Get That Garden Growing - Winning Tips
Lemon Tree MaintenanceHints from Ruud Kleinpaste given on his weekly gardening show at Newstalk ZB. Ruud has been a longtime supporter of the Wet & Forget organic products.
Lemon Tree Maintenance - Ruud's advice
- Lemons love a warm, sheltered spot in full sun – protected from wind - usually not good with heavy frosts. (Meyer lemons possibly a few degrees below zero).
- Protect the trees from heavy frosts with frost-cloth or grow them in a large pot that can be moved under frost shelter!
- Most citrus varieties are gross feeders – honestly: they’ll reward you with lots of fruit if you fertilise at least THREE TIMES per growing season (Oct – Dec – March) with a general fertiliser perhaps with some added sulfate of POTASH; “little and often” is the mantra.
- Good MULCH (past the drip-line), keep watered; they hate drought!
- They’re not good with root competition/crowding; (shallow rooters); keep grass away, especially Kikuyu.
- Pollination is usually not a problem; most varieties are “self-fertile” but watch Meyer Lemons: when they are grown near a “seedless” orange, there will be pips – often heaps of them!
- Fruit maintenance: Don’t let young trees set too many fruit – prune some off to let the framework develop. Next year, let a few more grow as the tree strengthens its branch system.
- (Meyer) Lemons have a habit of fruiting well every second year (usually in winter and spring months). Therefore, it’s best to plant two or three lemon trees to have a continuous supply of lemons!
- Pruning regime: If you need to shape your tree, do it in period March-early September when lemon tree borer are not around to lay eggs on the pruned surfaces. Use Sharp, clean secateurs.
- Remove branches from within the bush/shrub/tree – let wind go through it – dries out – less rot.
- Pruning cuts don’t need a sealant, but if you’ve had history of die-back (fungal attack) then it will not harm to seal the wound.
- Disinfect secateurs from time to time – bleach or janola.
- Sooty Mould:
If you have sooty mould (fungi growing on sap sucking insect’s excrement) now’s the time to use some spraying oil (Conqueror Oil) to get rid of the cause which is scale/mealybug/whitefly - Neem Oil is often a good, organic suffocator of small sap-sucking insects. Use the Oils frequently (every two weeks or so) and spray both sides of leaves and branches.
- There are some root rots (Phytophthora) that can kill a citrus tree very quickly, in a matter of six to eight weeks the leaves go yellow, droop, turn brown and…fall off!
- Phytophthora is often spread through ground water (the spot is too wet for too long!).
- Dig the tree out and don’t plant another citrus in the same spot.
Garden Maintenance - Merv's advice
Merv Russell was Wet & Forget's store manager in Takanini until he dared to retire last month. Merv is another gardening guru with so much knowledge that we keep trying to tap into. You can see by some snippets of his property that he knows a lot about gardening so he also has some helpful hints here to share with you
- Spray stone fruit for brown rot and curly leaf from blossom budding about every 3 weeks until the fruit is ready to pick.
- Spread half a handful of sulphate of potash under your fruit trees early spring and late autumn. This helps with blossom setting and better crops and quality of fruit
- Seafood Soup is a great feeder for all plants on the ground and over all the foliage as it is a potent fresh fish fertiliser.
- Seaweed Tea is a health tonic made from natural seaweed and helps your plants fight pest attack and plant disease.
- Citrus should not be pruned between October and February as this is when the Citrus Borer is in flight
- With Citrus, make sure to spray under the leaves to help control the little white sucker insects
- Just like when you wake up with a headache, that is what is causing the yellowing of leaves on your citrus. It needs a soluble Disprin dissolved in water and put around the root and drip line. NOT KIDDING!
- Seafood Soup is great to create an excellent lawn. JUST WATCH IT GROW!
- For your Winter Clean up: When the leaves have dropped, give a strong spray of copper and 3 or 4 weeks later, spray with sulphur. DO NOT spray apricots with sulphur.
- I have a large cobble stone driveway and I keep it in good shape twice a year with Wet and Forget mixed with Chopper Weed to save me doing a second spray for weeds. Works really well.
- In the hot weather, water around the root area as water on the foliage in the hot sun burns the leaves
