Today I'm going to show you how to grow your own citrus,
and how to choose the best plants for your place.
For all varieties, the products you'll need
are some garden mix, sheep pellets, citrus fertilizer,
seaweed tonic, mulch, a wooden stake and ties, and of course
your citrus tree.
The first thing you want to get sorted, is what type of citrus
that you're after.
So whether that be lemons, limes, or oranges,
they are all available two ways.
Dwarf trees are smaller, approximately 1.5 to 2 meters.
Space these two meters apart, or they thrive in pots.
Those smaller dwarf trees still produce a lot of fruit.
Or choose a tall tree for a full sized citrus
of approximately three meters, that need three meter spacing.
Spend a bit more if you can, to get grafted variety of either.
They're hardier, and should give you more fruit.
Dwarf, tall, or whether they're grafted
will be on the plant label in the store.
Today I'm going to be planting a tall male lemon,
showing you how to do some really good soil prep to help
get the most out of your tree.
First of all, mark out a bit of a circle in the grass.
It's going to be about twice the width of our pot.
Just going to get this top layer of grass off.
Then clear a space to put our tree in.
And as you can see, we've got a nice exposed ring of soil
around the side.
It's quite important when you're planting into grass like this,
because it is going to give us a bit of an area for maintenance
around the sides when you're mowing the lawn.
Now we just need to get it down deep enough.
Basically the depth of that pot, a little bit
deeper so we can get some nice organic material in there.
I can see we've come across a little bit of clay.
We can add a little bit of gypsum
to help break down that clay over time.
And work it in, a little bit to the soil.
Going to get some garden mix in.
Let's put a decent layer on the bottom.
Check the height that we're at on our tree.
Nice and flush with the top of our ground level.
Get the seaweed tonic.
Give it a bit of a soak.
And that's going to help prevent against any transplant shock.
We really do want that to soak in nicely.
So make sure you keep the tree in it's bag.
Cut the bag, careful not to damage any of the roots.
As you can see, this one's quite loose.
And if it is root bound, just give it
a little bit of a squeeze, and loosen up
some of the roots on the edge.
You can stake it later, but it's good practice
to put this in at this stage.
That avoids us damaging those roots later down the track.
Layer up some sheep pellets.
Sheep pellets are just a good natural fertilizer
to add to the soil to help boost the nutrients.
And then keep topping up with garden mix,
and backfill with existing soil if you need to.
Drive this new stake a little further down to help secure it.
Choose a good strong part of the tree, roughly 3/4 of the way
up.
Secure it to the stake, not too tightly.
You do want to leave the tree some room to grow.
Give it a little bit of citrus food.
Sprinkle this around the drip line.
Giving that a good watering in.
This watering also helps release some of that citrus food.
Now our last step, mulch and feed,
it's a good idea to do this after any planting.
It's going to help keep the weeds away
from the bottom of the tree, and help retain some
of the moisture in the soil.
It is important to not build any mulch up
around the trunk of your tree, as that can invite disease.
I've just planted the one male lemon today as an example.
But to help you get a better crop,
you're going to need to cross-pollinate.
One tree will give you some fruit, but plant a couple
and you'll get a much bigger crop,
because the trees pollinate each other.
Mix up as many types or varieties as you like.
It doesn't just have to be all one fruit.
To recap, choose whether a dwarf or tall tree
will suit your situation, and then choose what type of citrus
you're after.
There are lots of varieties within each
to match your tastes.
Autumn or Spring is the best time to plant,
but you can plant anytime.
As a rule, they don't like temperatures colder
than minus 2 degrees celsius.
But hardier varieties do cope.
If you're worried, move pots on the cover,
or use a frost cloth in colder months.
Water trees for about five minutes
every two weeks, but up that to almost daily for your pots.
Citrus are gross feeders, so you need to feed them monthly
with a citrus food for healthy trees
that produce a lot of fruit.
Yellowing leaves are a sign they may need a top up feed.
But good news, keep your citrus well-fed
and they're pretty pest-free.
Unhealthy trees may attract verrucosis or lemon scab,
aphids, scale, mites, mealy bug, or sooty mould,
but all are easily treated.
Citrus fruit at different times and some all year round.
So just check the tag before selecting,
and use sharp secateurs to harvest.
You only really need to prune your trees to shape them,
but avoid pruning in spring so lemon tree borer don't lay eggs
in the fresh cuts.
If you have any rootstock growth,
just trim it away carefully so you don't damage the tree.
Look after your citrus and they'll last you for years.
Whatever fruit you choose, they're all easy as.