This information is for those of you who grow citrus as well as figs as I do.....

It is now time (1st week of June) to fertilize your citrus trees to insure a larger citrus crop NEXT year.

FYI......any new wood that you are able to develop on your tree THIS YEAR, will produce CLUSTERS of flowers on your tree NEXT YEAR. Any older wood that is carried over to the next year will only produce SINGLE flowers. Flower clusters produce more fruit than single flowers.      Soooooo, if you want more citrus fruit next year......fertilize your trees (preferably with a high nitrogen fertilizer) the first week of June so that it will stimulate new wood growth which will produce flower clusters next year.....hence more fruit.

Dan
Semper Fi-cus

Dan, Thanks for the heads up. My tangerine tree has lots of fruit on it this year for the first time ( 4th year). I'll give it a go and a bunch of water.
"gene"

Good to know.  I have a meyers lemon locally bought and a small meiwa kumquat from ediblelandscaping which is about 15in high bought late last year.

Here in s. cal we have a lot of orange trees, I have a huge one in my front yard. I was planning on pruning it in the winter, but I'm afraid I might not get the optimal crop if I cut all the new wood per your tip. Should I prune now and let the new growth start now or prune later?

Dan,

What brand of fertilizer do you recommend for citrus?

I was told that I didn't need to fertilize my young trees for a year because they came with controlled release fertlizer in the pots.

One Satsuma is in the gound and the other is in a 16" pot.  The Meyer Lemon is in the same size pot, as is the Key Lime tree.  They all came with timed release fertlizer in their original pots.

Do you agree that I shouldn't fertilize them?  I'm new to citrus and want to get them off to a good start and not harm them.

Thanks,

noss

Noss, the best fertilizer to use during the second citrus FLUSH in June (FYI, citrus will FLUSH three times in our area) is ammonium nitrate since it has a high percentage of nitrogen. That is what the commercial citrus growers use in our area. However, since some people used that stuff to make bombs it no longer is readilly available. For optimum results use a high nitrogen fertilizer if you can find it. I use regular all purpose 8-8-8 fertilizer for small trees and as they get older switch to 13-13-13.

I use calcium nitrate for my nitrogen fertilizer on my citrus. It's 15% nitrogen and 15% calcium. They sell it at the feed store in 5 pound bags for about $5. I also use it on my tomatoes to help prevent blossom end rot with the calcium. Dan, please share your trick for satsumas in March.

Dan,  I'm interested in your little trick to being able to eat Satsumas all the way into March.

The tree at the abandoned house down the street has had NO care for years now and keeps putting on bumper crops of Satsumas, although they are small.  The fruit stays on the tree until at least April and I picked the last few in May and they were so good, still.  This is not supposed to happen, but it does each year.  I believe it's an Owari Satsuma like my two little trees.  I wish I knew what root stock the tree was on so I could get someone to graft a branch of that tree onto it for me.

The tree is about 30 years old now and has never frozen, or had any problems.  Sigh.....

OK, I'll wait to fertilize my trees.  I already did give them a drink of Miracid a couple of weeks ago.  That's high nitrogen, but someone told me they prefer Foliage Pro.

My Satsumas are both Owaris-One from Becnel and the otherm from Star Nursery, via Drio.

A couple of years ago my mother told me that her father (a truck farmer) used to pick satsumas and put them in baskets that would fit under their bed. The beds back then were very high off the floor and the matress was made out of moss. That was how her dad stored some of his citrus. She remembered eating those satsumas for a "long time" after they were picked,  but you had to cut them open with a knife in order to eat them as the skins got really hard. She told me about this practice after I told here that I was experimenting with figs. LSU Gold figs will improve in flavor after they are picked if you let them sit out on the counter for a few days.

Sooooo, last season I tried that out for myself. And yes indeed it does work. I picked several small baskets of satsumas, oranges, and grapefruit and put them on a wire shelf that I have. What happens is those citrus will gradually lose moisture through the skin and begin to shrink. The skin will get real hard and you will not be able to peel them like mom remembered.....not even the satsumas. They will not rot or mold as they cure. And you will indeed need a knife to slice them open when you get ready to eat them.

Now here's the really NEAT PART...........as they shrink the sugars and flavornoids that are inside of the juice will CONCENTRATE in both sweetness and flavor....like LSU Gold figs will do. Their taste will be much better than if there were not aged in those baskets. Owari satsumas develop a fantastic flavor when treated this way. Pink grapefruit develops a whole new dimension in flavor,

Soooo, in my area you can pick Owari satsumas late in the season, cure them as described, and still enjoy eating them in early March long after they are no longer available on your tree. And they will be sweeter and have a terrific new taste dimension to boot. You cannot do this with Armstrong satsumas because they do not store very well even on the tree. They will get real puffy inside if kept on the tree too long. Owari does not do that and the fruit can stay on the tree much longer.

Funny thing  is.......this citrus storage practice that my"old timer" ancestors knew about was almost lost to my generation if mom had not casually mentioned it to me one day in one of our conversations!!!

Those of you who grow satsumas.....give it a try next year and treat yourself to a new "old way" of eating citrus and extending your season. Too, you will not believe how good they taste when they are first treated in this manner.

Dan
Semper Fi=cus

Good information and good thread!

I stumbled upon this with some clementines that we left on the counter and went on vacation some time ago. I hadn't given it a thought until now. Now I have to intentionally try this.

Dan,

Where was that wire shelf where you put the basket? Was it dark? Cool? Low humidity? Also, have you 'stored' a Meyer Lemon?

The wire rack is nothing more than the kind you see merchandise displayed in stores. Got mine at Target. I have a three shelf one in my kitchen and that is where I "cured" those satsumas. Haven't tried Myer Lemons yet.......

Man I bet Clemetines will develop an awesome flavor!!!

Dan
Semper Fi-cus

I'll be "curing" some clementines very soon.

Hi had a friend at work that had an orange he had just forgotten about in his desk draw become hard as a baseball.  It just became a novelty to show people at work.  Who knew it was probably still edible.  I've been looking for an excuse get a satsuma.  I would like to try drying figs too.

Not only was that orange edible, the very essence of a good orange was concentrated and locked inside that hard ball. Try "curing" a few citrus and see what I mean.  Satsumas are a GOTTA HAVE fruit if they grow in your area. They are self fruitful and you only need one tree.

I've recently purchased a professional food dehydrator (Excalibur brand) so that I can determine with absolute surety which, if any, of the figs that I grow will produce excellent dried figs. This will be another fig research avenue for me.

Dan
Semper Fi-cus

How do Satsumas do in containers?  I have Meyer's lemon, & I've had various limes over the years & they all work fine as long as they get out of the house & do a lot of growing in the summer.

Dan,

The satsuma down the street keeps fruit on it until April, or may and when I pick them, the fruit has shrunk inside the skin and they are easier to peel.  The fruit inside is like a delectable orange sugar lump.  People leave them alone because they think they are rotten, but they are not.  So good.

Beyondista,

I have a Satsuma in a pot and it's doing very well.  They need the same care as any other tree in a pot, needing food and moisture, but not being wet and the right sized pot.  They also have dwarf Satsumas.  I saw a dwarf Satsuma somewhere around here.

noss

Beyondista, I have no personal exerience with growing citrus in containers. However, growing one that is grafted unto dwarfing rootstock definitely should be the way to go.

Noss, it is a shame that satsuma tree is neglected. But you get to eat some of those "cured" fruit that few people know how good they reallly are. The citrus oils in their skin helps to preserve them as they lose moisture.

Dan
Semper Fi-cus

Dan,

I'm about to get Mike and go down to the corner and remove the suckers that have grown up through the Satsuma.  The yard people who cut that lawn occasionally butchered the tree limbs back in April.  That's a shame, but I can saw the suckers from the rootstock off and that should help the tree.  I think that's why in the past few years, the tree didn't do as well.  I hadn't taken a close look at that tree to assess it because the limbs were so overgrown that they went all the way to the ground and covered the main trunk.  After the butchery, I could see the suckers from the rootstock had grown up through the tree.  I was hesitant about doing anything to the tree, but I think removing the suckers would be all right.

noss

I'm wondering whats the most unusual citrus you guys are growing?
This Is what I currently Have
Kieffer Lime
Mexican Lime
Bears Lime for me its taste better than Mexican lime and it is not thorny.
Nagami Kumquat
Satsuma manderin
Algerian Tangerin (I love its taste)
Unknown Limequat
Washington navel orange
Shamouti Orange (Jaffa)
Palestine acidless (sweet)lime
Tarocco Blood Orange
Austtralian finger lime
Becks'navel orange
Unknown grapefruit
Chinese Pummelo
Chandler Pummelo
Unknown Pummelo
Golden nugget tangerine
Golden Nugget Tangerine  planted 2 years ago and picked 4 nice tasting fruits
Yuzu
Meyer lemon 
Eureka lemon
Lisbon Lemon  I like it more than Eureka (more sour)
Variegated Pink Lemon 
Pondorosa Lemon  mom makes candy out of the skin
Buddha's hands citron  mom makes candy out of the skin
Etrog Citron   mom makes candy out of the skin
Variegated Calamondin OMG it is so sour
Sanguinelli blood orange (actually is pinkish not blood)

I'm on the lookout for few more espessialy "Halawa Pummelo" and few blood Pummelo crossbreeds. 

Maverick,

Here is what citrus I am now growing.....nothing unusual:

3 Owari satsuma
3 Brown Select satsuma
Keifer Lime
2 Myer Lemon
Louisiana Sweet (Hamlin) orange
Valencia orange
Washington Navel orange
2 Red Navel orange
2 Ruby Red grapefruit
Moro Blood Orange
2 Meiwa Kumquat
Nagami Kumquat
Nippon Orangequat
2 Calamondin orange

....got rid of several mandarin oranges and tangerines. They were too sensitive to the cold. Replaced them with figs. Got rid of all my peach trees too.....got tired of fighting borers.

Dan
Semper Fi-cus

Noss--if those suckers are coming from below the graft, then you definitely want to get rid of them.

Dan,

The suckers are definitely coming from the rootstock.  I couldn't see that when the big limbs came out from the tree and touched the ground around the tree.  I began to see something else was growing up through the Satsuma tree, but until the yardman cut the tree up so badly where I could get close to the trunk, I didn't realize it was rootstock suckers.  I thought they were something like oak tree saplings, or the like.  They are getting taken off as soon as we can get to it.  I'll need to put a dropcloth under the tree to cover the poison ivy that's trying to grow under the tree, as well.  Poison ivy babies are cropping up all over the place this Spring.  I've never seen so many tiny PI plants.

How cold-sensitive is the LA Sweet Orange?

Can it be used for making orange juice?

If it can be used for juicing, how does its flavor compare to the Satsuma juice flavor?

Ken--don't give up on citrus if people grow it where you live, then so can you.  I hope you hit on just the right formulation for successful citrus growing.  :)

Thanks,

noss

Noss,

La Sweet is the one that is grown in Plaquemines parish. It is a small and very sweet orange. It can handle some cold but not as much as Satsumas. Valencia is the juice orange. However, I really love the juice from Moro Blood oranges. In our area they do not get blood red because our night time temperatures are usually not cold enough for them to color much more than a dark pink color with some red staining. A blood orange needs cold night time temperatures for it to get blood red. Doesn't matter the interior color to me as they are very good juice oranges. The navels are large oranges and quite easy to peel. Ruby Red Grapefruit are delicious.....almost sweet in our area with just a hint of tartness. They will keep on the tree for a looooooong long time. They are awesome tasting too when "cured".

Ken,

..........keep the ground moist around young citrus plants until the roots grow out of the root ball.  Otherwise they will be very slow growers and might even die if you don't "deep water" them. 

Dan
Semper Fi-cus

When you fertilize citrus do not apply fertilizer too close to the trunk!  I killed an Owari satsuma from incorrect application of fertilizer back in 2001.  In 1998 my mother planted an Owari satsuma and just two years later that plant produced 200 to 300 fruit!  Unfortunately in the spring of 2001 I applied the fertilizer way too close to the trunk and burned the roots.  That fall the leaves on the top branches fell off and soon after the branches began to die back.  The following spring the scaffold branches and and trunk died and the rootstock developed large cracks and a purple color near the soil.  The tree died of dry root rot caused by Fusarium Solani fungus.