Citrus

Yellow leaves, falling fruit? Brown and white 'things' on the leaves? Have a silver tracery on your leaves?

Welcome to the joys of citrus - these are common problems and we have a few solutions.

Remember citrus reward you with vitamin C in winter, delicious mandarins and oranges, and spice your life up with Kaffir lime leaves in your Thai recipes! Cumquats also make the best marmalade for toast and a lovely syrup for ice-cream in summer (see the recipe at the bottom of this page).

Feeding

If you have yellow leaves and the tree is still giving you nice growth and flowers, then this is a normal part of the growth of your tree - leaves do die and drop off the tree. On the other hand if your leaves are patchy yellow with green veins, then your tree is hungry.

Citrus require feed twice a year with a complete citrus food - don't be mean. Buy a good quality fertiliser and you will be rewarded. Feed them in spring (around September) and early to mid-autumn (around late March). You can give them other feeds of week fertiliser sprays throughout the year to keep them happy. If you are in a frosty areas - give your citrus a spray with some Epsom salts dissolved in water - this helps to strengthen the leaves and prevent some of the frost burn. This also helps with some of the yellowing. You may need to also give your plant a boost with trace elements. A complete fertiliser should contain this but with lots of rain you may need to boost with additional applications.

Bugs

There are a couple to keep an eye out for; some can devastate your tree and others just make it look awful.

Gall wasp - this is one that can really damage the tree - you need to cut the affected parts which will look like swollen lumps. You must either burn these parts or put in a sealed plastic bag in the bin. Do not put in the compost - they will only hatch and infect other trees.

Stink bugs - smelly and can munch their way through young tender leaves - spray with Lime Sulphate in August. This is when they are at their paper stage before maturity.

Brown and White caterpillars - these look like bird droppings and are the caterpillars of a moth. They can get very large and love the young shoots, doing a lot damage. White oil can be an effective control.

Warty lumps on the fruit - can be sign that fruit fly has got into the fruit or a virus affecting the tree. Garden hygiene can help reduce this. Spray your tree with pyrethrum oil, collect the infected fruit and dispose of in a sealed plastic bag.

Watering

In drought conditions, keep your citrus evenly-watered. Uneven watering can cause the fruit to drop. If you have your citrus in the middle of a lawn, make sure that the citrus is mulched to the drip line.

Pruning

Citrus do need pruning to remove old wood when it no longer is bearing fruit. Pruning can be also use to cut out suckers from rooting stock or to keep them in check. Many citrus trees can grow too big for the normal suburban backyard. Cut back if they are in the way. Old lemon trees can sometimes be resucitated if hard pruned - but be prepared to buy a replacement, they do not live forever.

Cumquat sauce recipe

1 cup of cumquats sliced thin and seeds removed

1 cup of water

1 cup of sugar

Simmer the cumquats in the water until the skins soften a little. Add the sugar and stir until dissolved. Simmer gently until the cumquat skins start to look a little transparent around the edges. Bottle in sterilised jars, or cool and keep in jar in the fridge. To make it a more 'adult' syrup, add a tablespoon of brandy to the final mix. Delicious!

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