Do you buy anything special for your orange trees? If so, where? (Valentine's day, 2015)

[Voebe]

I have a nice little orange tree that has had a very sad coronavirus year.

I called the Greenfield Citrus Nursery which has something called simply Citrus Fertilizer, which they said was sold all over. I checked with Ace, which said they have something called citrus "food," which they figure is the smae thing. But I don't know. Are "food" and "fertilizer" the same thing? Do you use something, and, if so, where do you buy it?

[hikernut]

I fertilize 3x annually with a citrus fertilizer from Home Depot. I don't recall the brand, but it's nothing particularly exotic. Just a ratio of N-P-K that is chosen for citrus trees. Rough timing... Valentine's Day, 4th of July, Labor Day.

Deep watering with appropriate amounts of water, on an infrequent schedule, is probably more important that fertilizing (I know people who never fertilize and they get large amounts of fruit from their trees.) I expect many just have their trees on a drip system with the rest of their bushes, which is inadequate. One of my co-workers lost a tree last year, probably because it was so hot and the tree wasn't watered properly.

https://cals.arizona.edu/extension/o...irrigation.pdf

Also protect the trunk and branches that get hit with lots of sunlight. I bought some white "paint" made specifically for trees at Home Depot for this.

[pbenjamin]

Arizona's Best Citrus Food is what most people use. Available at Ace Hardware and other stores. Yes, Citrus Food is fertilizer.

This might be useful: Citrus Fertilization Chart for Arizona

[wase4711]

"deep watering" is whats most important to trees out here in our Martian Hot climate..
at least once a month, set a hose out near your tree, with the water at a slow run, barely above a drip..let it slowly soak in for 30 minutes or so, and do this to all your trees, especially when its 100+

makes a BIG difference...

[hikernut]

Originally Posted by wase4711

"deep watering" is whats most important to trees out here in our Martian Hot climate..
at least once a month, set a hose out near your tree, with the water at a slow run, barely above a drip..let it slowly soak in for 30 minutes or so, and do this to all your trees, especially when its 100+

makes a BIG difference...

Agree it makes a big difference. Depending on the tree, though, it might take a lot more than 30 minutes. Last year I started measuring the flow rate of the trickle coming out of my hose and found I wasn't watering enough.

One other note. When using drip emitters or the hose-end trickle method, the objective is to water at the drip line... basically the farthest out extent of the tree's branches.

[wase4711]

Originally Posted by hikernut

Agree it makes a big difference. Depending on the tree, though, it might take a lot more than 30 minutes. Last year I started measuring the flow rate of the trickle coming out of my hose and found I wasn't watering enough.

One other note. When using drip emitters or the hose-end trickle method, the objective is to water at the drip line... basically the farthest out extent of the tree's branches.

great points!

my water pressure is so high at my hose, sometimes its hard to slow it down enough so it isnt a drip, but also not a "blast"..I doubt you can actually water too much out here from april-october..

and, good point about watering at the "drip line..I actually move the hose around every 10 minutes or so, just to make sure the entire "tree area" gets some deep watering..not sure if it makes any difference, but it makes me feel like I am doing a better job!

[hikernut]

Originally Posted by wase4711

my water pressure is so high at my hose, sometimes its hard to slow it down enough so it isnt a drip, but also not a "blast"..I doubt you can actually water too much out here from april-october..

Yes, it's probably hard to water too much, although it's not good to water trees too frequently. In the link I posted earlier there are some useful watering charts. For an established tree it recommends a 2-week watering interval during the summer. Amounts of water are given on a per-day basis. The example they have highlighted is for a tree with a 14-foot canopy, which requires 29.5 gallons per day in the summer months. That translates into about 400 gallons for each bi-weekly watering! Our trees are not quite that big, but I need a couple of hundred gallons per tree and I have four trees to water.

[wase4711]

is there a time of day you try to do the deep watering? I try to do it early, around 6 am, but by the time it gets to all the trees, its several hours later..
I thought about doing it in the early evening, but, was concerned about evaporation, even though I am deep watering..
Still learning about watering out here in the desert, even after almost 4 years!

[hikernut]

Originally Posted by wase4711

is there a time of day you try to do the deep watering? I try to do it early, around 6 am, but by the time it gets to all the trees, its several hours later..
I thought about doing it in the early evening, but, was concerned about evaporation, even though I am deep watering..
Still learning about watering out here in the desert, even after almost 4 years!

I don't think it matters for drip or "trickle" irrigation, which doesn't lose much to evaporation.

[Voebe]

Originally Posted by hikernut

I fertilize 3x annually with a citrus fertilizer from Home Depot. I don't recall the brand, but it's nothing particularly exotic. Just a ratio of N-P-K that is chosen for citrus trees. Rough timing... Valentine's Day, 4th of July, Labor Day.

Deep watering with appropriate amounts of water, on an infrequent schedule, is probably more important that fertilizing (I know people who never fertilize and they get large amounts of fruit from their trees.) I expect many just have their trees on a drip system with the rest of their bushes, which is inadequate. One of my co-workers lost a tree last year, probably because it was so hot and the tree wasn't watered properly.

https://cals.arizona.edu/extension/o...irrigation.pdf

Also protect the trunk and branches that get hit with lots of sunlight. I bought some white "paint" made specifically for trees at Home Depot for this.

Thanks. Luckily, a neighbor did explain deep watering to me years ago. But anyone who tries to calculate gallons is much too obsessive for me. I decided against the white paint, because I think it looks awful, but a gardener advised me to instead not trim the shoots that grow off the lower trunk, and that seems to work fine.

Funny, I asked a few gardeners about this year in particular, since I was thinking, as you say, that this last year may have been particularly bad, but they pooh-poohed that idea.

Originally Posted by pbenjamin

Arizona's Best Citrus Food is what most people use. Available at Ace Hardware and other stores. Yes, Citrus Food is fertilizer.

This might be useful: Citrus Fertilization Chart for Arizona

Thanks! I'd rather go to Ace than Home Depot, so I'll look there.

Originally Posted by wase4711

great points!

my water pressure is so high at my hose, sometimes its hard to slow it down enough so it isnt a drip, but also not a "blast"..I doubt you can actually water too much out here from april-october..

and, good point about watering at the "drip line..I actually move the hose around every 10 minutes or so, just to make sure the entire "tree area" gets some deep watering..not sure if it makes any difference, but it makes me feel like I am doing a better job!

Right, I move the hose after an hour or so to the other side, and I'm sure it must help.