Chris Burrous: Everyone’s a farmer when it comes to their own backyard; try these tips on doing it Home Grown.
Fred Hoffman: What’s one of the best reasons to live in California? Citrus of course. Lemons, limes, oranges, grapefruit- they’re all great, they all do wonderful in California. And even if all you have is a sunny patio, you can grow citrus in containers. Now, where on you patio should you plant citrus in containers, well come on let me show you.
Where should you plant a containerized citrus, how about a sunny patio? In fact, that could be the best spot. An old fruit grower once told me, plant citrus where the cat sleeps…and what cat doesn’t like sleeping on a nice warm patio? When you go shopping for citrus, all the varieties available, the choice is up to you. What I would make a recommendation on though, is buy it in the smallest container they have, this is a 5 gallon container. It’s going to save you a lot of money over buying it in a 15 gallon container, now you want to buy some bigger containers, some fancier ones to put it in when you get home. Let’s go look at some.
What kind of container should you be looking for when you go to step up in size? Well, you may have some lying around the house, like this 15 gallon black container…not a bad choice just make sure it has good drain holes. Same is true for something a little more fancier, like this foam pot, just make sure again that it does have drain holes. But for the ultimate in containerized citrus, eventually you’re going to want to plant it in this- a half barrel. Half barrels are wonderful looking, but they need drain holes, they don’t come with drain holes, and that’s why I have a drill and I would advise putting in at least 4 drain holes in the bottom of this half barrel. Use a wood boring drill bit about 3 quarters of an inch, so let’s start drilling.
We’ve got five nice 3 quarter inch drain holes in our oak barrel; now I think it’s time to plant our citrus.
This citrus in a 5 gallon plastic black container can stay in this container for up to 2 years before it needs to be repotted into a slightly larger container. But if you have a nice patio, do you really want to stare at a plastic black container. I didn’t think so- so why not take this tree container and all and place it into our oak barrel, just like that and surround it with mulch so you can’t see the black plastic pot. Then after two years you can put it into a bigger pot, and put the mulch into the half barrel and nobody would know the difference. So, let’s go get some mulch.
Let’s talk about watering and fertilizing your citrus tree, in the summer time, this tree, because it’s in a container may need to get watered everyday. Are you gonna’ be home everyday in the summer to do that, probably not. So you may want to set up an automatic watering system, like a drip irrigation system with this mini sprinkler. How about feeding this tree? Since you’re watering so often, because it needs to get watered regularly, it needs to get fed regularly because the fertilizer is going to get leeched out of the soil every time you water. So you can use a citrus food like this, or a liquid fertilizer, it doesn’t matter. The key though, cut the dosage in half, and apply it twice as often- that way your tree always has a regular supply of food.
A lot of people say, Oh I can’t have a citrus tree, they get too big- I’ve got news for you, you can prune a citrus tree to keep it at any height you’d like. Pruning time for citrus, anytime during the spring or summer, and you can keep the tree at the height you want. Easy to take care of, easy to enjoy, there’s no reason, if you live here in California, not to have citrus. Plant one today.
Chris Burrous: That’s California Heartland, for more information on any of these stories go to Californiaheartland.org I’m Chris Burrous see you next time.
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