Everything You Need To Know About Pruning, Fertilizing & Caring For Citrus Trees

Let's talk about citrus trees! Here in Southern California, we grow a ton of citrus, so I have our local arborist & good friend Craig from Yard To Table Creations to guide us.
0:38 Pruning
Craig has helped A TON at my fruit tree orchard, so let's start off by talking about some of that.
Trees that go dormant (ex. peach) are easy to know when to prune because they lose all of their leaves. Citrus, on the other hand, is evergreen. When you prune depends a little bit on the tree itself, but we are NOT looking for the same vase shape that we are with stone fruit.
The branches and trunk of a citrus tree need shade from the leaves for protection, so we aren't going to do a hard prune. We're just looking to lighten the load a little bit, so we don't end up with thick layers of branches.
The best time to prune is after the tree has fruited but before the tree flowers. The fruit can stay on the tree for months, so you want to harvest heavily, especially if you are planning to prune. By leaving fruit on the tree going into the spring, your tree is going to be stressed because the natural signals (temperature and sunlight) are telling it to move to the flowering stage.
For a small tree like this, we're considering a few things:
-Can we keep as many branches and leaves on as possible without leading to bug ladders or broken branches?
-Keep an eye on the rootstock to make sure it doesn't take over.
-How do we want this to grow down the road (aiming for the bush shape), and are there branches (especially diseased or dead) we should even remove at this time?
11:46 Treatment
Unlike deciduous trees, you do not need to spray your citrus trees with oil or liquid copper. You should, however, give them a blast with your hose at least once or twice a month to clean it.
12:49 Fertilizing
Mulch and compost are key to building healthy soil which will lead to healthy trees. Neither should be up against the tree, and you want to extend out to the drip line of the tree so all of the roots will be fed & protected.
Other fertilizers can be used as well because citrus trees are such vigorous growers. Always read the label of your fertilizer and measure appropriately! The one we were using called for one cup every 3 months, but you will need to adjust according to your own trees.
KEEP LEARNING
→Want more gardening tips? Head over to the LEARN dropdown: sandiegoseedco...
→Sign up for one of our on-demand classes (go through it at your own speed): "Organic Gardening: Grow Your Own Food" and our famous "Seed Starting Academy" are available at organicgardeni...
GET STOCKED UP:
→Vegetables: sandiegoseedco...
→Flowers: sandiegoseedco...
→Herbs: sandiegoseedco...
→Rare Seeds: sandiegoseedco...
→Tools & Merchandise: sandiegoseedco...
CONNECT WITH US ON SOCIAL MEDIA
→Instagram: / sandiegoseedcompany
→Facebook: / sandiegoseedcompany

[@samanthan.2620]

I live in Orange County, CA and heavily pruned our lemon a few years ago when there was a citrus virus going around and our tree was able to put all of its energy into growth and is a beautiful tree producing tons of lemons. Our gardener was surprised that our tree wasn’t infected because most of the citrus in his route were infected. We are now in the process of pruning our smaller mandarin and will follow the guidelines in this video and hope for the best. Thank you!

[@SanDiegoSeedCompany]

Love a good success story!

[@chiefredbird7315]

Zone 9 Florida grew up in a orange field. I still walk away with something new thanks.

[@caterjunes3426]

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for this great video! I learned that I'm intuitively doing a lot of things right, that some of my success has been dumb luck (and hardy, forgiving trees), and that there are many ways I can tweak my methods to improve my citrus trees.

[@erntaku]

I feel like talking about citrus care in SoCal isn't complete without discussing HLB/Citrus Greening Disease. I'm actually having a difficult time getting my hands on citrus trees because I'm in North OC which is a quarantine area.

[@chiefredbird7315]

Girl ...I fell off my chair when you said I really hope I don't have a bat in the house...omg!!! Lmao

[@jeannamcgregor9967]

Several years ago I didn't thin my big Eureka lemon and the leaves became so dense that it created a perfect environment for white fly and sooty mildew. I'm still dealing with the repercussions of that and won't let it slip again!

[@BirdsongCrochet]

Great info - I'm in the Sacramento area, 9B, and have a lemon tree in a pot that needs some serious TLC so these are all great tips! While you have Craig there, I'd love to hear about proper pomegranite care. I have 20+ year old tree that needs a good reshaping & any other potential things I might not know to do. It produces like crazy but of course I'd love to make sure I'm doing everything I can to ensure it's health & more yummy pomegranites for years to come. :)

[@SanDiegoSeedCompany]

Great idea! I'll send him a note to do a video about that on his channel www.youtube.com/@yardtotablecreations

[@BirdsongCrochet]

@@SanDiegoSeedCompany awesome, thanks! Already subscribed yesterday! Love all these great gardening channels for my zone - so helpful!!

[@maryjoebarry]

Thank you for great help!!!

[@amberbaum1594]

When you transplant a potted citrus into the ground, what is the benefit of using “citrus” labeled bagged soil vs regular bagged soil/compost? We’ve got a kumquat that we are planning on putting in the ground.

[@TheNoacks]

I’m in coastal north county and have been looking forward to this video after the deciduous tree videos that you’ve posted. I like washing my trees with a strong stream of water at least once a month. But I still have leaf miners and scale bugs on my lime and mandarin trees. It’s been a problem for several years and I’d love any tips to get rid of them. Ants are especially attracted to these trees because of these bugs.

[@earthangel2524]

Sharing the Joy, I had leaf miners too on my little grove of 6 Dwarf Meyer Lemon trees in coastal Los Angeles. I have picked off the affected leaves. But now I have a considerable number of curled, shriveled and discolored leaves. Nevertheless, all the trees continued to produce abundant, yummy lemons. At the same time they look like they are suffering. My soil is well mulched and full of earthworms. Does anyone have advice on what to do for this?

[@paulastafford1642]

Good video. Would have liked to see more examples of pruning with really good shots or visuals. What type of fertilizer should one use, miracle grow or citrus fertilizer. Some ppl do one once or twice a year with slow release (whatever that is) followed up with a granular fertilizers like miracle grow blue pellets weekly? Help!

[@claudiataupier7115]

I have older citrus trees that produce tons of fruit despite the fact that we don’t really do any pruning or fertilizing. Does Craig do any consultations?

[@SanDiegoSeedCompany]

Yup! Drop him a call or email. Here's his site: yardtotablecreations.com/

[@calrowland9803]

You'r video was very informative, thank you. I'm in a 9a zone about 50 miles NE of Sacramento. I have a five year old Meyer and a three year old Eureka lemon tree that are potted with good. drainage but are not looking very good after this year's winter weather. (2022-2023) They both looked quit healthy this past fall. Both are supposed to handle cold down to at least 28 degrees and our low temp. this winter got down to 28 just a couple of nights. Our summers are quit brutal with temps above 90. I fertilized every 3 months according to the box instructions. I'll try your recommendation of fertilizing once a month. Should I cut the routine down to 8 or 9 months instead of 12 months due to our cold winters? Thanks for the great tutorials!

[@SanDiegoSeedCompany]

I recommend checking with someone at a local nursery since your lows are just a bit cooler than what we get.

[@calrowland9803]

@@SanDiegoSeedCompany Thank you

[@puricaro6738]

My kumquat tree give me fruit for two years but I put few trees of lemons around on pots and my kumquat started to produce of big green looking lemons big and no juice what ever happened and can I reverse to kumquat

[@christiehartlage8131]

Im in kentucky zone 6. I gave a pitted meyer lemon tree that set a ton of blossoms last spring but none stayed and turned to fruit. In four years weve had one lemon and im getting frustrated. We bring it inside for winter where ut gets great sun. What am i doing wrong??

[@heylesliesays]

When washing your trees, is there a time of day that is recommended, like morning or late afternoon? or would it not hurt to do it in the heat of the middle of the day?

[@SanDiegoSeedCompany]

Great point! Early morning or evening is ideal.

[@ronconovoa7566]

i was born in el salvador we do not care we just let the tree grow tress knos the best they grow on there way no prunning or anything like that thats mother nature at it best

[@karenhutchison7706]

I have an Orange and lime that are 15 feet tall. Any tips on shortening them? If I take off a third of their height will they survive.

[@SanDiegoSeedCompany]

Generally, you don't want to remove more than 20% at a time and no more than 1/3 of the branches in a year.

[@rgar21]

So if fruit was left on the tree should I remove it now? Do we need to cut crossing branches or are they okay if you can still see through the tree?

[@earthangel2524]

RG. I was wondering about cutting crossing branches too. I just cut mine off, and the trees look too bare.

[@rgar21]

@@earthangel2524 we still haven't attended to ours. Makes me nervous 😅

[@gi2050]

Whats root sock?

[@debbyd5729]

I can’t get a hose anywhere near my trees. Does anyone have a suggestion on what I can do as an alternative.

[@Jen.O]

altho not as great as a hose, those 2.5 gallon pump sprayers used for pesticides etc. would be a way to wash down leaves, the spray is softer but at least it's washing.

[@carloschacon4303]

The video was meant to be about citrus plants...right ? well, remove the section with the lady , ga ga ga , and let the expert do the talking ! Thanks. 😁

[@diana7676]

Can stop saying ok , yup. He says it clearly , then she restates.

[@snowdust2752]

Darn dog barking

[@SanDiegoSeedCompany]

Yeah... sorry about that. He's a nice neighbor but wants to see what we're up to. We try to film when it's not barking as much, but he kinda just barks a lot.