Here are the instructions I give to people buying the trees I grow. Old news but beginners may find it useful.
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 a weak lemon flavor. I like to grow lisbon seedless 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 9 months growth 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. Take the tree out of the pot and sit it on the ground. Pile up dirt around the tree to make a raised bed. 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.
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.
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 or banking with dirt during bad freezes. 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. 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. Protect citrus trees by covering and heating or bank the trunk with dirt above the graft.
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. Fertilizing encourages growth and you want
your tree to be dormant during the winter for maximum cold hardiness. Don't fertilize after July 1. Wait until the tree is one year in the ground to begin fertilizing with ordinary lawn fertilizer without weed killer.
Fertilize April 1 May 1 June 1 July 1
Fertilizer schedule pounds of fertilizer
Year 6/6/6 8/8/8 10/10/10
1st 0.4 - 0.8 0.3 - 0.6 0.3 - 0.5
2nd 1.0 - 2.0 0.8 - 1.5 0.6 - 1.2
3rd 1.9 - 3.8 1.4 - 2.8 1.1 - 2.3
4th 4.4 - 5.6 3.3 - 4.2 2.7 - 3.3
5th+ 6.1 - 7.8 4.6 - 5.8 3.7 - 4.7
Varieties of Citrus
EARLY ST. ANN SATSUMA
High quality. Medium size. Bright orange. Sweet tangy flavor. Few to no seeds. Easy to peel. Ripens in September (early season variety) Vigorous growth habit. Evergreen foliage. Fragrant springtime blossoms. Easy-to-grow.
MIYAGAWA SATSUMA
Increased COLD HARDINESS Super sweet (high sugar content) High quality. Bright orange. Few to no seeds. Easy to peel. Ripens in September (early season variety)
Evergreen foliage. Fragrant springtime blossoms. Easy-to-grow. Great in containers.
XIE SHAN SATSUMA
Super sweet (high sugar content) High quality. Bright orange. Few to no seeds. Easy to peel. Ripens in September (early season variety) Evergreen foliage. Fragrant springtime blossoms. Easy-to-grow. Great in containers.
Miho and Seto Satsuma
Early-maturing, highquality,cold-tolerant varieties of satsumas obtained from Japan for evaluation in Texas. Peel is notably smoother and thinner than other satsumas. The fruit is noticeably flat and hence packs extremely well.
Honey Mandarin
The Honey is also called the Murcott. The fruit has a deep orange exterior, is thin skinned and has a glossy texture. The Honey Mandarin is slightly flat in shape with no neck. It is very juicy, peels and segments easily. Fully ripe late November, so start tasting early November. Fairly good freeze tolerance.
Fairchild Mandarin
Fruit medium in size and moderately blate in form; rind medium-thin, moderately adherent but easily peelable; surface texture smooth; color deep orange. Flesh orange-colored; firm but tender and juicy; flavor rich and sweet. Seeds numerous, small, and polyembryonic. Tree vigorous, broad-spreading with dense foliage, nearly thornless, and productive.
Golden Grapefruit
An outstanding tasting grapefruit that is very hard to find. Fruit is very sweet and orange in color. No grapefruit bitterness. Very early, sweet and ready to eat by Thanksgiving. Best grapefruit for SE Texas.
Rio Red Grapefruit
Large size tree, early maturity. Fruit is oblong, sweet, seedless, & low in acid. The pulp & flesh is deeply pigmented & has high juice content.
Changshou Kumquat
This large kumquat has a sweet mild flavor with less seeds and more juice than other sweet kumquats
Seedless Lemon
This is the grocery store lemon. Few to no seeds. Great lemon flavor. Large tree
