I have a friend who grows citrus about 15 miles north of me in Lumberton,TX and I am in Beaumont. He has sandy soil and waters his citrus with a drip system weekly. I rarely water and depend on rain. His trees are twice as big as mine and are half as old. In fact, I sold him most of his trees. Mostly the same rootstocks. My trees were planted in 2000 and his in 2005. My trees are planted in around a foot of composted pine bark and sand with a french drain system.

His satsumas are deeply colored, thin skinned and richly flavored. Mine are thick skinned and watery. His panzarella oranges are terrific. I had a full sized tree of them and they were watery and tasteless. I topworked the tree to something else as I thought the fruit was so bad.

My red navels are very nice as well as the golden grapefruit. My fairchild mandarins, clementines, and blood oranges are nice.

Any comments?

Phil, my citrus are extremely sweet, too, and thin skinned. I'm on DG, very well draining soil and on a drip system as well. What do you think is contributing to the difference between you and your friend? Do yo think it is your watering methods, soil, fertilizers?

You had a drip system going the last time I visited your place, didn't you? Or was the drip system just for the potted trees you raise for sale?

Could the pine bark be draining nitrogen from your soil?

I'm no expert, but I have noticed that in my yard, the trees that have grown the best are the ones that receive consistent water. Once I rigged up drippers to my potted avocados from the greenhouse, and they got a little water every day, they almost doubled in size.

I put in a drip system just like my friend but have not used it consistently. JC ran 1/2 inch feeders and used circles of 1/4 embedded emitters The bark may be a problem but weeds are a problem without it!

When I added on to my garage a couple years ago I destroyed my irrigation system wiring. I converted to manual. JC showed me his DIG programmable water bib timers. I think I'll try them at our new home in Sienna Plantation when we build it shortly. Oh well, over once more I start with 3 gallon trees. I have some here I planted in 2000.

Usually, fruit with thick rinds and watery taste are due to OVER fertilizing (too much nitrogen), not a nitrogen deficiency (that is actually a classic sign of too much nitrogen). I will interested to see how things fare at your new place.

Phil,

I also have a similar set-up with a half-inch main line and quoter-inch drip-line in circles. The timer is set for 50 minutes once-a-week. I occasionally start the system for 20 minutes or so for an extra watering when it seems too dry. We have a golden grapefruit on FD (one you grafted for me) growing in a pine bark - compost mix. The plant barely grew since I planted it last spring but the fruit it produced was absolutely excellent although the skin was green. couple of other citruses growing on sour orange were going nuts with 5-6 flushes this year but no fruits yet to compare.

How much fertilizer go you use?

Sandy soils are rich with minerals and trace elements.
So with right irrigation, they give great fruits.

The time of the year, the age of the tree, the climate and soil type are all important factors in determining the texture and the growth rate of citrus fruits, and the growth rate of the tree. It is difficult to maintain water relations that will produce optimum growth in citrus fruits. However, it is generally accepted that if citrus fruit is subjected to a continuous or frequent water deficits for any length of time the fruit will not attain its normal size by picking time and the quality of the fruit will be inferior. This is especially true if the deficit occurs after the fruit is approximately half grown. The decrease in size and the degree of inferiority of the fruit is directly proportional to the length and the frequency of the period of water deficit. Following such periods of arrested growth, citrus fruits will usually produce a much thicker peel than that on fruits which have not been subjected to such stress periods (The Citrus Industry) - Millet