I think one of the best organic fertilizers is called Citrus Tone; look for it... a bit pricey, but a very good product. You might also look for a bio product called Azospirilum Brasilense; google it if you want to see what it is and how it works. I have it naturally, but in clay soils it is less common.

If you have any local sources, some good old-fashion manure works great. Horse, goat, rabbit, and even alpaca manure won't burn your plants if you place it around the drip line. Be careful of introducing unwanted weeds.

Thanks for info.

I tried citrus tone before. It worked well. I believe it is more of a soil conditioner than a fertilizer although it does deliver NPK.

I believe it has chicken manure as a source of N and some kind of bone meal as a source of P. Has alot of organic smell.

I care about my trees but I care about my dogs more. I had to take a sick dog to the vet a couple of years ago after eating organic fertilizer so I am wary of any product with the word "Organic" in it..

I am leaning towards half strength FP on the leaves and either half strength organic 5-1-1 liquid fish solution (if I can find it) or organic cottonseed meal around the drip line. Jon

I made a mistake. Not Natures Way 6-2-4, it is Microlife.

Nature's Way is the brand name of the best organic soil condition mulch we have. And a good mulch made from twigs with a high cambium layer to wood ratio delivers a huge amount of what you need in your soil. If you add an inch or two every few years, you can forget about phosphorus, minor and micro nutrients. Manure can do some of that. But it is best for veggies. Use twig based mulches for citrus and other trees.

Natures Way also makes the only citrus potting mix for use in our area.

Thank you for the info.

I will look into that product.

When I originally added organic fish bone meal and other Ph products to the planting holes and the surrounding soil I was trying to help the young trees develop a strong root system to deal with the extreme desert like heat which begins in early June and ends in late Sept. in my growing area. I was also hoping that developing a deep root system early on would help conserve precious water over time.

Obviously there is a lot about growing organic citrus which I don't know.

That's what great about the internet and a forum like this.

Thanks again.

I decided to follow john oranges' suggestion. I worked around 1/3 of a cubic foot of Home Depot chicken manure per tree around the drip line of my in ground organic citrus trees.

This is one of my favorite trees, a semi dwarf rio red grapefruit. I am happy it got thru the winter without any damage.

joncha, be careful not to dig too deep around your citrus....it has shallow feeder roots you don't want to hurt. It looks like what ever you are doing is working for you though....pretty trees and looks like you are getting fruit. FYI, on the manure I mentioned a while back, johnmerr has advised me that horse manure isn't really all that good in terms of nutrients. Maybe it just doesn't give up its nutrients fast enough since a large percentage of it is just grass stems. On another subject, how do you keep the grass and weeds out of your plots? I am not strictly organic but I try to stay away from chemicals as much as I can without having to resort to hand pulling grass and weeds. Folks here say citrus really needs to have the grass pulled back at least to the drip line to keep it from stealing nutrients from your trees.

Thanks for the response. I didn't dig too deep. Maybe down 2 inches max. I used chicken manure because that is what was available at Home Depot. I would like to find a local organic source but I don't know where to look.

I hand pulled all the weeds etc⦠on this specific tree. On the other side of my property where most of my trees reside I put down landscape fabric and covered it with bark as a mulch. I keep the mulch a couple of feet from the trunks of the trees. I periodically inspect my trees and hand pull the weeds inside the boundary of the fabric and mulch.

It gets very hot in my growing area and the addition of the mulch has really improved the health and appearance of my trees. Keeping the soil cool during the dead of summer seems to be a big plus. It also helps me conserve the precious and expensive water I use.

Bark is not a good source of mulch for citrus....you are better off to use lucerne or hay.......bark creates an acidic environment and is better suited to blueberries.......the lucerne/hay also breaks down over time adding beneficial Nitrogen........remove mulch in winter..

jonathancox007

"Bark is not a good source of mulch for citrus". That depends entirely on the the particular application. I would like to try alfalfa hay for mulch but it is prohibitively expensive in my area. It may give too much late season nitrogen to make a the best mulch here.

Also "bark" is not always "bark", meaning hardwood bark has loads of calcium and is a citrus killer in my area. Our soils are highly alkaline, so we can use pine bark. Pine bark is particularly valuable for small trees in the heat of summer if one uses the larger sizes which remain loose and help the soil stay shady cool. Also larger sizes hardly break down, so they have little or no soil reaction.

Our best mulch is a mix of native mulch (hardwood twigs) and pine twigs both ground and composted 6 months.

I should have been more specific as "bark" is a loose term.....I meant pine bark.......In Australia where i am....it gets over 40C in summer so a mulch of 5 to 10cm of lucerne hay is ideal as a mulch to help keep the soil and roots cool and break down for citrus........I have some pine bark,,,,,,and that will be used to mulch my blueberries which prefer more acidic conditions and pine bark enhances that over time and is slower to break down than lucerne etc..........in winter ...I remove all forms of mulch or your asking for root rot.......its surprising how much rain we get here in Perth in July/August.......spring is around the corner for us now........Good luck with your trees.

Jonathan

Root rot here is Phytophera and it usually has three requirements, namely heat, low oxygen, and alkaline soil/water. This is sometimes called the phytophera triangle. It is not usually not a problem here in winter. But after heavy rains in warm to hot weather it causes the leaves to roll and limbs to die back or ooze amber sap. The organism is endemic in Gulf Coast soils.

Trifoliates and its hybrids are highly susceptible. Trifoliates also have very shallow roots so we grow them on a thin layer of sandy soil (about 8 inches) over our heavy/tight clay. There are strains that will grow in clay that is not too alkaline but the growth rate is very slow.

That's actually a myth about pine bark acidifying soil.... maybe if it was super fresh it may provide some minor acidification for a brief period but most of the acidifying properties leach out quite quickly.

I used to worry about that myth before I started using cedar chips as mulch in my various non acid loving potted plants.... they never skipped a beat or showed any signs of over acidified soil.

I think if you will do some research you will find that myth has been debunked.

Decomposed pine bark from yellow-shortleaf and Cuban pine is a great core additive for citrus container mix. However it has little nutrient value and the supply is very short. We use hardwood twig mulch to provide nutrients but it has too much calcium to use alone. Southern yellow pine barks do not make a soil acidic enough to grow blueberries here. Use sphagnum peat alone for blueberries.