[faithfulFrank]

Hello all,
Being a new Florida homeowner, I have much to learn.
Here are some of my dumb questions...

1) When and how often do you pick oranges off an orange tree? We were just down there, and picked all the valencia oragnes off our tree, because we were told we should, because it would be budding soon with blossoms, which we were starting to see.

2) How important is it to have both a mowing service and a lawn treatment service. I plan on setting this up, I need to hire a lawn fertilizer, pesticide service. i'm told this is important because of cinch bugs....

3) Do humidistats really work? I had one installed in case we had months of no rents, so mold would not grow. I set it to come on at 65% humidity. I'm told that you cannot have mold as long as you keep your air below 65% humidity.

Well, I have many more questions, but I'll just ask a few at a time. thanks!!

Frank D.

[HIF]

Originally Posted by faithfulFrank

Hello all,
Being a new Florida homeowner, I have much to learn.
Here are some of my dumb questions...

1) When and how often do you pick oranges off an orange tree? We were just down there, and picked all the valencia oragnes off our tree, because we were told we should, because it would be budding soon with blossoms, which we were starting to see.

2) How important is it to have both a mowing service and a lawn treatment service. I plan on setting this up, I need to hire a lawn fertilizer, pesticide service. i'm told this is important because of cinch bugs....

3) Do humidistats really work? I had one installed in case we had months of no rents, so mold would not grow. I set it to come on at 65% humidity. I'm told that you cannot have mold as long as you keep your air below 65% humidity.

Well, I have many more questions, but I'll just ask a few at a time. thanks!!

Frank D.

I'm pretty dumb, so will answer your (not so dumb) questions-

January/February is the best time to pick. The fruit really needs some cold weather to sweeten it. You will love the smell of the orange blossoms this summer! Need to make a trip down just for that!

You can get a lawn service that does both or two different ones. There are pros and cons to both, but being an absentee owner, you need to make sure that they know someone will be checking the property. And/or someone that you trust.

Make sure that the lawn service doesn't cut the grass too low. You want it to be higher to preserve water and don't water too much. Make those roots reach down into the soil.

Since you'll be out of state, I'd go with service people that your neighbors use- find a neighbor with a nice lawn and use the same folks that they do.

[ellie]

I don't know what a humidistat is.

I have central air. I was away twice during my stint down here for over three months each time, once in fall and once in summer, and I never had mold. I just left the a/c set at 80 degrees during the hot months and never had a problem. From what I've been told, that's all that is necessary to keep humidity under control inside the house.

To be honest, when I lived in Savannah, I only had window units which I ran only at night and on the hottest days. It's extremely hot and humid there. Never had mold on anything, except on my leather boots in the back of the closet. That I wiped off.