Oh, the citrus we grow!

I know this is a blog about brewing beer, but I wanted to take a moment to discuss…gardening! Yes, gardening. Specifically, gardening for citrus trees. Mike and I have been fortunate to live in one of the best areas in the world to grow fruits and vegetables. Due to a long laundry list of hobbies, we have downsized our former orchard filled with 19 fruit trees to 7 citrus trees. When we planned a remodel of our small house and expanded our brewery, we decided to downsize our backyard orchard. Instead of devoting weekends to the garden, we wanted to spend less time in the garden while gaining more time for brewing. Citrus was the answer. We use citrus trees in cooking and brewing. The trees are easy to maintain and only need a little trimming for maintenance. We find that vermin stay out of the yard and the diseases they get are easy to manage and control. However, they do require a bit of planning to keep them in prime fruiting conditions.

Our Citrus Trees

Our original Moro Blood Orange that unfortunately died. It was the most beautiful tree!

Our new baby Moro blood orange. We have a few more years before we will get fruit.

Moro Blood Orange: Our personal favorite. The flavor is so unique. It is like an orange mixed with raspberry; there is even a little bit of the spicy flavor from the rind in the flesh. Blood oranges are very slow to fruit, so you will need to be patient with them. We had a large Moro Blood Orange that we had to relocate; unfortunately, the tree died. It took 8 years for the tree to produce, but it produced the largest crop of citrus. However, blood oranges fruit every other year so don’t plan on large crops every year. There are several varieties of blood oranges, but the Moro Blood Orange is the darkest fleshed orange that will grow in our area. In Northern California where they get a bit more cold in the winter, they have a Tarocco Blood Orange that is amazing and the most popular variety in Italy. ​

Our lime tree after heavy pruning.

Preying Mantis is protecting our lime tree from an aphid infestation.

Key Lime/Mexican Lime: Our lime tree is our oldest citrus tree and a reliable producer. The limes are flavorful and juicy. This tree would easily take over our yard if I let it. Our tree fruits year round and always seems to have limes on it. Fun fact: be careful of phytophotodermatitis. If you get the oils from lime trees on your skin and then the oil makes contact with the sun, you can get a third degree burn. Not everyone is susceptible to this, but I am. I have to wear long sleeves and pants when I cut back the lime tree branches or harvest the fruit. 

Our tangerine at the tallest we let it get.

Bees love citrus! We had a hive temporarily hang out in our clementine tree.

Algerian Clementine (aka Cuties): Our tangerine tree has the best fruit! It is a reliable producer every year, even though tangerine trees bear large crops every other year. Tangerines have a U shape to their trunk and have a tendency to fruit lopsided. Our tree grows fast and along with our lime tree, I cut this back after fruiting so that it doesn’t get overgrown. The blossoms smell amazing! The flesh is quite juicy, but I actually feel the peel of the fruit is really where the clementine shines. I have plans for a clementine beer next season. 

Our leaning Meyer lemon. You can see the white paint on the trunk needs to be repainted before summer. It also needs some fertilizer as the leaves are yellow and thin. However, it is starting to fruit!

Meyer Lemon: This is our fourth Meyer lemon tree. I am determined to get one to grow! For whatever reason, I find lemon trees the most finicky and susceptible to weather. My parents had a Meyer Lemon tree in the house I grew up in, and the lemon juice made the most incredible lemonade and desserts. The fruit is tart and sweet. They lend themselves to desserts and are prized by bakers. I have a thousand recipes I want to make with Meyer lemons, so I really need this tree to get going! I have a couple of small lemons on our tree. It looks a bit sad, but I am determined to get one to grow in my yard!

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Our Lisbon lemon has fruit in different stages...almost ripe lemons and green lemons. I need to even out the branch height, but I decided to let the tree keep fruiting. This was planted at the same time as the Meyer lemon in the same part of our yard.

Lisbon Lemon: Lisbon lemons are the lemons you buy in the grocery store. However, I find the grocery store lemons have a weird wax coating and flavor. There is something very pesticide tasting on them that I don’t like which is why I never have lemon in my water at restaurants. However, from our tree, the flavor from our Lisbon is great. It is a perfect workhorse lemon and perfect for adding to drinks and water. The only downside so far is that the tree has thorns…lots of thorns…lots of LARGE THORNS! Be careful when you pick the fruit off of the tree. So far, this is a heavy fruit bearer. I’m excited for the tree to get going!

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Valencia orange after a heavy prune and reshaping.

Valencia orange fully loaded with fruit!

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Valencia Orange: Valencia oranges are prized for their juice. They are the oranges that Sunkist juices for their orange juice. They are medium sized and produce large crops. We have a small juicer and juice these frequently. We have talked about making a juicy IPA with our Valencias, but we seem to end up drinking orange juice instead (well, and mimosas!). Here’s the electric juicer we have from Cuisinart, it works great and is only $30!

Rio Red grapefruit: We love pink grapefruits and were excited that we could find one that grew in our climate! We don’t get the freeze that Florida does, so grapefruits don’t often get enough cold for them to sweeten. Our tree is about 4 years old and this year we had 10 grapefruits. We are hoping to get a large crop in the next few years. I’m most excited to make a beer with these grapefruits once they get going.

​ **I forgot to take a picture before it got dark today. Oops. 

TREE CARE

Watering: Our citrus trees are established and have solid roots, so I don’t water them frequently. However, I have found the need to supplement watering during the hot summer months as we are in a drought. When citrus tree leaves curl, they need water. They do well with deep water and then let the soil dry out before watering again. Some citrus trees have taproots, but the majority of citrus tree roots are thin, woody horizontal roots that have hairy feeder roots off them. Their roots tend to lay close to the surface of the soil and overwatering can lead to root rot. Allow the soil to dry out between watering. I typically only water when the trees start flowering and only water on a regular schedule in the hottest times of the summer. 

Pruning: Citrus trees do need to be pruned to keep branches from crossing and causing damage. Keep the center of the tree open if you can to allow for air to flow through the trunk. Check regularly for dead branches and prune those back. Keep the trees small and encourage them to grow shorter rather than taller. Keeping the trees short allows you to pick the fruit from the ground vs having to use a ladder. Being that both Mike and I are over 6 feet tall, we typically stand next to the trees and extend our arms up…as tall as we can reach is the maximum height we allow the tree to reach. I cut back our citrus trees when they get taller than the maximum height. I actually believe keeping the trees shorter has helped them to produce such amazing fruit as the tree can devote more energy to fruiting rather than growing taller. 

Fertilizer: Citrus trees are heavy feeders, very heavy feeders. I tried to fertilize using only organic means, but I found that to be an ineffective and costly way to fertilize the trees. Typically, the trees require a pound of fertilizer for each year it has been planted. For example, a 5 year old tree needs approximately 5 pounds of fertilizer a year, a 6 year old tree needs approximately 6 pounds of fertilizer a year, and so on. A good schedule is to split the feedings over 3 times that are easy to remember and beneficial to fruit trees–Valentine’s Day, Memorial Day, and Labor Day. 

I use the following to fertilize my trees:

1. Miracle Gro for Acid Loving Plants (Miracid)
   
2. Alaska Fish Emulsion (spray on leaves)
   
3. Southern Ag Chelated Citrus Nutritional Spray (can be sprayed on or watered in; be careful if spraying on as it can stain). 
   
4. Bone Meal–I use this when I have a tree that is reluctant to flower or fruit.
   
5. Coffee grounds (add to soil around trees)--regularly
   
6. Eggshells–I add eggshells to the soil regularly. 
   
7. Fertilizer (chicken manure, bat guano, and cow manure)--I add this once a year or when my soil seems compacted.
   

Dealing with bugs:
I find that most issues that arise on citrus trees can be dealt with by spraying them with water. Black sooty mold is common in Southern California and develops when aphids or other bugs feed on the leaves. Aphids are also very common. You can control aphids by spraying them with a strong stream of water or spraying them with neem. Honestly, that’s about all I ever have to do is spray for aphids and sooty mold. Citrus trees that are healthy and dark green don’t tend to get many issues. Also, if you see ants in your tree, it is typically an indication that aphids have been feeding on the leaves. 

Painting trunks:
Citrus trees that are in sunny locations will thrive, but they will also benefit from an application of whitewashed latex paint to their trunks. Citrus bark is thin and easily sunburns. A bonus is that the paint also protects the trees from bugs that feed on the bark such as beetles. They make specific tree paint, but you can just dilute regular white latex paint with water to paint the trees. I reapply the paint yearly or whenever the tree has extensive new growth that is not covered by leaves from the sun. 

Weeds:
Be careful weeding around citrus trees since the roots are so close to the surface. I try to leave the soil as undisturbed as possible. I do, however, pull weeds when they appear. As much as possible, try not to disturb the soil unless you have to.

Resources

Most cities offer gardening courses and actually have some great money saving deals. Socal Water Smart has rebates on rain barrels. Mike and I were able to purchase four rain barrels with rebates. We water our backyard plants using the water we collect. After our last rain, we now have 4 full barrels of water again. Los Angeles County also has multiple Smartgardening workshops. The classes also give you the opportunity to learn about composting and vermicomposting. At the workshops, you can buy composters and worm bins at a discount price. I attended several gardening workshops through Los Angeles County and found them all extremely beneficial. They were well worth the money and time.  Our trash is collected by Edco that now has green waste recycling. Through their program, you can request a free countertop composting bin. However, I will give you one bit of advice. Be careful with the County provided free mulch. The mulch is not sifted through and often has bottle caps and glass. Also, my neighbor as used the free mulch and ended up bringing in grubs and nutsedge. If you don't know what nutsedge is, you are incredibly lucky! I'm not sure napalm could get rid of it! Be sure to sift the mulch if you use the city mulch...you will be thankful!

If you are interested in growing citrus or other trees in a small garden, I highly recommend researching backyard orchards. The suggestion is to plant trees 6’ on center. I have done this with our trees and find that we get plenty of variety of fruit in a small area. Also, keeping the fruit trees smaller allows the trees to produce better fruit and for us to utilize the fruit we have instead of having tons of fruit that spoils. For more information, this article from Dave Wilson Nursery has a lot of information.

Happy gardening! We’d love to hear what you are growing in your yard and how you plan on using it in your beer! Cheers!
2JBC