7 Citrus Tree Mistakes to Avoid 

My grandfather was a citrus nurseryman in Florida. He always said "First year sleep, second year creep, third year leap." He'd pinch off all the fruits the first year, let his 2cd year citrus grow one, maybe two fruits, and then the third year let 'er rip for a huge harvest off of healthy trees. He said it was like having babies before you were fully grown-- you don't want to stunt their growth!

Even if you do make a few of these mistakes, don't give up! I planted a meyer lemon tree in my front yard about 10 years ago, but only really start to take my garden seriously about 3 years ago. The lemon tree was kind of sad and thin looking, but with better care and feeding it looks great now. Random people walking by will comment on it, and I'll leave the extra fruit that I don't think I can use out for the neighbors to take.

Love Citrus Trees, everyone should grow some if they have any room at all, a tree for life. Nice Video

We close on our first house next week and one of the first things I’m doing is planting citrus trees! I’m very excited

This last winter in Houston it plunged to around 15. I wrapped a citrus, about 4' to 5' in tent made of blankets and placed 2 light bulbs in special sockets underneath. It survived several days of the cold without any apparent ill effects and continued growing vigorously when the weather warmed.

I've pruned plenty of fruit trees, you are not just allowing airflow, you also allow light to areas that otherwise would be shaded. Best time to prune is right after harvest, and take off sucker branches on the inside up to flowering. Giving your trees light and air energy will increase fruit production and stronger branches for bigger fruit.

Great video Kevin! One other mistake I’d add is not removing rootstock suckers from the base of the tree. Most citrus is grafted and the rootstock can easily take over a young tree and suck energy from the scion you wanted if they aren’t removed. Thanks for your great content, love your videos and channel.

I live in New York but my grandpa in Florida grew the BEST citrus I have ever seen and tasted. Brings back memories!

I live in zone 9a/b and the Christmas lights have literally saved my plants during a hard freeze or lengthy frost. I'm not sure how much they can help in colder climates, but they do work to push the temps up just a few degrees above freezing.

I live in New England and have one Citrus tree indoors for the winter. It seems to be doing well. Had to get a better grow light, but it’s better than the tree stressing and losing leaves.

Florida gardener here! Great video on citrus! Love love your channel!

BEST TIMING FOR THIS VIDEO !!! I have sooo many citrus trees and I’m overwhelmed. I’ve been in over my head in charge of a giant tropical garden 😭 THANK YOUU !

One thing about container citrus that differs is that you do want to open up the centre by pruning a bit, because if you're keeping it inside, it won't be getting as much airflow and will be more susceptible to mold issues, scale, etc. At least that's what I've found. Even if it's not as good for the tree, it's much easier to maintain if/when you do get something like scale that you need to reach in to deal with to keep the tree healthy. Just picked my first lemon of the season yesterday in Ontario Canada! 7 more pretty much ripe, 11 more green on the way, and it's currently blooming again lol.. not bad for a 4 foot tall, 4 foot wide tree in a pot! Oh and 7 green oranges and new blossoms on my orange tree (harvested I think 4 oranges a few weeks ago, smaller tree than the lemon) Love love love love love growing citrus up north - nothing beats the smell!! Both the flowers and the leaves!!

I did what everyone said not to and started citrus from seed, growing fast and can’t wait till my four pomelo trees fruit:)

I bought a couple of citrus trees in late November and there already producing more than 20 fruits per tree. I have no idea how or why so fast, but I'm happy.

I really liked this video! I live in zone 7b Oklahoma and have several citrus trees. I wish that I could plant them in the ground, but sometimes it gets too cold, just like a few weeks ago it was -4 degree F with the wind gusts. I’m afraid that even with all of that winter protection they would die. I keep them in a heated greenhouse over the winter and take them out when days and nights are above 60 degrees F. Please try to post more videos about citrus care when you have some time 😀🙏🍋🍊

Love your channel. Thanks for tips on colder climates!

Citrus has been something I’ve been wanting to get into. This was helpful 💪🏼

I am really enjoying all your videos. I have started growing all sorts of plants inside right now getting ready for spring to get a garden going and also some citrus! Also Growing my first batches of microgreens!

OMG Kevin! I have been pruning my citrus wrong this entire year. 🙈🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️ thank you for this video.

Hey hey I saw your other video. Not only can you eat the sweet potatoes, the leaves taste great too! You just need to cook them with a bit of garlic and they will become very soft. Great source of nutrition and fiber. And they grow super fast.

Really appreciate you addressing growing citrus for those of us living in cold climates. I was indeed thinking, 'Wow Kevin, must be nice...' :D

If you wrap the tree with lights they must be the old-school type, as of course LED lights don’t put off much heat to have any benefit. Cheers!

Great video, thank you for sharing, keep and enjoy the fruits

Live in Missouri and remember my grandparents had an orange tree in a pot that bore fruit around Christmas. It was about 3 feet tall and my grandpa was so proud. Almost 40 years ago. I hated the spikes. Lol good memories

Lol 😂 Kevin feeling all our our beady eyes staring him down as we sit here and freeze in 20 degree weather. I’m watching this with a heated blanket on my lap. Great video as always!

Great tips, thanks for sharing! Looks like you may need to treat for leaf miners as well. Happy harvest!

0:47 Man even just hearing that sweet sweet pond in the background relaxes me.

I live on the East Bay in Rhode Island (zone 7). I have two Tri-foliate "Hardy Orange" trees in my yard, both are over 15 years old. The trees are no more than 4 feet tall. They are both in areas of the yard that are a little more protected from the winter gales. This past year, I got a bumper crop of citrus off of them (about a quarter bushel of oranges) and I made, what I call "Marmalade not for the faint of heart". Some years, I get no to little fruit, last year was exceptional. The fruit also makes for a wonderful bitters for a martini! A few seasons ago, I found Tri-foliate "Hardy Grapefruit" trees, but they were just a little too young to plant outside. I have one that is pot-bound and perhaps in another season, I will find it a home outside. Looking forward to getting fruit off that! So YES! You CAN grow citrus in New England!!!

Thanks for sharing Kevin, I have citrus growing right now, lets see how it turns out!

Coming back to this vid when I finally get critrus trees. Thanks so much!

i'm in north mexico, and I want to plant a lot of citrus too 😍 as of now I only have calamansi! Philippine lime/lemon 😜

Thinking about getting into citrus cultivating for commercial purpses. Subbed!

Good tips and in the uk at the moment it’s -1 and my citrus trees are in a greenhouse with candles keeping them warm 🥰 but I am always happy with your advice 👍

I absolutely adore citrus and am so happy growing them in our bay area garden! They bring so much joy and excellent nutritious treat in winter! I hope your citrus wall grows nicely and fills out to the beautiful edible green garden wall that you desire! I have the same thing growing along my west facing fence line and so far so good! The Eureka lemon has really taken off. I highly recommend growing Eureka Lemons they will shock you with the major growth they can obtain in just 1 year! Loving our Washington Navel as well sweet as can be in March here in bay area weather. When do your oranges ripen up there near to San Diego? Ok see you around the garden for now. Best of joy, luck and faith in the garden!

Great info and timing I just got my Calmondin here in zone 7

Dollar Tree had 2022 heirloom veggie, herb, and flower seed packets 25 Cents today at my local store in AZ. Big variety. May or may not be in every Dollar Tree but worth looking for if you have a Dollar Tree store near you.

Thanks for another great video!

I live in a subtropical climate. Nobody prunes their lemon or oranges trees. The trees fruit well but I have to admit that it is a bit hard to harvest due to the branches and hight. I just bought a lemon tree and I plant to prune it. Great video I am gonna follow your tips. Thanks ☺️👍

Hope you see this as I'd love some advice. I have two trees that I'm about to pull my hair out over. I live in the central coast area which is usually death to citrus as we have cold winters but I have a beautiful west-facing courtyard enclosed on three sides that my dwarf lemon and dwarf grapefruit (large container potted) love. They're doing beautifully. Except for the *bleepbleep* scale I have on the grapefruit. I want to prune and thin out the grapefruit so I can more easily spray for the scale which hides on the underside of the leaf but now I'm not sure. I'd love some expert advice and suggestions on how to deal with the pest in more organic, less potentially harmful way. Second problem: My mom got a baby cara cara orange that she was planning to container grow the same as my lemon and grapefruit but it did not love the winter. My parents don't have my sheltered courtyard and the cara cara suffered for it. It still has a green trunk but lost all of the leaves. We move it to my courtyard, I gave it a small sprinkle of citrus fertilizer and positioned to get max sun while staying out of any wind or cold and I'm going to cross my fingers. The lemon sprang back for a worse case--although I may have rescued the root stock-- so I'm tentatively hopeful. Any other advice on how to rescue a seriously stressed and dying citrus tree would be awesome. Thank you for your consideration and thank you for such accessible videos.

Very informative Sir! Thank you Sir!

I'm glad I'm not the only one that feels hurt when removing fruit and/or pruning! :-)

I put C9 xmas lights on all my citrus. Being in south carolina, the night temp can get down to 15F and with xmas lights and a frost blanket I can keep the temperatures above freezing IF you wrap them before sunset.

You will like Oro Blanco. Grapefruit/pommelo cross, super sweet large fruit.

“Not on my watch!” Lol!! Another informative straight to the points video. Killing the video game Kevin!

Sweet! Love your channel.

I just bought a lemon tree yesterday! It'll be living in a pot on my patio/drive way

Typo in the thumbnail, excited for the vid I've been wondering about the tree hedge

Great video. I have five citrus trees around my property and all have some sort of citrus leafminer damage. I was told by my local nursery that the only thing you can really do is just let it run its course. What do you recommend?

Loved this video!

I've used the christmas tree lights, the C4 incandescent ones to protect my citrus here in the Santa Clara valley and it does work. Now I'm just using frost cover. My citrus are all in containers too and because I have no indoors to move them into and they are over 3ft tall and heavy besides I use the covers.

Thanks Kevin, first here on your IRIE channel and so appreciate your kind and professional help, we have a Yellow Grapefruit Tree, about the size of yours, and doing my research here on RU-vid the black sooty mold it has is due to insect infestation, well I have the remedy now but my chalan(helper)pruned it taking off a significant amount of greenery, creating more airflow, after seeing how your grapefruit is "bushy looking", I just hope ours isn't affected negatively by this imprudent pruning. Thanks for sharing, 👍and greetings 👋from Querétaro! 🤠

A note on the Christmas lights-don't use the LED ones. They don't put off enough heat. They're also acceptable for keeping your oil from freezing if you don't have a head bolt heater on your car and you live in the north. Just like them up and stick them on your engine overnight.

Thank you for sharing.

My Lemon tree ended up with an open canopy because of my constant battle with Citrus Leaf Miners, I've been told a lot that an open canopy is the best way to go, I'll start training it to fill in the middle if that's the case, I can do a bit of scarring in the middle branches 👍

I live in Florida and miss our citrus trees. We had two lemon trees and a tangerine tree and they all succumbed to citrus greening disease (HLB).

You can get row cover bags for fitting over trees.

Wish we had the climate for them here they look awesome 👏

Great info as usual. I think if using Christmas lights they must be incandescent not LED.

Thank-you great understanding of citrus ,plants ,new sub

You're right Kevin, I am bitter about you being able to Harvest Citrus in early January. 😠 My citrus trees are inside my back bedroom starving for light. 😳I'm going to be adding a plant light today! I'm hoping they will make it till warmer weather. 😠🌱🍋 I'm so glad to see your homestead growing in Leaps and Bounds!😇🌈🌱

Hi there new listener of your podcast and I had a couple of questions I was wondering if you could answer them on there. 1. Growing and selling seedlings. When do I start them so they’re not too big or too small to sell when it’s time to plant? 2. If I grow asparagus bean (very underrated plant) near bush beans will they create a hybrid? 3. Could you put silica packets with your seeds when saving them to keep them dry?? Or would they get too dry/altered?

Great information. What to do with a citrus that is grown in a pot as espalier as far as keeping interior dense canopy? As far as grow lights for vegetables like lettuce my question here to you is : Is the grow light harmful to the nutrients derived by the plant and would it still be considered organic at this point? 🍋

Great video thanks

Like with many plants, especially those for their flowers, it is best to have the plant grow more leaves. Flowers and fruits can take up a lot of the plant's energy which may slow down its growth overall.

The Moro Blood Orange is a difficult one to grow here in Zone 10b. I have the same problems. I have the leaf curl, had leaf miners, white flys, scale etc and ants eating honey dew (which create the black mold) etc. If you get leaf miners (which could happen) hit them with Neem oil a couple times before gets too bad. I am curious to see how many fruit you get off it because mine here at the beach has not fruited in 3 years. Maybe to much overcast here. Your area might be better without ocean too close.

watching people who live in warm environments makes me sooo jealous lol. up here in minneapolis apples are pretty much the only fruit tree game in town. jonathans are tastey at least...

I'm in San Diego as well. My orange tree (that we guess at least to be 40 years old) is absolutely loaded! Tried one orange almost 2 weeks ago before harvesting, still wasn't very sweet. Left them on the tree. When is the best time for oranges here in SD to be picked? I had to prune a branch back at non optimal timing due to the weight of the branch, I was worried it was going to snap off, it was hitting the fence and extending over sidewalk. I didn't count them all, but over 50 was my count on the one branch. Tree is so loaded with fruit. Planted a meyer lemon and sweet lime in the spring and totally made the mistake of not taking enough of the fruit off. Took some, but definitely not enough, hoping they make it

I noticed my orange and lime trees grow best when short, stubby, and narrow. Prune it back after the fruit ripens and all fruit is picked off. Remove dead branches. If the trees’ height is 6 feet, prune it to 5 feet.

Every video including agricultural/farming videos I watched had advised on thinning the interior for citrus tree including mandarin tree.

Dang! I cut out a bunch of internal crossing branches on my lemon after watching your Loquat pruning video.

nhìn cây trĩu quả mê quá

The pruning tip has really thrown me off. I live in the newly classified Zone 9A on the Alabama Gulf Coast where it is very hot and steamy. Local nurseries instruct us to prune the interior around the trunk and main stem for air flow. BTW, XMAS lights under a planket really does work.

Thanks for sharing 🙏 😎 🏖 🏝

Nice video👍👍

Lol I've made a couple but not bad. Thoughts on trying out same paw paw fruits they are temprit and can take heat up to 105 and down to -20

I was waiting for a follow up and tips

Thanks!

Wow. I've always been told (by lemon tree growers) that I SHOULD prune the inside to get airflow & more blossoms & fruit. It's only a 4ft tree, but I usually get over 30 lemons. So you're saying that I should let the interior grow !

Thanks for another useful video. I have to bring in my citrus in the fall. Could you suggest a good way to get ants and pill bugs out of the pots before bringing in?

Try the four season ctrus tree, it give fruit almost all over the year , thank you for the information

Xmas lights work. I use them for my citrus trees in a much colder climate with the combination of the agrilcloth like 4-6C more than outside. Just be careful that lights arent LED those don't give off much if at all any heat.

BRO! Lots of good looking growth in a year! A quick note on the Christmas Lights for winter warmth - a a strand of mini-lights is perfect, but make sure you're using a strand with incandescent and not LED bulbs. The incandescents could add a few degrees of temp boost, but LEDs run cool and won't add any meaningful heat. Best combo is put on christmas lights and wrap your tree to keep in the warmth!

Thanks. I have only one orange tree for now. Next will be lemon. I have like 10 oranges on my tiny orange tree. I did not know i should have removed them but now it is too late - they are all ripe now

I wish I had the space for that many citrus trees! Excited to see yours grow! It looks like you have a leaf miner problem though. I released some Diglyphus isaea parasitic wasps that go for the miners and put out some leafminer traps on our trees.

Hi Epic Gardening!, Can I use wood ash as fertilizer under my citrus but not too much to keep pH under control?, thank you.

I had a beautiful, bountiful Meyer lemon tree. I basically ignored it except for fertilizer twice a year

we recently planted orange, lemon, naartjie, 2 x lime varieties. they are slow growing compared to the lemon which self seeded in our water from sink run off area....... it's massive.

Older Christmas lights will put out far more heat then any of the modern LED ones so keep that in mind if trying to Christmas light method.

Great point…It’s more about avoiding mistakes!! Awesome tips on citrus!! My Meyer’s Lemon tree will appreciate my new knowledge when trimming it!!🪱🪱🪱

I have much of the same leaf miner damage and curling leaves on my new citrus trees’ growth that I see on your tree too. Do you prune those warped leaves/branches all off or just prune for the normal dead, diseased and crossing branches?

Hey Kevin i realy enjoy your videos, I am a big fan and a little envious of you climate. You a a big citrus fan, so am I. The 2 i like rhe most are the “ugly” and the “pomelo” have ever seen them or heard of them. They are delicious. I would like to know more about them. Loving wishes aya

Hello, new to this channel. Have you done a video on Nasturtiums? Last year I planted a single seed in a cinder block and they grew like ten feet tall and climbed the shed. I've read that they are good for compost and food. Anything else?

Hi Kevin, great video. My citrus trees have turned into giant shrubs (foreign property) with many stocks. Do I leave it or cut it back to one center stock?

Hey, what do you do if you got started late in your season? I didn't get my house til now but I am worried its too hot to plant a citrus tree. Should I wait until next season or just plop in and take care of it?

It's interesting that you've mulched right up to the trunk of the citrus. I've seen other gardeners comment that you want mulch far away from the trunks of citrus. I saw one even say out to the drip line (but compost or wormcastings in the inner area was ok). What do you think?

My lemon tree is putting on loads of fruit here in the winter in the uk in a north facing window 🤣 granted it is one of the hardiest lemon trees, im just taking from it that its happy

My lemons and lime trees are indoors (I'm from NY)super sunny morning/ early afternoon sun all the leaves are falling off 😭 and the flowers are drying up and falling off. I have some really small fruits that have been there a while and some flowers in different stages.the trees are going on 2 years old.

New subscriber here! I want to grow a garden this year. The only spot I have is facing East. I know, you’ve mentioned the direction of your garden is vital to the success of it. Do you think East facing would be good still?

Hi, I'm currently growing some lemon plants from seeds. I'm wondering if there's a point you pinch out or prune as they're growing to get more robust growth? Or just let it be what it is for a while? I'm in the UK and it's still cold, so the seedlings are in the kitchen for now 😁👍