As a result, I have never had problems with limbs breaking (a common complaint with fully-laden Satsumas), and I can count on a reliable crop of unusually large Satsumas every year. Every spring, I remove the young fruits so that there’s only one fruit on every six inches or so of limb. To get good-sized fruit, and to prevent your tree from overbearing one year and bearing few fruit the next, it’s a good idea to thin the fruit in late April and May. A soil test will help you to more precisely tailor your applications. Trees three years and older will need about one to two pounds of 13-13-13 at each application. First-year trees will need about a half pound of 13-13-13 at each application. If you use standard chemical fertilizer, you’ll need to apply it several times each year, once the first of March, again the first of May, and again the first of July. Once every two or four years, I also add two or three pounds of wood ashes. Three to five pounds should suffice for first-year trees, and five to eight pounds should suffice for older trees. To keep it simple, I spread a good quantity of cottonseed meal or crab meal, mixed with leaf mulch, under the canopy of the tree once each year, in late winter. ![]() This pruning should be undertaken in April (and never in fall, winter or early spring).Ĭitrus trees, unlike some fruit trees, require regular fertilization in Mobile soils. Some Satsuma varieties, like Ponkan, are slow-growing and naturally smaller, and can be kept very small with judicious pruning. So remove only those branches that are dead, damaged or "ingrown" - the ones that have turned and are growing toward the center of the tree. Heavy pruning of this crown will actually reduce the tree’s vigor and fruit production. But simply removing a few inches of the tips of these side limbs will be sufficient.Īfter three or four years, the initially sprawling limbs should naturally develop into a thick, handsome crown, without any assistance from you. You might want to tip-prune side limbs that have become unusually long or tall and threaten to compete with the central limbs. In fact, for the most part, you shouldn’t prune them at all.įor the first two or three years, you’ll want to quickly remove all sprouts that develop on the first two feet of the trunk. Provide these three, plant your citrus "high" so that the base of its trunk is an inch or two above the general ground level, water well the first year or two, and you should experience few problems.Ĭitrus are the easiest fruits to prune. Satsumas need full sun, well-drained soil that doesn’t stay wet and, ideally, a place protected from the harshest winter winds. ![]() Add some leaf bags around the trunk, and use a large tarp to blanket as much of the tree as possible - remember to take advantage of ground heat by spreading the tarp out tent-style, rather than wrapping the top of the tree like a lollipop. A string of warm Christmas lights, wrapped throughout the tree, is a good start. The most damage typically occurs when a long period of unusually warm weather in the 70s and 80s is followed by a sudden drop to the lower teens - the Satsumas, in essence, don’t have time to gradually prepare for the cold.ĭuring these unusual events, which often last no more than a day or two, you may need to get creative. Once every two or three decades, Mobile tends to get an unusually intense cold spell that can cause significant damage even on mature Satsuma trees. (Don’t use plastic sheeting by itself - it readily transmits cold to whatever it touches, and will cook the plants when the sun comes up.) I snug several bags full of leaves around the trunks of these young trees each winter, and cover the canopy AND the leaf bags with a thick cloth or woven tarp on the two or three coldest nights each year. Skinny young trees, however, are not nearly as cold hardy, and may need some protection during the first two or three years. ![]() ![]() When mature and well-established, Satsumas are the hardiest sweet citrus, and have been known to withstand temperatures as low as 15 degrees with no significant damage. This column by Bill Finch first appeared in the Press-Register's Garden & Home section Dec. Mike Kittrell, Staff Photographer A satsuma is a very specific kind of tangerine (and one of the oldest) with a distinctive sweet and tangy taste, nearly void of seeds, wrapped in a skin that flicks off with the nick of your thumb.
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