[Arid_gardener] Home citrus feeding

[Dick Gross]

Clair, for fifteen years I have been fertilizing my adult citrus trees by the seat of my pants based upon 35 years experience that began with a formula I got from the U of A Cooperative Extension publications. It assumed average conditions that fit our climate and geography. It was based upon pounds of 21-0-0 per inch of trunk diameter and I assumed 1 cup to be 1/4th pound. I routinely fertilize the Extension Sudtropical Demonstration Garden by instinct without measuring anything--not good enough for novice gardeners.

I cannot, however, lay my hands on that chart. The one below for Texas would, in my opinion fit our conditions nicely but it is not in homeowner terminology. Who, for example, knows how much from a bag of ammonium sulfate is equal to 1/8th or 1/4th of a pound. The directions on a Vigoro bag might as well be written in Greek as far as the average home owner is concerned.

Most home grown citrus is, based on my own observations, grossly under fertilized although a neglected tree in this valley appears to be productive enough to satisfy an average family's needs with half the crop rotting on the ground.

If any of you have at your fingertips a simple, fairly accurate guideline that the dumbest and the lamest of us non-scientists with a home garden can comprehend, it would be appreciated I am sure by many Master Gardeners whose bottom-line mandate is to spread the word to home gardeners. 

Please respond in your own best-teaching mode to "All" so that the enlightenment is universal.

Regards,

Dick Gross, Master Gardener Vlounteer
University of Arizona
Maricopa County Cooperative Extension.



Table 2. General nitrogen fertilization rates for citrus in Texas.


      Tree Age Pounds of N per tree per year Pounds of N
      per acre per year 
      1 1/8 -- 
      2 1/4 -- 
      3 1/2 -- 
      4 -- 50 
      5 -- 75 
      6 -- 100 
      7 -- 100 
      8 -- 125 
      9 -- 125 
      10+ -- 150 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://CALS.arizona.edu/pipermail/arid_gardener/attachments/20070105/a33ca14f/attachment.html