How to Make Organic Citrus Fertilizer
Warning
Use compost tea promptly and do not store it: It can grow algae and microorganisms that will not be good for your tree.
Oranges, lemons, limes, tangerines … all citrus fruits are delicious and high in valuable vitamin C and other nutrients. If you live in a moderately temperate area where winter temperatures rarely drop below 32 degrees Fahrenheit, one or more citrus trees are good additions to your property. Attractive evergreens, citrus trees also produce sweet-smelling blossoms in early spring and later in the season reward you with their juicy fruit. Keeping citrus trees healthy and producing well is easy—all you need is a little organic fertilizer, which you can make yourself.
Making Organic Citrus Fertilizer
Give your tree plenty of nitrogen in spring, such as lawn clippings and composted chicken manure. Because citrus trees are not fond of heavy mulch, hoe or spade your lawn clippings or manure lightly into the soil around the tree’s trunk, but be careful not to dig into the root system.
Apply phosphorus, which citrus trees also need in order to produce plentiful flowers and, later, lots of fruit. You can purchase phosphate rock at your garden center. Sprinkle it around the tree’s drip line (for mature trees, 1 to 2 feet from the trunk in a doughnut pattern). Then water it in well. Phosphate rock also provides calcium to the soil.
- Oranges, lemons, limes, tangerines … all citrus fruits are delicious and high in valuable vitamin C and other nutrients.
- Keeping citrus trees healthy and producing well is easy—all you need is a little organic fertilizer, which you can make yourself.
Make compost from fallen leaves, last summer’s old tomato plants, other remnants from your garden and other organic materials. Also in spring, lightly dig this compost into the soil around the tree’s drip line.
Make compost tea from worm castings, chicken manure or compost and water your tree with this mixture several times during its growing season in the spring and summer months. To make compost tea, fill any size bucket half full with water and half full with your fertilizer material. Add 2 tbsp. of molasses for each gallon of tea and then let the mixture steep for up to one week. Strain it through cheesecloth or panty hose and then water your tree with it.
- Make compost from fallen leaves, last summer’s old tomato plants, other remnants from your garden and other organic materials.
- Make compost tea from worm castings, chicken manure or compost and water your tree with this mixture several times during its growing season in the spring and summer months.
Spray the tree’s leaves with your compost tea. Foliar feeding is a good technique for getting nutrition to the plant through its leaves. You can use a small hand-spray bottle or a larger sprayer if you need to reach the top of taller trees. Compost tea that you apply in this manner can also help the plant to fight off insect pests.
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References
Warnings
- Use compost tea promptly and do not store it: It can grow algae and microorganisms that will not be good for your tree.
Writer Bio
Barbara Fahs lives on Hawaii island, where she has created Hi'iaka's Healing Herb Garden. Fahs wrote "Super Simple Guide to Creating Hawaiian Gardens" and has been a professional writer since 1984. She contributes to "Big Island Weekly," "Ke Ola" magazine and various websites. She earned her Bachelor of Arts at University of California, Santa Barbara and her Master of Arts from San Jose State University.
