citrus does not like mulch it keeps the roots to moist and can cause root rot its best not to mulch them best thing is dont mulch and keep it weed free so the tree doesnt have to compete for the nutrients and water

Thanks, vy5e. Do you know how big a diameter around the trunk area should be left mulch free?

no problem umm to be honest im not 100% on the size it should be but i found a website that you might be able to get some help from on that

Here is a link that might be useful: Orange tree link

Thanks vv5e for the link. I've read some about the mulching. It says at least one foot from the trunk. I'm going to go back and read more when I get a chance to again. Excellent link. Thanks again.

A 4 to 6 inch layer of mulch in as large an area as possible around the trunk benefits nearly all trees. That 12 inch rule is also good to remember. No tree likes having mulch piled up against the trunk, citrus especially.

Disease is the reason why growers are warned about mulch. Citrus can be very susceptible to fungal infections caused by overly moist conditions. Though mulching can be of such good benefit to your citrus, you'll need to be certain that you don't over water, etc.

In most of the country mulching is very good. In the west where it is dry and the soil alkaline, it is fantastic. I have over 100 citrus trees and mulch them all heavily.
In very wet areas, though, maybe not. MalcomManors, a very well studied visitor of this forum, recommends NOT using mulch in Florida because he believes it keeps the roots too wet and may increase the occurrence of root rot.

rhizo and softmentor, thank you both for your input about the mulching.

I've just finished mulching my little citrus area with pine bark mulch, so it would be too late to remove all the mulch now. What I did was I left 1-2 ft around the trunk area bare and hope that will help to prevent root rot. Before the whole area was filled with weeds. There's a golden rain tree in the neighbor's yard that overhangs. It keeps sending seeds that sprout like crazy. I was too tired to fight with them and of course other assortment of agressive weeds which was the reason for my idea of mulching.

Yes, rhizo, I'm weary of the fungus infection. I'll certainly take note to avoid overwatering from now on. The only problem here in Fl is sometimes we do get very wet rainy season that rains for days on end like at the present time.

Softmentor, you must have an incredible variety of citrus trees. 100 trees is a lot of trees. Are you growing all of them for a hobby? I wish I have that much land to grow that many. At the moment, I have 14 different kinds of citrus (5 of them are lemon/lime) and I have 3-4 spots left to plant orange trees. What would you recommend for my planting zone? I prefer those I can make juice out of and of course are disease resistant.

Thanks again for any help you can offer.

hey, bananafan
yes, I have about 40 varieties, you can see a fairly current list at my "My Page" page here at garden web.
I'm not the best person to ask for what grows well in FL. Some of my favorites, though, are
Cocktail grapefruit - not actually a grapefruit at all, just marketed that way. Has a somewhat grapefruit flavor but much sweeter, very juicy.
Tahitian Pummelo - wow very juicy. very thin skin, which is a surprise for a pummelo
Daisey tangerine - early variety, very sweet, very full flavor, very juicy.
Kinnow tangerine - second only to Daisey, late variety for a much longer season of tangerines.