Sheba, I agree with Vladimir. I mix 1 tbsp FP per gallon. I then water with that and do not water until the next time they need to be watered (in a day or two). I then water very thoroughly...making sure the water runs out the bottom. I will usually water at least once more that way (perhaps a day later), then fertilize again. For example, if my trees are thirsty, I will water in the morning to make sure they are not thirsty when I fertilize. Then in the evening, I will mix up the FP/vinegar mix. Does that make sense?

Figs...good for you! Masters or PhD? I spent many years in grad school, so I feel your pain. It's like a huge gorilla on your back. I got through my Masters quickly, but then had two kids - one when I started, and the other right before I finished my PhD....it was rough!! Hang in there. It will be worth it!

I really have to hand it to you student moms. Some of my pre-nursing students are single moms with full time jobs. I they are driven and I love them.

Laura, wow, PhD!! I can't even begin to describe how proud I am of you, and I don't even know you! Well, aside from the fact that you love citrus- I do know that much! Yikes, you must've been so busy with little kids. My kids are older, so that makes it a bit easier (daughter is in high school and my son is in elementary, but will be in middle school next year). I'm going for my masters and if all goes according to plan, I'll finish my program next summer.

Vladimir, I'm sure they love you too! It is nice that you acknowledge them. I am thankful that I'm not a single mom going to school.. my husband really does step in case I ever need him to. I described a bit of the background behind my degree plan (why I chose homeland security/emergency management concentration) when I initially answered your question, but my post was cut-off.

Figs, I am proud and glad that this country has people like you.

Thank you Figs and wishing you all the best with your program. This country needs more people like you!!

Mary

Figs, Wow! Congratulations! I wish you well with your studies and am glad there are people like you that are so willing to help look after the people of our country.

Cory

Oh my gosh, thank you guys for your kind words. As Vladimir is a professor and he asked about my studies, plus Laura asked as well, I wanted to share with them the background behind my masters program. I believe that there is something very special about people who love plants or animals, etc.. so I felt that it was ok to overshare some of that info here with them. I certainly didn't expect to hear such nice responses from others as well, thank you. However, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Everyone on this forum is so nice, and I hope to participate much more as my citrus knowledge increases!

Laura, again, congrats on your journey, and thank you for the good vibes you have sent! I know exactly how you feel- there are a couple of job opportunities that I'd like to seek, but I want to wait until my son is much older before I go on that path. YES, you are absolutely correct about professors helping students out beyond academics. I have had that one professor that made such an impact on me; he was a sitting judge at the Hawaii First Circuit Court and despite winning university-wide student nominated awards, I don't believe he truly understood how much of an impact he had on everyone, including myself. I recently ran into him and his wife at the HD garden center and I totally swooned (in a professional manner, of course) when I found out that he has joined his wife in the gardening hobby now that he's retired!

Mary, thank you : ) I see you have your own Devil Dog as well!

Thank you Cory, I appreciate your kind words : )

Sheba, you are completely welcome to hijack this thread! The more, the merrier! Thank you for your input on your fertilizer regimen. Wow, you say your Meyer has hundreds of blooms. Next time, please take pics so we can all see!

Figs, I have been too busy to spend the time I like to around here lately with my Mom being sick and me still...But I did read what you had to say and I treasure knowing people like you and in fact everyone here..Thank you for caring about others the way you do and I wish you all the success not just in growing citrus, but in every day life..You are great to have around and please know that we all appreciate what you do..

To everyone else, I wanted to say good night and get rest..You are all going to need it growing your citrus as well as you all do) Your trees are all so pretty!

Mike, thank you. I pray that your mom gets better. Your enthusiasm on this citrus forum is always a joy to read, and that is an understatement!

** note. Guys, I edited my posts and deleted the info I shared about my career and studies. You guys are all SSOO wonderful and I know your comments were made sincerely, so thank you again, but eeek!.... I never know how to handle such praise and it makes me a bit embarrassed. I just didn't want future posts to be about that instead of me (us) trying to figure out how to fertilize! Sigh.. please don't think I'm weird. Unless we have already established that all plant lovers *can* be a bit weird!

I understand totally what you mean) I love giving praise but to receive it is always less than exciting..lol But get use to it..If you have nice trees, are a nice person and live in a nice area, you going to get nice comments if you keep sticking around))

I was wondering about your fertilizer regimen...What are you going to do now? I know that any tree that sets it;s root in the ground even if it exits a pot grow into a monster! But as for potted trees in which the roots are entirely dependent on you for a food source, they will only do great for so long before they quickly decline from a dead soil and lack nutrients....Citrus Trees are heavy nutrient rich lovers and it's important to start a regimen even before you buy them...Your thinking is right up there with ours..Good for you.

By the way, where the heck did you get your Foliage Pro? From Amazon?

Figs, thanks for your kind words too..It's nice to have you around here.Feel free to throw a party some time and let's see if we can pinch our pennies together and see you there...

Mike, as a citrus newbie, I think I would be happy to get nice comments about my trees one day because it would put me at ease on whether I'm doing it right! I'm just trying to find my way still with citrus fertilization, so I would definitely welcome those comments : )

Well, to answer your question on what I am going to do about fertilizing, I am going to stick to the watering can/FP applications. I would like to use the hose end sprayer for my huge potted Eureka, so unless I can get clear instructions from the manufacturer or the FP folks, I will use the watering can for it as well. The label on the hose end sprayer is so misleading to me! The label says "Easy to use, add product, set dial, and spray." What I need to know is, how much product? Set the dial to what?! Sometime next week, I will call the manufacturer of the sprayer and perhaps also the FP people. Maybe someone there can provide some guidance. I'll let you guys know!

Yes, I ordered the FP from Amazon. I will be getting a lime tree soon (yes, I keep saying that.. but I'll get it next week for sure!), plus I am building a raised bed for an avocado tree. Amazon is great; I ordered several bags of reptibark and other ingredients for those two potting projects. They just arrived yesterday, so I'll start next week on setting everything up.

Mike, I forgot to add. Yes, wouldn't it be nice to have come sort of citrus forum'ers convention in a couple of years??!! Daydreaming ideas: have it here, OR.. let's ambush John's lemon farm in Guatemala!!

Figs, I would love to meet some of the folks on this forum.

Figs, sorry I'm catching on late. During the winter, when my trees are inside, I don't fertilize at all. I've been told by much smarter people that it promotes spindly growths that are more susceptible to pests. During the summer, though, when my trees are out on the deck, I water first, then wait for most of it to drain, and then I fertilize. Per tree, I use a little less than a Tbsp of foliage pro every other day, with a tsp of white vinegar, in half a gallon of water. My trees are in 511 mix. Please only use that much fertilizer that often if your trees, too, are in 511. I also had to work myself up to that amount of fertilizer, it took about 2 months by half tsp increases.

I hope it helps. Also, I vote in favor of the yearly citrus convention! That would be awesome!

God bless,

Atheen

Ditto guys...someday we can have a big citrus party...I'll make the key lime pie ;-). Figs, I would be very interested when you find out about the hose sprayer. It would be very easy to use it if I could be sure of the concentration. I think when I used it the last time, I hurt my NZL and it dropped many leaves. It is recovering now, but I think it was because the concentration was too high for the sprayer. I also worry about its ability to distribute the fertilizer well if it is granular. With FP, that would not be much of an issue.

GUYS!! I think I figured out my hose end sprayer confusion. It makes sense now. I just got off the phone with the makers of the hose end sprayer pictured above and also the Dyna-Gro Foliage-Pro help lines.

My confusion was that I didn't know how much FP to add to the hose end canister because I didn't know how many gallons I was using when I watered with my water hose. Thus, not knowing how many gallons of water I was using, I didn't know how many tsp/tbsp to add since the measurement of FP is added per gallon of water. The verdict from the hotline agents that I spoke to is that it doesn't matter HOW MUCH FP I put inside the hose end canister, the canister will only dispense the amount of FP per gallon in accordance to what I have the measurement set on the dial. So, if I set the dial at 1 tbsp, it doesn't matter if I only fill up the canister with very little FP, or if I fill it up to the very top, it will still only dispense 1 tbsp per gallon the entire time I am using the water hose.

Now, using the hose end sprayer is best suited for those that need a lot of gallons of water to water all of their trees. A person with only two small citrus trees should stick to just using the watering can because it is just so easy to measure out a single tbsp into the watering can per gallon. However, a person who has giant trees or several trees would benefit from using the hose end sprayer because it means that they can put enough FP into the canister without having to worry about constantly refilling the watering can and remeasuring out another tbsp each time the watering can is refilled. If there is leftover FP left in the canister after spraying all trees, they can just pour the excess FP back into the FP container as it would not be diluted. I did like that the FP agent cautioned me about overwatering my trees to where they might develop root rot. Once I told her that I used the 511 mix, she said "oh, you got this!"

Atheen, thank you for your response. I have a question for you. You said "Per tree, I use a little less than a Tbsp of foliage pro every other day, with a tsp of white vinegar, in half a gallon of water." Are all of your trees and containers relatively the same size? Since you use that recipe *per tree,* I just wondered if your tree and container sizes do not vary.

Laura, ugh, too bad about your NZL. I'm glad to hear that it is recovering. My mom has one; she's had it for a couple years I think and it is about 5 feet tall or so; It has a bunch of little lemons on it now. You know, my mom is very minimalistic when it comes to her trees (she has several of them on her land in Texas) and all she uses is the "shake and feed" Miracle Gro fertilizer. I don't know how she does it; she gives them minimal attention (she definitely lets nature just take its course) and they all seemingly fruit without much care (although I don't think that hers are as green and glossy as yours are, Laura!).

Figs, GREAT work!! I had no idea either! I am so glad you shared this info...Now I can be even happier knowing that is what mine was doing all this time...Thanks you..It is so much easier to use the nose end sprayer when all the trees are out!

Yes Mike, we are all here to learn from each other! Now, my next step is to figure out if I can use FP for my other container trees and not just citrus. In containers, I have three avocados, three mangos, several dragon fruit, two pomegranates, and my big eureka lemon. It would be so easy to just walk with the hose and the hose end sprayer and apply FP to ALL of those container trees in a single transaction. I have in-ground trees: a new Meyer lemon, a mango, and lots of bananas. I still need to figure out fertilizing regimens for those, but.. baby steps! Slowly but surely, I am gaining knowledge. I feel confident enough to go and buy my second container citrus, a lime tree. This is my bday month so I will be sure to drop hints around the house accordingly : )

Figs, of course you can...I would use it for everything if I could afford it..It's expensive so that is why I leave the Miracle Grow for my perennials and annuals...I use the Foliage Pro on every living other plant I own..That includes, Hoya, potted houseplants, orchids, all tropical plants. figs, citrus trees and all cactus and succulents...They all thrive on Foliage Pro. Do you grow any Hoya? If not, what's preventing you!!? I would have the most fragrant plants all over the place if I lived there! No wasted space..The only plants I have that are not fragrant are the simple House Plants which everyone has just to cover the spaces that are not already taken..lol The areas with no direct sun.

For my in ground plants..All I really have to do is top dress with decomposed manure and I spray everything down with Fish Emulsion in that nose end sprayer...You actually don't need cow anything..Just Fish Emulsion does the trick..All my perennials, shrubs, trees and annuals grow so much better than anyone else's in my neighborhood...

Figs that's great to know!!! I will try it now that I know how it works! Mike, so you spray your perennials with FE also? I don't do much for them, but perhaps I'll start.

I wanted to clarify this comment that I made above since a classmate of mine (lurker, not a poster!) asked. Hi : )

RE: "she gives them minimal attention (she definitely lets nature just take its course) and they all seemingly fruit without much care"

I didn't mean that nature naturally makes her trees awesome without much care, I meant that she lets nature take its course, meaning the leaves have pest chew marks, doesn't prune, etc. Her trees, despite not having lots of attention, still fruit. I was poking fun at myself saying that her attitude is very laid back, whereas I am making every effort to learn the right way to do things, and she's the one with tons of fruit!

Mike, I don't really have a desire to grow any fruits or plants unless they will eventually provide fruit one day. At the risk of sounding selfish, I just don't feel a desire to put so much time, effort, etc. into any other types of plants. Don't get me wrong, I (we) do appreciate beautiful flowers, plants, and trees.. we often go to the botanical gardens and we know all of the locations throughout the island where all the neat plants and trees grow! My daughter has been "hugging" the same rainbow eucalyptus tree since she was little, we practically camped out when our botanical gardens' corpse flower bloomed, and we have traveled to California for the sole purpose of visiting General Sherman, the world's largest tree!

However, there is just something so rewarding and satisfying about growing and eating your own fruit. My son is 10 and he's my all-around fruit buddy, my reviewer and critic.. and my daughter is just bananas over the bananas! Also, it is so cute to see my husband just agonize over when the dragon fruit will fruit and be ready. Not to mention, growing and properly tending to plants can be expensive, I'd rather spend only on fruiting trees and plants and their care. Gardening is a very recent hobby of mine and my interest was only piqued when we bought this house and it came with the Eureka, which was just about dead. My #1 "hobby" since my husband and I had children is travel, and every month most of my "have fun money" is saved for our next trip. You should have seen how hard I cringed when I bought all of that reptibark for my huge eureka container. I have considered getting a couple of gardenias because those are really fragrant, but I have never taken the plunge!

Figs, I understand about the fruiting plants. I am very much like you. I have such little space...although I would love to have various gardens - flowers, herbs, etc...I can only fit in so many plants....fruit trees take priority in my house also.

I wish I had the time for more plants. I would love to grow some of the exotics in addition to my orchids. But I have a 20X40 ft garden to tend to, 2 hives and a job. I have not had time for my two other hobbies of repairing old clocks and restoring tube radios.

I hear ya Figs...Everyone, I know it can be time consuming to care for more than one can handle..

I guess I ask because all the plant I do have I grow for fragrance..Not fruit. There is not many around my area worth growing any for...So I should say that the majority of the plants I do grow smell good..I have not got one orchid that does not smell good, nor one grown in ground tree or shrub. All perennials smell good...All annuals smell good. So I can understand the concept of growing tree for fruits

I just used my hose sprayer tonight and think I figured out how to get the concentration correct. It is not exactly like yours, but it was explained on the container. I had some leftover in the container, but I had mixed it with water (as per the instructions). Mike, if you see this, can I let that FE sit with the FP for a couple of days till I need it again?

I don't think so Laura. It really begins to smell even if you forget to wash out the sprayer.

Cory

Ugh...thanks Cory. I'll wash it out now. I may just water all the plants in my front yard with it so it does not go to waste.

Laura, I think the bottle says to use the amount you have made, the F.E bottle that is..It can stink really bad once it sits for a while and the smell can soak into the plastic...I'm not sure if a ready made mix of Foliage Pro can sit for days...That's a great question..I will look into it for you)

So I opened it up and it smelled no different than last night. I added some HO to the mix and sprayed all my front yard...figs, ornamentals...it was fine. I washed out the sprayer well just now. I just did not want to waste it all and it only sat maybe 12 hours....

Good Laura, glad you figured out the hose end sprayer. I will use mine tonight; I am so excited! Eventually, I will work my way up to also using FE. However, I'm worried that my cat will eat my plants! I've never had a problem with her messing with any of my trees. The only damage she does is when she "runs" up (and scratches) several feet of trunk on our mature palm trees when she's attempting to reach birds.

Mike and Vladimir, nice, both of you guys grow orchids. We have lots of orchid growers here. I often see advertisements for shows, meetings, etc. Vladimir, you mentioned exotics. I always get emails from Logee's saying they have rare and hard to find plants. Earlier this year, I was intrigued because I noticed they sell the corpse flower. Not sure if you're familiar, but it takes about 10 yrs or so for a corpse flower to bloom (it is one of the largest flowers in the world; flowers are over 6 feet, leaves can get over 10 feet!) and when it does, the flower is only open from 12-24 hours. Record lengths are at the maximum 48 hours. Anyhow, wow, what neat project it would be to be able to grow something like that. Yes, it really does stink that bad. I mentioned earlier that I took my kids to go see one that bloomed at one of our botanical gardens. Ha ha, it really is a big deal when one blooms; the TV news crews were there and everything! The garden had extended hours during those two days. My kids really enjoyed taking dramatic "wow, that stinks" photos. Mike, can you imagine that rotting flesh stench overtaking all of your fragrant flowers?!

Figs, I am aware of the corpse flower. There are two places in Mass. that had one bloom and both were covered on TV. I also read about it in the Wall Street Journal decades ago.

Vladimir, I just wanted to share since you mentioned exotics, and it is the only exotic that I know. Wow, isn't it great that even the WSJ talked about it? I think that flower is so neat!!

I'll let everyone know how my hose end sprayer FP application went : )

Figs, your nose end sprayer will do just fine! Wait till you see how fun it is to use it and see everything get nice and wet and evenly covered! If you cat is anything like mine, it will run in the other direction..For some reason mines likes the smell of dead real fish, not that stuff.lol I did hear about that flower.. I have never smelled one but I cam close to growing one..Boy, does it take patience and a heck of a lot of years to wait..Let's see, I'd be 40 by the time it flowered..lol I LOVE LOGEE"S since I go there at least twice a year, but I always have to watch for bugs with them. In fact, I just ordered another plant from them and should receive it by tomorrow..I can't wait/..I LOVE orchids, the unusual ones..The Monky Orchid..Have you ever seen one before? How about some of the most fragrant in the world..Those I have...Have you ever heard of the Mauwi Orchid supply place? They sell all over E-bay... I love teh ones that are so fragrant, they leave you almost high..Figs, I wish I had garden centers like that around here. I would spend hours and money in them if I did, and get pretty jealous that I can't grow them in such huge places like they do..I once when into a huge nursery here, ceilings 30 feet high, that I was so depressed for weeks..I almost wanted to give up on mine..( They had ll the sun and room to grow whatever they wanted...If I could turn my whole yard into a greenhouse, I would.....But I would have to consider selling plants to make up for the cost of running one..I have always dreamed of my own business...

What a beautiful flower..Considering my Mother just had to be rushed to the Hospital, it made me smile you sharing..Thank you)

Ps..Th name of that Orchid place I get mines from is called...Kawamoto Orchids!!

Oh Mike, I am so sorry to hear about your mom. You are such a wonderful son and so caring. Does she share your gardening enthusiasm? Both of you will be in my prayers.

Yes!! The monkey orchid is beautiful! I have not seen them in person, but I am curious to see them, in addition to the bee orchid and egret orchid. I have not heard of the orchid supply store that you mentioned, but a lot of the nurseries have lots of products... I'll be sure to keep my eyes open for anything unusual. I'm sure that you will have your dream greenhouse one day. You are young; start saving every penny for it now!

Sorry to hear your mother is in the hospital again Mike. Sending her my prayers.

Cory

Prayers for your mom Mike. I hope she recovers soon. Figs...let us know how your spraying went!

Sorry about your mom being in the hospital, Mike. Sending her my prayers.

Thanks agin guys...She took a hard fall while I was at work..She tripped over a tarp I forgot to roll up in the driveway...I'm so mad at myself...She cracked her nose and her whole face is black and blue. Lip swollen and she bled a slot..She's sitting here with me after a few hours at the hospital and she says thank you so much for caring..Thanks to all!

Mike So sorry about your Mom...she's lucky to have such a caring son! Hugs to you both and hope she feels better soon!!

I'm glad she is home now Mike.

Oh wow Mike, that must've been a hard fall. Your poor mom, I hope the pain does not last too long. I know you feel guilty Mike, but it was an accident.

Well, I tried the sprayer. I loved being able to put enough FP in the container and not have to worry about refilling the watering can, especially for the large Eureka container. I used the sprayer for all of my trees, not just the citrus.

The nozzle had three settings: flat spray, bullet spray, and gentle shower. The first setting, the flat spray is definitely not to be used for my (our) purpose; it is meant for lawn fertilization to cover a very large area. The second setting, bullet spray was waay too strong and when I aimed the stream into a container, the mix would just fly everywhere because it was essentially that, a bullet spray. Finally, the third setting, the gentle spray was my favorite, but the radius circle of water that was dispensed from the nozzle was very wide and there wasn't an option to make it smaller. I have a tiny mango in a 12 inch pot and the spray from the gentle shower setting was much too wide for such a small pot- it was at least twice as wide as the little pot. I do have a few more trees in slightly bigger pots, a mango and and two avocados. The water shower was still too wide for even these slightly larger container sizes. If it was just water alone, then I don't think I would have noticed (or cared) that much, but because it was a FP/water mixture, I noticed how much FP water was just being wasted because the shower setting water circle coming out of the nozzle was just too large!

So, I think that I will browse and search the market for a really good hose end sprayer. I hope to get lucky and find one with several spray settings to choose from. My container sizes vary too much; I have little ones and I have an avocado and the eureka that are in pots that are just too big. The water coverage area for the shower setting on the sprayer ended up wasting too much FP water mix, in my opinion. I don't mind using the watering can and I will use it until (if) I can find a better sprayer. I do like the convenience of the sprayer, but I will give up the convenience if it means that I am wasting $ on FP water that is not being fed to my trees.

I have one that got high reviews on amazon that you can control the strength - not the type of stream. It worked fine for my smaller pots because I just reduced the spray. However, you need to add water to it based on how many gallons you estimate you will need. It is not hard to figure out though, but as I mentioned, I did have some leftover mix that I ended up spraying on my front, in-ground trees. I am sure they are happy though...here's a pic...

Thank you Laura, it would help to be able to reduce the spray on the nozzle. I suppose I could go back to my spicket and reduce it there, but still. Lol, we're busy moms; I don't see a mess!

Hi Figs, what if you get something like this: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Melnor-Metal-Hose-Shut-Off-395S/203136689?cm_mmc=Shopping%7cTHD%7cG%7c0%7cG-BASE-PLA-D28I-InsideGardenOther%7c&gclid=CMPQjd6nys8CFcImhgodurEFoQ&gclsrc=aw.ds

And attach it between the hose and the hose end sprayer. You can then use it to control the rate of flow. You might want to spend a little more money and get one that is easier to work with.

Thank you Vladimir! Great find!