Ivan wrote:
Hi all.


I recently bought a house and in the back yard I have a mandarin tree
and a lemon tree..

It seems as if though the previous owners were somewhat neglectful of
these though, and they are not in the best of shapes..

The mandarin trees has no leaves at all, and is full of the smallest
fruits you could imagine.. The lemon tree seems to have snapped during
its life, and it has a plank of wood holding it up.. Its leaves are
green, and it has a few lemons in it, though perhaps about three lemons
on the whole tree..

In Australia it is summer right now, and we're having dry heats coming
in..

It looks like either tree has never been pruned.. When is the best time
to do this?
What should I feed them?
I'd love for these trees to prosper..

I can take some pictures and post them somewhere if it'll help you all
diagnose the problems of my new trees..


Thanks..


If the mandarin is leafless, it might be dead. With a fingernail, nick
the bark of a main branch near the trunk. If it's not green under the
bark, remove it. If it is indeed green, prune severely, water
thoroughly, and feed lightly in that order. (Never feed when the soil
is dry.) Then let the top 2-4 cm of the soil dry before watering again.
Mulching is good for keeping the soil cool, but don't water enough to
keep the surface constantly moist. Don't feed again until there is new
growth.

For the lemon, corrective pruning in the summer is good. Just don't
prune in the late fall if frost is possible within the next month.

For both, fertilizer should be acidic and contain abundant nitrogen and
some iron. Zinc is also necessary, but few fertilizers contain it. You
might have to special-order zinc sulfate, of which each tree should get
about a half-handful 3-4 times from early spring through the summer.

Note that, while some citrus will bear fruit for 100 years or more, some
are not long-lived. I sadly discovered that dwarf varieties generally
live only 25-30 years. My much-cherished dwarf 'Eureka' lemon has
apparently died after more than 35 years. I just replaced a dwarf
kumquat after about 35 years. The fact that they both lived so long
surprised all the nurseries where I inquired.

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean
Sunset Zone: 21 -- interior Santa Monica Mountains with some ocean
influence (USDA 10a, very close to Sunset Zone 19)
Gardening pages at http://www.rossde.com/garden/