The citrus tree you planted for fruit wasn’t cooperating with you; meanwhile your neighbors is thriving. It’s not typically water: it’s climate compatibility. You have to be planting variety that matches your zip code.
Success depends on two things: chill hours and harvest window (chart). Cold exposure are required by sweet oranges. Beginner mistakes is forgiven if it’s a sweet. It might be a warm-zone non-producer like the Navel variety of orange. The lemony types will handle milder winters, and among them both Eurekas and Lisbons produces fruit almost year-round. They need fewer chill hours than oranges. If you plant a cold-loving tree in a warm zone it will grow leaves but no fruit. That is not what you want. You want a compatible tree.
How to Choose the Right Citrus Tree
Citrus doesn’t continue to ripen once picked, so you have to wait (and be patient) till harvest time. Citrus fruit will remain sweet on the tree for months. Don’t pick any fruit that’s still green, the guide cautions, nor wash any of it before storage. Mold spores will penetrate the peel if moisture is present. Pick the fruit once the rind color are fully developed. Keep stored cool and dry. Simple. And this way you’ll preserve a batch.
Citrus fruits don’t all make an equal amount of juice, either. For high volume, get big orange: a Valencia. A pound of them will give you roughly half again its weight in juice. What about lemons? About thirty-eight percent, if they’re Eurekas. The more thin-skinned the better. Other high-yielding fruits includes Cara Caras and mandarins. Less usable liquid will come from thick-skinned fruit.
The more mass a fruit has, the more vitamin C it contains. The bigger the fruit, the more nutrition you’ll have: A small lime won’t have as much nutrition than a big grapefruit. Each ruby red grapefruit has 79 milligrams of vitamin C in it. Because limes are small they contain fewer nutrients. For vitamin content, pick big fruit. For intense flavor, pick small fruit.
Instead of focusing on producing a lot of juice, specialty types such as the Yuzu is all about aroma. The trees also make great container plant (and tend to be compact, ideal for patio growing). Mandarins and limes will remain smaller than twelve feet high. Even grapefruit can tower over twenty-two feet. Space accordingly. The larger ones won’t let you move around or pass through.
Make the variety choice now: How high? When will it be ready? How much juice will it make? Choose based off how the fruit tastes (or its other use). First match the family to your climate. Next choose within that family for fruit use. Know what you’re getting into, no regrets later! Better planning means better results. Start with the chill hours; then pick your harvest window. The rest will of fall into place.