On 27/6/05 15:55, in article
, "Totty"
wrote:



Sacha wrote:
The key to growing many of these
things is to think of the conditions in which they occur naturally - olive
trees, lemon and orange trees etc. are all used to sharply draining rocky
soil with searing heat and very little water indeed.

I live in the Valencia Region, and the orange and grapefruit farmers
use enormous quantities of water. It has become a political bone of
contention because the previous Government promised to pipe water down
from the Seguro river, and the present Socialist Government has refused
to carry out the plan. Farmers who previously eked out a living growing
almonds, grapes and olives that required no artificial watering, and
the small traditional Valencia oranges that fruit in our winter, took
advantage of EU subsidies to grub them out and re-plant with more water
greedy citrus. Although well able to stand high temperatures, oranges
require water when fruiting.

Jo in hot and humid Spain


Yes but the danger here is that they will not fruit and will *still* get the
over-watering. Being watered in a cool, damp climate isn't exactly natural
to them. Being watered where they are grown commercially for fruit in Spain
is essential but just because of the climate there, the trees aren't
standing with their feet in water for long.
And unless orange and lemon trees are in conservatories in UK (for the most
part) they won't fruit. In the searing heat you describe in Valencia, of
course they need a great deal of water when fruiting - here it's not likely
to be a big issue and over-watering is more likely to kill them. We don't
sell many lemon trees but we get a few returned every year by people who
insist something is wrong with them and they're dying but when we look at
the roots they are literally sodden. One chap insisted he hadn't been
watering his and yet, when my husband lifted it out of its pot, it dripped
all over his feet and runnels of water ran down the greenhouse floor! A
couple of weeks of drying out and then a once a week watering and draining
restored it to a healthy young plant.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)