Joe
That is a very precise formula and my Ferti-lome 19-10-5 does not match up very well to those ratios. I had assumed that the higher nitrogen content would be great for young trees to promote growth for the first 2-3 years.
Would the 5-1-3 ratio be best for young tree growth or during the years when they are producing fruit?
Karl

"Engilish please .. No kidding"
I am perturbed where the Englsh language is going when you get a Filipino, Puerto Rican and a white american started writing.

Karpes: When you have inground citruses, most formulations will do, from complete fertilizer to just pure ammonium sulfate will work in most cases. But for potted plants, as Millet would strongly recommend, and I will second it, that the 5-1-3 ratio be followed when the tree starts bearing fruits no matter how small they are.

It is true that if you apply more N, trees will tend to be more vegetative, a useful feature that you may do in the tree's early life. For us home orchard growers, one of my main objectives now is to keep the tree small. At one point I will practice bark reversion (reverse direction of bark connection) to keep the height in check without pruning the trees. I would do that within 2 years and all my grafting would have to stop for my mature trees. But as long as I graft, cannot do the bark inversions.

In case where we need to keep the tree small or for maintenance, the 5-1-3 ratio would be excellent even for inground.

Benny: Don't worry, US is like this for a long while, and there's lot more that goes into the melting pot of America.

Joe
Ok, your last post has tied everything together nicely and great since I just purchased 60 pounds of the Ferti-lome. I have followed the fertilizer schedule and amount of fertilizer closely, but sometimes I think that I am pushing my Hamlins too fast. What I mean is that I planted these two trees from a three gallon container 18 months ago and now they are over six feet tall. They are planted in ground that has not been cultivated in over thirty years so maybe this has something to do with it. Do you think that this growth is abnormal? I will take pictures this week end.
Karl

Yeah, I know. Just yesterday , there was a knock at my door. I just finished my shower and I hurried up downstairs to open the door and there was this chinese or Vietnamese guy asking me how was my water. And I said it was fine. And then asked me if my tap water was OK. And I said it was terrible. It goes on and on until I found out he was selling an inhouse water filter and went on to say I could have a $300 spending spree at Home Depot. I looked at the paper and it says "The winner of......" So I said this is just a contest I am not a winner yet?
But all of this time I could not understand his Accent. It was that terrible. I had to ask him 2 or 3 times everytime he spoke.
I finally cut him off I was not interested.
.......There you go the US melting pot in the making.
What I am afraid of is pretty soon, you will have to learn how to speak Spanish here in California in order for you to understand.

With INDOOR citrus, is it best to hold off on fertilizing too? if temps get too cool or lack of light at some times? or do very light fertlizings?

Citrus Canuck, what you sayis very true, if you put your trees in a chilly environment through the winter. However, if your trees are containerized, thus can be put in a warm location during the 6 months of winter, why let them go dormant and lose a half a years growth? Now you will want to keep the air temperature below 68F (20C) sometime during December to February for approximately 800 hours, wich is needed so your citrus trees will get a good bloom and crop.- Millet

Benny, that's so true. By 2010, California will be overrun by Mexican population if the current influx is not hindered. I fear that we will have a subtropical climate with third world setup in the US.

One of the headaches in our room addition project is the language barrier that exists between us and the Mexican hired hands by our contractor. We know they are doing something very wrong and been trying to explain it to them, but no intiendes! So when they're done, the contractor come and inspect and it was wrong, they have to redo the whole thing again. From the shear wall to the roof, they tend to do it according to what is acceptable for third world setting, but we are paying prime rate here, and simply those crooked walls are never acceptable. So the contractor ended up losing a lot of money, when if their guys understood us in the first place, the amount of work should be less than half when they were done right the first time should they understood English. There was one section in the roof where they have to reinstall windows 5 times over. This has also costing our state to spend double in publications.

Even though I can live without hired hands here in California and do everything myself and gets to enjoy all of it, I still consider it an asset to learn Spanish, as I love to visit also and share with people of Latin Americas, perhaps one day Portuguese too, to visit Brazil, the original source of Washington Navels.

I dont plan to put them in a chilly environment, I have total control over the heat... its the light issues that worry me. This is my first year trying to keep my citrus through a winter... so I have a lot of worry. I just want to keep them alive and in the best shape possible. They've grown SO well in the past month with our extreme heat and everything... dont want to go through WLD... love the greenery all year round. Not much of that in this area

Oh, yes, with the job I got I need to. That's why I took 2 classes at adullt learning center conversational Spanish.
Talking aout renovation, I, and my 3 kids have already replaced all the tiles and the toilet but still got a long ways to go.