Please help. I am having no luck growing citrus trees. I am planting them in the lawn. I have since read warnings not to do this. Can anyone please tell me why?

I think the grass in the yard would be competing with your tree for water and nutrients. Other than that it would be great if your spouse will let you ! Tom

limeingrass, Tom is correct. Grass will compete with nutrients, especially nitrogen with your citrus tree. And, if your lawn is sprinkled and the sprinklers are hitting your tree, this will most certainly spell the eventual demise of your tree. Citrus do not like to have their trunks constantly wet, and you're inviting fungal infections, which will kill your tree. Citrus prefer to be on their own, with drip or microdrip at their drip line (edge of the canopy). Find a nice, sunny spot in your yard, where your citrus do not have to compete with other plants under their canopy. Create a nice well around the tree at or a little beyond the drip line (edge of canopy). Place your drips, mulch well under the tree, keeping the mulch away from the trunk. Fertilize 4 times a year with a good quality citrus fertilizer.

Or clear the grass (scuff) off around the tree in a 4 foot radius. Heavily mulch with wood chips (not bark and heterogeneous sized chips lock in better), about 8" deep should settle to about 4" deep in two weeks. You can run the drip lines under it. Then weekly pull out any grass that pops up. Takes about two years before the citrus canopy shade and your persistence in not allowing it to photosynthesize sugars to keep coming up from the buried rhizomes eventually kills off the grass. There will always be an occasional grass popping up after this but much less maintenance. Add additional wood chips periodically to maintain a 4" thick or more base. The citrus love it and the slow breakdown releases nutrients so you can stop fertilizing them unless the leaves tell you different. The roots appreciate the more consistent moisture and escape from the heat too.

It is recommended to keep mulch 2"-8" away from the trunk to prevent collar rot.

Downside to mulching: In some areas rodents that might gnaw on the trunk like to overwinter in such places but this can be dealt with by raking away the mulch in the winter from under the canopy allowing the ground to heat up especially for evening frost covering. Allows winter inspection and repair/ replacement/ relocation of drip lines.

Here is one reason not to add mulch under a citrus tree. Root rots + moisture + mulch = trouble for citrus trees. The reason that mulch and citrus trees may not be the best of friends: phytophthora. The spread of this root and crown rot fungal disease may actually be aided by too much mulch beneath shallow rooted citrus trees, especially in moist, slow-draining soils. According to the UCR Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources book, "Pests of Landscape Trees and Shrubs", "phytophthora kills the roots and root crown area of infected plants...possibly causing mature plants such as citrus to grow slowly and gradually decline... Phytophthora may affect only small feeder roots or rootlets, major roots or all roots and the crown... Because mulch retards drying of the soil and excess soil moisture greatly contributes to the development of root rots, improper or excessive use of mulch may actually promote root rot development. Mulch, like just about every thing in the world, there are benefits and negitives. Its up to the grower .. - Millet

I have many trees in the yard without any problems.

Laaz, you have much richer soil that I do. I'm on DG. Lawn + Citrus/DG= No Nitrogen left for the poor citrus tree. And Millet, I had a long talk with several of the folks at UCR about mulching citrus trees. There are pro's and con's, as well as supporting literature for both philosophies. Yes, too moist and you'll create an environment that encourages fungal organisms such as phytothphora to proliferate and damage the roots or kill the tree. But, if you can keep the trees watered properly, then mulch for my type of soil is very beneficial. I have almost no organic matter in my soil. so, I top all my trees with compost, and also mulch. The mulch helps to reserve water, with is extremely expensive here (just received my $708.00 water bill yesterday, and we're not even in our "hot" weather, yet), as well as help to return organic material into my soil. I have issues with phytothphora in my soil, and I have a few pockets that are just simply not growable unless I go to the expense of treating with Aliette. But, in order to keep water in my soil, and to return organic materials to my soil, I mulch and water carefully. The vast majority of my trees are doing just fine with mulch

$708.00 water bill

Fortunately, it's every 2 months, but even still It's why there are no more commercial citrus groves in S. California, except some still hanging in there, out in the Cochella Valley, where they still have fairly reasonable municipal water rates. All other commercial citrus has gone up north of Los Angeles county, up in the central valley. Not enough ground water to use just wells, the growers here have to supplement with municipal water, sadly. This is what happens when you try to turn a desert into a place to grow things. We here in S. California - even at the coast - are all still varying types of desert. We have everything we need to grow anything, except enough water. I'd like to drop a well like you can't imagine, but it would cost me at minimul, $10,000, and upwards to $20,000, depending upon how deep they would have to go, and through how much granite. So, you can see why we mulch, here.

Patty, my soil is pure clay once you get through the inch of real soil.

A lot of the water used by Southern California, comes from the montains of Colorado via the Colorado river. It is estimated that 100,000,000 people in the US West rely on the Colorado river for their water. Several years ago I had a 1,000 foot deep irrigation well drilled at a cost of $12.00 per foot -- worth the cost because the water has been free ever since (except for the electricity to run the pump). - Millet

Yup, Laaz. If you can make sure you have good drainage, you'll extremely rich soil to grow anything in. Clay soils can actually be one of the best soils to grow citrus in, just taking care to manage drainage. Super rich in minerals, and the ability to hold water, which are both good things. Water just runs through my soil, almost like sand. And, nitrogen goes right with it.

And, a funny story about our soils out here: I was at a succulent seminar this weekend, and one of the attendees was asking the speaker about what to do with her DG soil (like mine). She was asked if her soil was easy to dig, and she said, "Pretty much, especially after it rains, but when I get about a foot or two down, it's really hard, why is that?" Seriously. The speaker was so nice. He said, "Well, I suspect that after digging through 1 to 2 feet of DG, you're at the G." And Millet, that would be about the going price here. About 85 to 90% of my water bill is outside watering. It would take me roughly 3 years to realize that investment based on my water bills (based on 2013 water costs), so I'm just trying to psych myself up for that big cash drop. I have to wait for a few other issues to clear up here, having to do with an IOD that runs through my property. Once that has been set aside, I can then safely consider dropping a well, which would most likely be within the easement in question. It also would help with resale down the road as well. Water is only going up out here.