Navel gazing . . .

branch orange tree fruits green leaves in Valencia Spain

Brightly-coloured Washington Navel oranges are dripping from trees during winter. They’re sweet, juicy, easy to peel and seedless and make a fantastic citrus to grow at home. Dwarf varieties of navels grow to around 1.5 m tall, so they’re easy to maintain (and you don’t need a ladder to harvest) as well as being perfect for growing in a container.

To get the best out of home grown navel oranges, find a sunny spot that receives at least six hours of sunshine a day with well drained soil. If you’re growing in a container, use a pot that’s at least 40cm in diameter, filled with good quality potting mix.

Feeding citrus regularly is the key to promoting the best possible harvest. Citrus are very hungry plants. Yates Thrive Citrus Liquid Plant Food is a complete plant food that has been specially formulated to provide citrus with the nutrients they need. Apply every week while oranges are still on the tree and then start feeding again in early spring when new foliage and flower buds start to emerge.

Skeletonising citrus

Most citrus trees, particularly compact varieties, thankfully don’t require much pruning. However sometimes a large, older tree can start to become congested with dead branches and stems, leading to poor plant health and a reduced harvest. If this sounds like a tree at your place, it might be time to take a deep breath and do some serious pruning.

‘Skeletonising’ trees is a process where much of the canopy and main branches are removed. It sounds (and will look) quite drastic, but it can encourage a fresh flush of new, healthy growth and rejuvenate a tree that might otherwise remain unhealthy and unproductive. It can take around two years for the tree to recover and start producing fruit again, so it’s a process that requires some patience.

Skeletonising is best done in late winter or early spring. In cold areas, wait until the chance of frost has passed.

Here’s the citrus revival process:

• Using sharp tools (loppers, secateurs or a pruning saw) cut off any dead branches near the main trunk. Don’t cut flush with the trunk, instead pruning just outside the branch ‘collar’, which is a bump that grows on the trunk around the base of the branch.

• Check for any stems growing from below the graft (they may have significant spines, so be careful) and cut these off as well.

• Cut all remaining healthy branches back to where they are around 3cm in diameter. Warning — the tree will look awful, hence the term ‘skeletonising’.

• Now time for some serious TLC. Apply some Yates Dynamic Lifter Organic Plant Food around the root zone. It contains a rich source of organic matter to promote improved soil health and structure. Thoroughly and deeply water (and re-water each week) and in a fortnight start feeding with Yates Thrive Citrus Liquid Plant Food every week until autumn. This will encourage fresh new growth, help grow a lush, healthy canopy and give your old tired citrus tree a new lease on life.

Last chance to prevent leaf curl

Sometimes the months just seem to fly by and before we know it and as spring approaches there are promising buds starting to swell on our deciduous fruit trees such as peaches, nectarines and plums.

Lying in wait around those leaf buds are spores of the disease leaf curl, which leads to irreversible discoloured and distorted foliage and reduced tree health and fruit yield. Leaf curl is a disease that needs to be prevented and late winter is your last chance to act, before the leaves are permanently infected and damaged.

Apply Yates Liquid Copper Fungicide over deciduous fruit trees between when the buds start to swell and within one week after the buds open. This is your magical last chance window to prevent leaf curl disease, so keep an eye on your buds and get spraying!

Yates Liquid Copper Fungicide is a broad spectrum fungicide and has the added benefit of also preventing the disease ‘shot hole’ on stone fruit, so you’ll be multi-tasking your fruit tree protection in one spray.

And here are two additional steps to help refresh your stone fruit trees in August and get them ready for spring:

1. Cut back any dead or damaged stems or branches and remove any stems growing from below the graft. Many dwarf varieties don’t require any pruning beyond this. Older or larger varieties will benefit from removing some of the branches that are growing towards the centre of the tree. This opens up the canopy, creating a vase shape and allowing more light and air into the middle of the tree. This helps to reduce disease and improve fruit yield.

2. Apply some Yates Dynamic Lifter Organic Plant Food around the root zone and top up or apply some organic mulch like bark chips. This will help improve the quality of the soil, encourage earthworms and beneficial soil microorganisms and provide the tree with gentle nutrients as it begins its spring flush of foliage and flowers. The mulch layer will help to protect the soil and roots and reduce moisture loss and weed growth.

— Courtesy of Yates