I am in the San Fernando Valley and the soil is very very hard clay. It took me a few hours with a shovel and a pick to dig the hole for this tree.

Here's a photo of the whole tree.

The Fig tree in this photo is also similarly planted with the grass going right to the trunk. Whatever you suggest for the Cara Cara, should I also do for the fig?

Your tree will do better if you remove the grass out to the drip line. The mis-formed leaves are caused by an insect called Citrus leaf miner. There are several chemical treatments that will help with this. Citrus produce fruit on the new spring growth. If you prune your tree, you will be removing the new growth, therefore the tree wil not (cannot) fruit. A tree the size of yours needs to be fertilized 4 times a season, which will help greatly with growth. The above fertilizer program should provide 2 to 3 growh spurt per year. - Good luck with your Cara Cara. - S-

Citrus leaf miner can be treated with spinosad and neem oil, unfortunately the damage is done and too late to treat this year. Don't worry though it is just a cosmetic nuisance, the leaves are still working and making food as they should, they're just ugly. Just do a search on the forum here for CLM treatment and you will get tons of good info on how to prevent leaf miner. And to add, the fruit on the lower branches is good fruit. Usually the lower the fruit is on a citrus tree the better it tastes in my experience.
Evan

What Silica said. Then, remove that much more. The absolute WORST place you can plant a citrus tree is in a lawn. If this tree is being hit by your lawn sprinklers, it will just be a matter of time before it develops foot rot, due to constantly having the trunk be hit by water. You may be better off moving it to a non-lawn area. Treat with an appropriate product for Citrus Leafminer PRIOR to evidence of disease (search our forum for both Imidacloprid systemic options which as not organic, and Spinosad/Hort oil such as Neem or Volck, which is).

I'm not sure why you think your low fruit is "bad"?? It isn't, just leave it and enjoy it when it's ripe this late winter/early spring. It does pay to leave your Cara Cara on the tree a little longer than is stated out there, especially on younger trees. At least, this has been my personal experience. They seem to need a bit more time to sweeten up, but when they're at their peak, they are delectable. My favorite navel orange hand's down. And, they make a beautiful fruit salad, the flesh is so pink.

Now, comment to make - your lawn appears to be absolutely spectacular (can't say mine looks this nice, you clearly know how to grow a beautiful lawn). This leads me to think you're probably putting down a fair amount of insecticides, fungicides, etc., that may not be labeled for edible use. Your citrus tree will be soaking up all those chemicals, and will be in the fruit. So, think about what you're applying to your lawn, because those chemicals will be in your fruit. I try to stay organic as much as I can (with some specific exceptions I have to make). That way, I KNOW what I'm eating. So, think about what's going down on that lawn, because it's being taken up by your Cara Cara and will be in the fruit you eat from that tree.

Patty S.

Hi everyone - thanks for your help.

I will remove grass to the drip line and add stones or mulch (or a combo of both). Are most citrus trees painted with a white paint at the foot to prevent root rot? Is it a special paint I should look into?

As for the lawn - I don't put anything on it. It is relatively new sod (about three months in) and the tree and sod were planted at the same time. I was heavily watering in the early stages (once per day) and now I water Monday, Wednesday and Friday only and it looks like it is doing OK with that regiment but I know that the citrus and fig tree may need more of a longer and less frequent watering - I can't stop the sprinklers from hitting both trees. Not perfect, I know - but I am not changing that. Happy wife, happy life!

So - to recap, I will remove grass and add mulch/rocks to the drip line. I will NOT prune the tree and I will leave the fruit on the tree until it's time to pick (later is better).

Question - when I mulch the area where I remove the sod, should I keep the area flat?

The lawn does get a lot of fungus activity with lots of mushrooms here and there and I've even seen a puffball the other day. I don't like chemicals and won't use them unless my lawn starts to die. I've got a few dry patches but I think that's more an irrigation issue than anything else.

Thanks for the help!

{{!gwi}}

No, they're painted white to prevent sunburn. With a young tree that does not have protective branches or leaves to shade its trunk, and if it is growing in a hot climate, its a good idea to paint the trunk with flat white latex house paint cut in half with water. Nothing special, really. Just half strength white flat latex house paint, the cheapest you can find will work perfectly.

Having the trees in the lawn can cause issues with the trees, you're just going to have to watch and see how they do. And, I'm a happy wife, but I don't plant my citrus trees in my lawn :-) So, let your happy wife know that this happy wife is telling you the trees are better off in a non-lawn area. :-) So, you're just going to have to watch your trees, and see how they do. Fertilizing well and possibly a bit heavier will be important, because that lawn is going to constantly be stealing Nitrogen away from both trees. Lawn will always out-compete a tree for nutrients, causing poor development.

The ground under the tree should slope away from the trunk, and you should have a nice water well at the edge of the well, at and somewhat beyond the edge of the canopy. That's called the drip line, and it is where the citrus' feeder roots reside. So, water should pool there, and not against the trunk, which can again, promote foot rot. You can mulch, but in this instance, I probably wouldn't use bark mulch, since this is an awfully wet environment, and we don't want to promote root rot, either (same organism - phytophthora).

Patty S.