Thread: Orange tree
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Old 13-09-2006, 10:29 AM posted to aus.gardens
Jen Jen is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Jul 2006
Posts: 85
Default Orange tree


"RamRod Sword of Baal" RamRod @truthonly wrote in message
...


I used to live in Sydney, and a friend who was a gardener, planted this
orange tree in a tub at my home.

That was around 25 years ago, now the poor tree has had a hard life, it
was on a balcony and fell through and dropped down 4 metres, it was
poisoned with too much fertiliser, and survived to produce a few fruits,
even though it was in a tub. It was not really looked after all that well.

As the my home was sold and going to be completely renovated, if I left
the tree there it would have been dumped, so I cut off all the foliage and
transported it to Cairns, as my friend who planted this was died over 20
years ago, so it had some sentimental attachments.

The tree when I transported it was just a ball of roots with some soil on
them, and a bare trunk some 1/2 metre high.

I did not think it would survive the trip up to Cairns where I now live in
the trailer, but I planted in the ground around 3 years ago, and it shot
up and seemed quite healthy.

I transplanted a lime tree from another part of the garden here in Cairns
to near this orange tree, the lime fruits, but the orange has never
fruited up here.

I fertilised both trees, and keep water up to them, they get waters every
couple of days, sometime every day, they are planted around 2 metres
apart.

The orange seems to have only slender upright branches. There is some
shade (part of the day), from other trees, which I shall prune back to
give the orange more sun.

The lime does get more sun, but the orange is certianly not living in the
shade and would get full sun at least 6 hours a day. It has plenty of
leaves and is currenty shooting new leaves, just no blossoms.

Any ideas on how to make this tree bear fruit?


I have no idea if it's the case with citrus, but I know too much nitrogen in
some plants can cause too much leaf growth at the expense of fruit.

Jen