We were in at Tweed Heads (our closest city, on the Gold Coast) on Sunday, and bought six citrus saplings to plant for Spring. They were reasonably priced, come from a local nursery, and most importantly looked healthy. In Spring here citrus have a big flush of new leaves and flowers, and it is important to catch the growth spurt to get the most out of the season.
I have a lot to learn yet about citrus care in the subtropics, but I’m giving it a go. Looking around at properties here you see some pretty sick looking trees, and some that look beautiful and fruit well. The main issue here seems to be the very wet summers, which help along a range of diseases. Citrus also prefer neutral pH soils, so with our strongly acid soil some liming is necessary.
The citrus already on the place are in a fairly poor condition. We have a big kaffir lime, an orange (not sure what type yet but I’m guessing valencia), a lemon which I think might have just died, as well as some very small and sick ones which will be unidentifiable until they do something. We have limed, fertilised and weeded those, but meantime I thought I should start a new orchard in better soil.
The new row is below the old citrus, but also above the house, in well drained and deep soil, to the side of the chicken coop. The trees are planted 3 m apart, with plenty of mulch around them.
From the foreground, they are;
- tahitian lime,
- ruby grapefruit,
- tangerine,
- joppa orange, and
- Washington navel orange.
The sixth citrus we bought is a variegated kumquat, which will go in a big pot close to the house.
Hopefully we have got them in in good time to get established before the warm weather and growth spurt.