citrus flowers (forum)

danial starts with ...
when do citrus trees start to fruit (get flowers) and how long does the fruit hang on he tree for?

Time: 6th August 2009 7:28pm

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amanda says...
Hi Danial - I am in mid west WA and my west indian lime n 2 lemon trees are fully loaded with flowers and small fruit as of the last few weeks. where r u?

Time: 6th August 2009 7:35pm

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danial says...
i live in adelaide.i don't understand why my blood orange has not flowered yet but my lemonade has lots of flowers!!because the blood orange is starting to grow should i fertilise?

Time: 6th August 2009 9:00pm

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amanda says...
How old is the tree danial? mine 3 yrs nearly n no flowers yet. Be patient - they are only babies when under 3 yrs - remember they will fruit for u for many years to come.
If they are under 2 yrs u must pull off any flowers or fruit - otherwise u will set the development of the tree back a great deal and for a long time (see my grapefruit under Saddest fruit tree! :)

Fert' 4 sure - I posted a link under Fertiliser information - it's very good.

Time: 6th August 2009 11:29pm

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Anonymous says...
amanda you are right! my blood orange is just about one year old. i will fertilise anyway

Time: 7th August 2009 12:51am

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culebra says...
i'd probably avoid a high nitrogen fert. when your plants are in the process of budding/flowering.

Time: 7th August 2009 6:42pm

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About the Author culebra
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amanda says...
I must disagree - this is exactly when u should be applying nitrogen to your citrus - from the previous link for example:

Timing
Nitrogen
Timing is critical when using nitrogenous fertilisers. A sound fertiliser program will provide enough nitrogen in spring to promote flowering and fruit set. At the same time it has to meet the needs of the growing crop and tree. Judicious timing also minimises the adverse effects on fruit quality of absorbing too much nitrogen late in the season.


Personally I always fert mine in spring and I get lots of fruit. I also renovate my organic mulches in Autumn/Winter (more by accident than design)..but the nutrients are all ready for spring. Lack of nitrogen can be a factor in fruit drop - it makes sense if u think about it - how can a tree hang onto fruit it can't support?

Time: 7th August 2009 7:28pm

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culebra says...
knew i heard it somewhere:

http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s2634370.htm

'Don't feed citrus while they're in flower. If you do, you'll get lots of beautiful leaves, but very few fruit'.

Time: 7th August 2009 8:33pm

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About the Author culebra
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amanda says...
PS - here's a pic of my lemon tree 2nite - been flowering bout 3 weeks and has had lots of food over last few months. It smells good :) (needs some iron n zinc tho'..I am getting there slowly!) :-/

It's still got a long way to go - so I may have to thin the flowers I think?
Pictures - Click to enlarge

Picture: 1

Time: 7th August 2009 8:37pm

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amanda says...
Hi Culebra - thanks 4 the link :) but I did the same thing for this tree last year. As it was mature enuf' to bear fruit I let it go for it. I just picked the last fruit 2 weeks ago and there is a shopping bag full on my kitchen bench as I type!. They are juicy and perfect.

I have just given my citrus their last feed 2nite - until post harvest. They just need a lot of water now (as it's sandy n hot here). I don't believe everything I read - and find 'observation' my best friend in the garden! :)

Time: 7th August 2009 8:53pm

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culebra says...
hi Amanda,

I agree 100% that citrus need much water and food when they are growing. they are greedy plants.

i just thought that ferts high in nitrogen applied when plants are budding/flowering could result in more vegetative growth i.e leaves at the expense of flowers/fruit.

you are right observation is often far more practical and effective than reading as it is more likely to be applicable to your conditions etc.

also your lemon tree is very floriferous, indeed when i first saw it it reminded me of a daphne plant!

re: thinning the flowers; i'm not sure about that. my huge 40+ year old orange tree (probably a seedling) not sure how tall it is, (it's comfortable to climb though if thats any indication) anyway was recently practically white with blooms and just before sunset they were absolutely intoxicating! i shook the branches to reduce the load a bit because for the past few years the yield has been excessive (upwards of 400 fruit) but they averaged the size of a mandarin.thin-skinned and 90% are seedless. ended up using them for juice and marmalade.
last year i got some much better size fruit after a flower cull.

Time: 8th August 2009 2:20pm

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About the Author culebra
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amanda says...
Thanks Culebra... My tree only bout 1.5 m tall! 40yrs impressive! I get the feeling that citrus are not as finicky as some of the other fruit trees?...they are quite precocious yes?! (yea - n piggies too!)

I gave the last liquid feed (via fertigation) the other night - but there is a large amount of organics in the soil (that I laid down over autmn/winter) - as it breaks down slowly - it seems to give the tree all it needs to carry the crop thru' without overfeeding it and thus spoiling the fruit or it dropping.

You are right bout the conditions tho' - sandy soil is more often impoverished and well drained - chances of overfeeding lower and I think of it as "treating em mean n keeping them keen!" ...I love home grown citrus!

Time: 8th August 2009 3:22pm

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