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Old 11-12-2006, 12:17 AM posted to rec.gardens
Ivan Ivan is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Dec 2006
Posts: 44
Default lemon and mandarin trees


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..




Hi all..

Thanks for your messages.

Here's some updated information:

The mandarin tree does have leaves -- only that they're brown/yellow
and they are scarce.
The fruit is very orange, however as I said before, it's very small..
(about .5" in diameter), and has been that size since I've moved in
three weeks ago.

The lemon tree, upon further inspection, looks like it has plenty of
lemons that are growing.. Two or three are ready to be picked (they're
yellow). The rest are small-ish and somewhat green still, but they look
plump and healthy.

The broken bit of the lemon tree is its trunk.. Which is why it's being
held up with a plank of wood.. It's unfortunate, really. I thought
about tying it up with some wire and a post to hold it up against..


The trees are in my back yard, and they are surrounded by a rubber
fence of about 6-7" high, and run aroudn the trunk of each tree. It has
a diameter of about 3-4 foot..

I can't see the soil used, by the looks of things it is covered in hay,
and on top of the hay there is chicken wire..

Not sure why this is the case..

I guess to stop the hay from flying around..

I recylce water and use a lot of my washing water to water the grass..
Will this also work for my fruit trees, or will the soap kill it?



Thanks to all for your assistance..
I'll hopefully be having some plump mandarins before the summer ends..

When do they normally come out?
We'll be having a really hot and dry summer this year.