by Greg Alder | Aug 20, 2021 | Citrus, Fruit, Pests |
Back in the winter of 2015, a neighbor noted how poor my lime tree looked. She said her lemon tree didn’t have those “curly leaves” because she sprays it. A couple days later she brought over a blue bottle of the stuff she uses: Bayer Advanced...
by Greg Alder | Mar 26, 2021 | Citrus |
Because there is a citrus tree in almost every yard in California, we often inherit one when we move into a new house. Which kind is it? What if there’s no one around to tell you? Here I describe how I approached figuring out the identities of a couple mystery...
by Greg Alder | Jan 29, 2021 | Citrus |
My wife came home with some limes from the grocery store one day nine years ago and I said, “We shouldn’t be buying those. I can grow those.” That’s how I ended up planting our Bearss lime tree back in 2012. In this profile, I’ll tell you a bit more about my own tree...
by Greg Alder | Dec 11, 2020 | Citrus |
We were on the corner of Arlington and Magnolia in Riverside, looking at some citrus trees surrounded by a wrought-iron fence. It was 2012, I was with a group of Master Gardener trainees, and our guide started telling us the story of one of the trees. The tree was, at...
by Greg Alder | Aug 14, 2020 | Citrus |
What can you learn about your lemon or orange, mandarin or grapefruit tree from its leaves? Following are photos of citrus foliage mostly from the trees in my own Southern California yard, and each photo tells a small story. It’s likely that you’ll recognize some of...
by Greg Alder | Jan 10, 2020 | Citrus |
My orange tree above looks fine, right? That’s what I thought until I crouched down and noticed this little devil: That branch growing from the base of the trunk — that’s the little devil. It’s not a branch of my orange tree; it’s rootstock. Citrus trees are usually...
by Greg Alder | Dec 13, 2019 | Citrus |
It’s December, my oranges aren’t sweet yet, but they’re splitting. Oh no! Happens every fall, actually. Just as the cool nights start to turn the rinds from green to orange, and just as the first rains arrive, navel oranges begin to split. My orange tree...
by Greg Alder | Nov 30, 2018 | Citrus |
Back in 2014, I wanted to plant some citrus trees along the north side of my driveway. I knew the varieties I wanted, and I envisioned planting about five trees that would ultimately grow into a citrus hedge. But the hedge couldn’t get too wide or it would choke the...
by Greg Alder | Apr 13, 2018 | Avocados, Citrus, Fruit |
April is a dynamic time to talk about fruit trees — as they are all blooming and flushing — and this last week I did so as the monthly speaker for the Ocean Hills Garden Club in Oceanside. When allotted only an hour to cover “Growing fruit trees in...
by Greg Alder | Apr 17, 2017 | Citrus, Fruit |
My impression is that most of us think that, as a general rule, all fruit trees need to be pruned. It’s simply not true, especially regarding citrus. In contrast to this mistaken notion I’d say that, as a general rule, citrus should not be pruned. I can...
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