Time to Feed Your Morning Sunshine

As a child of the 60's one of my favorite plays was "Hair!" When I go out to my citrus trees I find myself singing (in my head of course) "Good Morning Star Shine" Really! Whoever called fresh squeezed juice "sunshine in a glass" hit it right on.

Now look more deeply into these trees. The fruit that is further back and in the shade in the best of the best fruit.  

And this is part of why you should not prune your citrus "trees". They are really just giant shrubs and they need to protect themselves from our sun in order to live a long and healthy life. Unless you have an unhealthy or dead branch try to take your pruning urges out on something else.

Now is the time to begin giving your citrus their 1st of 3 feedings for the year.  The old saying is to feed your citrus on Valentine's Day, Memorial Day, and Labor Day..."remember to labor at feeding and your citrus will love you"...Though I do have knowledge of citrus trees 20-30 years old that have never been fed by their owners and still provide delicious fruit, they must have amazing soil.  My fruit was ok when I didn't feed but once I started fertilizing they became addicting... DElicious...juicy...sweet... tangy.

If you have lemons or limes, use only organic fertilizers and no herbicides or pesticides, and would like to trade for grapefruit, oranges or clementines let me know!  Maybe we could trade? 

I love sharing my bounty.

For the best information on growing citrus in The Valley head to the Maricopa County Extension.  There you'll find a wealth of science based knowledge to assist you in environmentally responsible gardening and landscape in the low desert.  This link will take you specifically to printable publications about citrus. http://cals.arizona.edu/maricopa/garden/pubs.htm#Citrus

Happy 30+ years to my citrus trees!