When I moved to
Jupiter Farms about 10 years ago, I was fortunate enough to find several citrus trees on the property. Specifically, I have 2
Key Limes and 1 each of grapefruit,
Valencia orange and
Honeybell. The soil in Jupiter Farms is not the best from growing citrus. The best seems to be up in
Tequesta or along the sandy ridge that runs down into
Juno Beach. If you don't live in this area and are thinking of adding citrus trees, be sure to get the right information from the Internet and DIG A WIDE HOLE FOR THEM.
Here's a Key Lime I just got off one of my trees.
Growing up in Miami, we always had plenty of citrus around and shared it with folks when they came to visit. This winter tradition is mostly gone now since we have so many northerners here and since the State in it's infinite wisdom came through in the early 2000's with chain saws and cut down all the really big citrus trees to try and stop the spread of citrus canker up into the commercial groves north of here.
No sooner did they get thousands of trees cut down when hurricanes Frances and Jean came through and swept the disease up into the groves.
So, here we are in the first week of March. Your trees should be showing some signs of new growth and blooms like these.
This is an especially critical time to get fertilizer down for the trees. They are starting their new growth and producing flowers for this year. Be sure and get a well balanced product with modest nitrogen but a good micro-nutrient package. You can check the University of Florida IFAS site, Mounts Botanical Garden site or just Google it.
Is this a great place to live? You bet!!
Check out some of my other spots on the web and then send them along to your friends:
