For those of us in Tucson, has anybody taken a chance and fertilized their in-ground citrus? We are now past the 50% chance of frost.

Considering the long term forecast (nighttime temps not below 39) for the next two weeks and the fact my citrus are beginning to bloom and send out new growth due to the warm weather, I am seriously considering it.

What about you all?

Peter

I'm over on the NW side of town in Marana. My trees are just starting to perk up, but the weeds are already going great guns. I foliar sprayed my four in ground backyard citrus trees on Sunday night, 1-29, with a light zinc-manganese-urea solution and put a gallon per tree of light ferriplus solution on the ground. I'll give the trees an epsom salt & urea spray next weekend if the weather stays mild. I probably won't do a "real" dose of ferts for at least a few weeks though.

A couple caveats would be that I still have a couple hundred watts of christmas lights in each tree on a thermostat in case of a cool night or two and more importantly, I don't know much about growing citrus.

If the winter here is really about done, it was a much nicer one than the last couple.

Listed below is a web site that a member of this forum sent to my attention. The link is written for organic fertilizer production. I have nothing against organic culture, but I have personally never grown a citrus tree using the organic method.

Anyway, if you read the last sentence under the paragraph titled "Feeding", you will note that it says: "Don't feed citrus while they're in flower. If you do, you'll get lots of beautiful leaves, but very few fruit". I have never heard of this before the link was sent to me. I really don't know how valid the statement is, or is not, perhaps others on this forum might know more about it. I just bring this to your attention for whatever it is worth. Millet (356 ABO-)

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

Thanks Millet. I will be interested in seeing what others have to say..

Millet, I've read this, too. Try to fertilize before bloom time, or you get green growth and can cause fruit drop. Here's what UC Davis Backyard Orchard has to say about fertilizing in ground citrus in California:

"Fertilizing: Citrus occasionally suffers from micronutrient deficiencies such as zinc or iron. These deficiencies can be corrected by applying a foliar application of a liquid chelated micronutrient solution as the new growth emerges in the spring. You can also apply micronutrients in the sulfated form, such as zinc sulfate or iron sulfate, to the soil.

Most mature citrus require regular fertilization with nitrogen. Typically, most other nutrients are available in sufficient amounts in the soil. Nitrogen should be applied in January or February just prior to bloom. The second application then can be applied in May and perhaps a third in June. Avoid late-season fertilization as it may affect fruit quality, delay fruit coloring, and make the rind rough. Dwarf plants or trees in containers with restricted root space may require less fertilizer.

Maintaining a good fertilizing program can help preserve a tree's natural resistance to fungal diseases such as oak root fungus. Be careful not to overfertilize as this will cause excessive new growth, which makes trees susceptible to other disorders such as bacterial blast."

Now, that being said, when the heck would you ever be able to fertilize an Improved Meyer lemon? They bloom all the time I do try to put my first fertilizer app on right before I see blooms, but sometimes I wait a bit, if it is still cold out, as micronutrients just stay locked up. Frustrating, because my citrus are getting pretty chlorotic by January, especially my young citrus.

My two Cara Cara navels and three Orlandos are showing small white BB's so they'll be in bloom soon. I guess I should fertilize everything else. I had been contemplating this for a while now.

Still picking fruit every weekend, but...

This Tucson guy will wait until Valentine's Day or so to do my initial fertilizing, just like every year. I'll probably take a look at a 7 or 10 day forecast next weekend and either do it then or the next weekend. Plain old Arizona's Best citrus fertilizer on the ground, watered in thoroughly, no foliar sprays in the arsenal yet.

Trying to time the last cold snap is difficult for me. Southern AZ frost-free day supposedly is March 15.

Already daydreaming about what to plant this spring...
- Eric "keeping it simple until that stops working"

Hi Uncle Dirt:

I wish I had some citrus to pick . With the exception of my Meyer lemon (and Variegated Pink Lemon on which I have three lemons the size of large marbles), the remainder of my trees are not mature enough yet to bear fruit, especially after the set-back of last year. I am envious of you

The young trees did seem chlorotic so I hit them with some dissolved chelated Iron powder yesterday and watered it in. Will be doing either some foliar feeding or a soil drench with STEM and perhaps some Epsom salts for Magnesium which is the one micro that STEM is missing (I think).

Does anybody have any opinions about foliar spraying vs soil drench?

I also use Arizona's best. Seems great to me. Also, here is a link that will take to first/last frost dates along with some probabilities: http://www.davesgarden.com/guides/freeze-frost-dates/

Regards,

P.

pertman-

I'm not seeing any evidence of micronutrient problems on my trees, but if I do - have you found a local source for the STEM fertilizer?

I am seeing some moderate chlorosis on my younger trees, so will hit them with some chelated iron soon. Interesting how young trees get this more and colder weather seems to bring it out more. The first few years of establishing citrus trees in this extreme hot/cold/windy/arid climate are definitely challenging if you want thriving (not just surviving) plants.

RE: magnesium deficiency, I don't think that is a common problem in our calcareous, high-pH soils around here. I generally wait for my trees to tell me they are missing something before applying any corrective supplements (other than the regular seasonal fertilizing). Not sure if you've seen this before, but there is a decent guide to citrus (nutrient and pest) problems in our climate here: http://cals.arizona.edu/pubs/crops/az1492.pdf

Eric "getting tired of paranoid covering of his prematurely blooming Bearss lime"

Hi UD:

As far as a source of STEM, not that I know of. What I did was sometime ago MrTexas here on this Forum had bought a 25 lb bag and was selling 1 pound bags for $5 plus shipping.

Will send you a PM with his email address so you can contact him directly. A little goes a long way (1/2 teaspoon per gallon).

Over here my citrus are iron deficient and perhaps a little zinc deficient. My almonds and pomegranates sure were zinc deficient. My citrus sure are greening up after the iron chelate I put on last week!

Peter

Thanks for the PM. This discussion has made me rethink my routine this season. This warm winter has not really made my trees go anything close to dormant, so I have begun fertilizing a little early in anticipation of an earlier first flush of growth. Spraying for CLM soon to follow.

My name is Eric, and I am a citruholic...

After going out and looking closely at my trees, I have decided to go ahead and fertilize (also, considering what the 10 day forecast is, nothing below 40 here in TUS). Am doing micros now and fertilizer in the next few days. There is a lot of new growth on all my trees! This is more what I expected for winter than last year . The North Atlantic Oscillation is on our side for a change....

P. (also a citruholic)

So far so good for the early end of this winter in AZ ? I'm now out of state on my work rotation (3 weeks on ~ 3 weeks off) but I've been checking the weather report every day. I didn't fertilize other than foliar spray before I left, so my trees will have to wait until ~Feb 25th. The last couple years I've been using liquid Dyna foliage pro fertilizer applied with a pump through the drip system. When you use a granular fertilizer like Arizona's Best, do you apply it over mulch, pull back the mulch for fertilizing, or not mulch at all ? I keep a 4"~6" mulch layer of loose pine bark over the soil out to the drip line. I drip irrigate under the mulch and the top layer of mulch stays tinder dry 100% of the time unless it rains.

BobsCitrus wrote:

Spraying for CLM soon to follow.

Do you usually see CLM this early ? What do you use to spray it ? I've been using Bayer Imidacloprid but I don't apply the one annual dose until bloom is finished, I don't want to hurt the bees. Being absent for 3 week long stints of work limits me to using longer lasting pest remedies. I'm curious if there are any alternative or additional pest controls that work for other AZ citrus growers and would work with my schedule. The Bayer stuff works, but seems to lose effect by the end of summer and the label limits to one application per year.

Hi Bada Bing:

Are you a Sopranos fan? I am but was disappointed by the ending. Was hoping for a movie follow-on but I guess not.

Anyway, I can't use my drip system for fertilizing (unfortunately), so I dissolve the STEM (and Iron Chelate) in a gallon of water and do a soil drench. I use Arizona's Best Citrus fertilizer since according to their web site, it is formulated for our highly alkaline soils and has micros in it. And, it is very reasonably priced ($19.99/40 lbs) and is generally available. I don't do mulch yet, so I sprinkle it around the base of the tree and rake it in then water it in. We live on a horse property and I have a big pile of horse manure aging out in the open, which I probably will use this summer to conserve water.

I have a lot of blossoms on my Meyer and Variegated Pink Lemons (which smell great <g>), a few on my Valencia and Mexican Lime, none yet on my Rio Red Grapefruit, Washington Navel and Moro Blood Orange. However, all have a lot of new growth, especially if one looks closely at the intersection of older leaves and the branches. Also, today one of my Almonds started blooming.

Agree with your statement about Bayer. I also use it (and just applied it with my soil drench above). I don't understand if a tree grows 30-40% in size how the same amount of Imidacloprid can still be effective. In fact, I called Bayer last year and asked them about this and the scripted answer was just follow the label's instructions. I was really expecting a better answer. Hopefully others reading this will have some insight as to this issue.

Perhaps the Tucson citrus folks would like to get together sometime?

Regards,

P.