Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design Re: What's eating our orange tree? and OMG WHAT'S THIS?! 21Feb 01, 2011 1:19 pm I'll post a link on pruning citrus maybe tonight. Re: What's eating our orange tree? and OMG WHAT'S THIS?! 22Feb 01, 2011 2:28 pm edit: tee hee, took me so long to post my reply whilst dealing with toddler & baby lunch and naps that Fu beat me His link will no doubt have a lot more detail, so I'm going to have a look at that later. With lemons, Peter Cundall says to prune back dead wood whenever you see it. I've read that you should skirt prune (i.e. the lower branches particularly if touching the ground - to prevent disease and insects spreading into the tree from rotting fruit etc on the ground) every 2-3 years. Aim for clearance of around 75cm below the tree if it's a mature one. Depending on what type of orange you have, this might mean that you lose some crop when doing it because some of them fruit twice per year and you wouldn't be able to avoid cutting this. March is okay for this. Only top prune when needed (like when you're trying to rejuvanate an old tree and let more light in) and that should be done in November, so that the new growth isn't affected by any frosts (if you get them!), and because actively growing trees heal faster. You'd cut out any branches growing in on themselves, I guess the ones twisting into the tree. I don't know how well the tree was cared for before you got custody, but our lemon was seriously neglected and needed some major top pruning to remove branches from the centre and let light in. We've also skirt pruned it, but left some branches there so our daughters can reach it to pick the fruit. There was lots of dead wood too and we removed any branches that were broken by the weight of the fig tree which had grown into it, or were damaging our back fence. So, all in all, it got a hard prune. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed and hope it now produces lots of fruit like your orange has!! Re: What's eating our orange tree? and OMG WHAT'S THIS?! 23Feb 01, 2011 4:43 pm Thanks, guys We got the custody of the tree in mint condition, and just as fruit was finishing ripening. Previous owners were just wonderful people (seniors ), old style and decent and took very good care of the whole property. I often wonder if they are still around ... maybe I should ring their bell one day as they had left us their new address - but that was so long ago ... I'm sure they would be sad to hear that our old house is no more as they brought up the family there and had it since new. Anyway, this is a very tasty navel orange. Only once it acquired a 'dead wood' branch, which we took care of timely. During the years in our "care", it was yielding less and less - until now. But to be honest, it wasn't getting too much care either, other than some root watering and ONLY once a year feed (I know citrus has to be fertilised about 4 times) and a nice wide clean garden bed (no grass) spreading as far as the canopy - except for this year when it's all been invaded! Also, no low branches at all, nice round shape, some amateuristic "pruning" (if it could be called that) to thin the canopy to get the air "in" and that's all. Oh, and getting the burning full sun all day for the last 2 seasons ... I wonder how/will it survive this current scorcher So I guess a few aphids and c'pillars so far is a pretty gentle "score" actually ... My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Re: What's eating our orange tree? and OMG WHAT'S THIS?! 24Feb 02, 2011 3:13 am Lex please forget the whole a fruit tree needs "fertilising 4 times a year with x type of fertiliser. Its crap. A pathway to problems Do the job all year with natural not yet broken down mulch like straw or tree lopper mulch to 10cm thick. molasses and compost teas. You can make them with a hessian bag, some compost or worm castings or a bag of poo. The results will be by far a heap better. Use this sort of stuff on them http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=havfmMw4GIc You can get Bactivate or Olsens Green Bio from most agricultural suppliers. http://www.agric.wa.gov.au/objtwr/impor ... gation.pdf http://www.agric.wa.gov.au/objtwr/impor ... 0_1995.pdf Very common on rendered homes Smaller suppliers get the lower quality raw materials 6 9058 Hi , I'm currently going through this now within the Whitehorse council which has a similar set of restrictions. We're having to make compromises with our floor plan due… 3 23563 |