Friday, November 21, 2008

Citrus in South Florida


Citrus doesn't fare so well in South Florida! What you see here is a 'Meyer' Lemon and an 'Ortanique' tangelo. I planted them four or five years ago, still no fruit and just a general lack of vigor! So today I dug them up. I potted them in some amazing potting soil, Fafard 3B to be exact. Hopefully, they fare better with lots of extra care because their not gonna make it in the ground. In fact the last three photos are of some sort of fungi that was smothering the root system of the 'Meyer' lemon. We'll see if re-potting it helps!





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Citrus in South Florida by Eric Bronson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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6 comments:

Unknown said...

Dont give up! We are in N. Florida and this is the first year we had enough tangerines for about two weeks and about 12 grapefruits.

Eric Bronson said...

I'm not just trying a different approach! Thanks for the encouragement!

julian said...

The fungi looks unhelpful... But I thought Florida was the home of the orange, etc?

Eric Bronson said...

Between citrus canker and citrus greening, there isn't much left of citrus down here. I believe due to climate change and these diseases it's just not feasible or productive in at least down here in South Florida.

=)

Lavender and Vanilla Friends of the Gardens said...

Hi, have you tried the Eureka which is a true lemon with a thick rind and a wonderful flavour. Both Meyer and Eureka grow in my garden, but I prefer by far the Eureka. My climate is rainy and humid in summer and mild winters I guess similar to yours?

Eric Bronson said...

Sounds like we do have a similar climate. I want to grow citrus because I like the fruit and maybe trying a different cultivar would be successful. My problem is I don't have a huge yard so anything that doesn't flourish, doesn't merit the space. When something doesn't do well I get rid of it. We'll see how they do potted and pampered!!!