring is always a good time to feed
as the root system is charging up
for delivering nutrients to the tree.
For Citrus growing in the ground
use any of the following:
An Organic all purpose fertiliser
A Pelletised Organic Fertiliser –
Organic Life is a good choice.
Blood and Bone
Rotted Chicken Manure
For Citrus in Pots
Use a Pelletised fertiliser
Or a slow release fertiliser such
as Green Jacket.
You could plan another top up feed
in January; write it in your diary.
If Citrus get hungry – yellow leaves
are often a symptom - it is very
hard to get food into them, as they
are starting to ail and often lack the
strength to take up the fertiliser.
This is why seaweed and booster
tonics are useful as a constant and
regular additive between fertilising
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Make your Own Citrus household cleaner.
This is a very simple method to
make a fragrant, all - purpose cleaner
that’s effective and environmentally
sound. It is also a great way to use
up all those citrus skins when
you’ve been juicing.
Pack a large, wide mouth jar with
citrus peels. Cover the peels with
white vinegar and sit the covered jar
on a windowsill leave it to steep for
about four weeks.
Shake the jar occasionally just to
move things around a bit, then after
a month strain, first through a
colander and then through a fine
sieve or tea strainer.
Your cleaner is now ready to use.
Dilute with water - 100ml per 1litre
and place in a spray bottle.
Works brilliantly as a bench top and
sink cleaner, cleans white goods like
a dream. Use in the bathroom on tiles.
You can use it neat on greasy
stovetops and range hoods.
Toss ½ cup in with your laundry
whites wash for an extra fresh boost
of citrus power clean.
Do test all surfaces prior to use.
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