Lemon Tree Tips Requested

[luther]

About 3 years I transplanted several Italian lemon trees into my garden in Chiang Mai. After 2 years they are producing. 2 questions...

The new leaves get eaten regularly by grasshoppers. How do I discourage that organically?

and

Last April and May is when they did most of their flowering and fruit formation. When should I prune them, how much?

They are extremely healthy, shooting new branches up ten feet or more. I prune them so that I can walk down the path and top the most extreme explosion. They have plenty of light, soil depth, and water.

I have never taken care of citrus trees. I'm wondering if I should be taking more extreme measures.

[cornishcarlos]

Not sure, but next time I'm in Chiang Mai I would love to get a few cuttings from you

Or you could post some if feeling really Xmasie...?

[khwaibah]

Grown in Kap Choeng/Surin. Picked this afternoon, Spanish Lemons.

Edited October 31, 2014 by khwaibah

[Rooo]

Moved to organic farming.

[drtreelove]

Hi Luther; without seeing your site and the trees, or photos, I can only guess and offer some general information.

With that much vegetative growth and attractiveness to caterpillars, I would guess that you are over-fertilizing, with high Nitrogen chemical fertilizer or manure, and maybe that you are over-pruning. High nitrogen fertilizer creates excessive sugar levels that pests like, and also produces excessive vegetative growth. Heavy pruning stimulates a heavy growth response and excessive shoot growth.

It also sounds like you may have planted them in a restricted space and that you have to prune the trees for clearance. That's a problematic situation; you have to prune heavily, so you stimulate more growth response.

There are organic pest control options and you can find some in the many previous threads on this forum. My choice would be a neem oil extract (repellent, anti-feedant and reproductive disruptor), combined with a pyrethrin product for knock down; or other botanical insecticide. The challenge with botanical pest control products is that they have to be applied at least weekly during pest outbreaks to be effective; they don't have much residual effectiveness like some chemical pesticides. But the lack of environmental persistence is what makes the botanicals acceptable for an organic program.

Post or PM some photos of site and the trees and I may be able to give some more specific suggestions.

I've never grown or even seen Italian lemons, but I grew up pruning citrus since I was 12 and my father took me out on my first commercial orchard pruning. We normally pruned oranges and grapefruit after harvest. Lemons usually have a continuous flowering and fruiting cycle during fair weather growing season, so it's harder to time. But in general, prune citrus lightly once or maybe twice annually at the most, clean of deadwood, lightly thin and shape as needed, leave a full skirt of foliar canopy down to the ground to shade the trunk or the tree trunks may get sun-burned. Do not perform heavy crown reduction pruning and expose the woody stems to direct sunlight. In order not to loose a lot of fruit, just avoid pruning during heavy flowering cycle, and wait until fruit is set, I was taught about the size of a marble. But for home orchards usually you get more than enough fruit and you are not worried about losing a few with pruning. If you are only doing light pruning of home garden trees, then the timing is less important. Prune when your saw is sharp.

Hope that helps. PM to call my attention if there are more posts on this or any other tree and pest control issues, as I don't get to check the forum very frequently now.

Edited November 1, 2014 by drtreelove

[NigelKennedy]

Hello Luther...any ideas where I can buy Italian lemon trees in CM. Like Amalfi or Sorrento. Thanks

[tw25rw]

They benefit from being urinated on.. Around the roots anyway.

[luther]

Thanks for the tips drtreelove.

Yes, they are in a restricted space, a raised bed, but the soil was dug very deeply and there are only two plants in a ten-foot space.

I don’t fertilize them that often, about 3 times a year with a cup and a half of manure.

I probably have over-pruned them and will leave them alone. The shoots at the top are hitting ten, eleven feet.

The leaf damage is usually caterpillars. See picture 3.

(Not sure where you can buy lemon trees in Chiang Mai, except at Kamtiang.)