Imagine waking to a breakfast of orange juice, halved grapefruit
and toast with jam made from kumquat, a sweet-tasting fruit that
resembles an orange.
Imagine waking to a breakfast of orange juice, halved grapefruit and toast with jam made from kumquat, a sweet-tasting fruit that resembles an orange. However, your breakfast – save the bread for the toast – didn’t come from a grocery store. It came right from your own backyard, and you picked it just days ago.
Imagine no more. If you’re willing to pitch in a little time to care for a citrus tree, homegrown meals with a citrus flair can be yours. Thanks to the South Valley’s temperate spring climate and hot summers, several varieties of citrus trees grow well here, according to Mike and Helena Vogel. The Vogels own Gilroy’s Menlo Growers, a wholesale supplier of more than 40 varieties of dwarf citrus trees including lemons, limes, navel oranges, blood oranges, grapefruits and citrons.
Although some people think growing a citrus tree is too ambitious or would eat up space in a yard, the trees require only a little more attention than other plants and come in a variety of sizes. Besides producing fresh fruit, citrus trees add splashes of color and bursts of fragrance to back or front yards. And because the trees are self-fruiting, you don’t need to plant other citrus trees around them to act as pollinators for the fruit to flourish.
At full growth, a healthy dwarf citrus tree planted in the ground grows to about 10 to 20 feet, while a healthy standard-sized citrus tree is about 18 to 20 feet high. Roughly four dwarf trees can be planted in the same space as a standard-sized citrus tree, and as long as they’re kept pruned, dwarf trees can be planted fairly close to each other.
Generally, the price of a dwarf tree is determined by its size and not the type of fruit it bears, with prices ranging anywhere from $20 for a 1- to 3-gallon pot to close to $500 for a 65-gallon pot.
In the South Valley, the most bountiful citrus fruits include navel oranges, lemons and tangerines, Mike Vogel said. Grapefruits grown here, on the other hand, might not taste as sweet as those grown in other areas such as the San Joaquin Valley, but they are able to grow.
When planting and caring for a citrus tree, gardeners should keep in mind three things: watering, pruning and fertilizing, said Peter Quintanilla, a volunteer with the Monterey Bay Master Gardeners, which covers San Benito and Monterey counties. According to Quintanilla, the trees don’t need to be watered often, but the irrigation should be deep and evenly spread throughout the soil. The trees can be pruned any of time of the year, but take it easy when manning the shears, Quintanilla said.
“You don’t want to prune too heavily. Prune lightly so as to open up the tree and give the fruit more light,” he said.
Lastly, orange and grapefruit trees should be fertilized during the winter or early spring, while lemon trees can be fertilized any time of year.
The best time to plant a citrus tree is in the early spring. When choosing a spot, select a space that isn’t blocked by shade from your home, other buildings or other trees, as citrus trees need full sun to be successful.
The most common pests to citrus trees include aphids, scales and snails. Because the trees produce edible fruit, it’s best to let natural predators such as ants take care of the pests, but heavily infested areas can be treated with a light insecticide soap.
The fruit produced on citrus trees are some of the highest in vitamin C, which, along with boosting the immune system, has been shown to lower blood pressure and decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease. Like any vitamin or mineral, when vitamin C is pasteurized and packaged – as is the case with most commercial juices – it loses some of its nutritional value, so eating fruit fresh from the yard is the most healthful way to go.
Along with providing health benefits, citrus trees also offer a new hobby to gardeners who might be stuck in a rut.
“There are many varieties most people don’t even know about,” Helena Vogel said. “It’s fun to buy the kind of trees that produce fruit you can’t get in grocery stores.”
Among the more unusual varieties are ponderosa lemons, which produce lemons the size of grapefruits; kaffir limes, a type of lime commonly used in Thai cuisine; and Buddha’s hand, a citron tree easily distinguishable by its long, finger-like extensions.
