good morning: i would like to plant 1 or 2 citrus in the yard, but am unsure of what orange varieties would be best for yield and hardiness. would like something mostly for juice, and also maybe a lemon or lime.
and can we do bananas here also?
thanks. care information and good sources for these trees would be appreciated.
jeff

[coach]

I have a Hamlin orange tree which produces fruit from late Oct thru late Dec. It groes very well. I have tried two lemon varieties but have had little luck. I think the lemon was a Meyer variety.

[zcaveman]

I had two Red Valencia orange trees. They produced in February. I got about 125 -150 oranges per tree. I bought an electric juicer to juice the oranges. I put them out on the curb. I gave to the neighbors. Too many oranges at one time.

This past year's freeze killed both of them and ruined the oranges so now I have two crape myrtles in their spot.

If you get two trees, you might want to find two that produce at different times of the year.

The neighbor across the street has a grapefruit tree. He gets so many grapefruits he usually gives some of them away.

[another Linda]

My son-in-law told me that citrus trees attract rodents which attract snakes. Does anyone have any experience here? I would love to plant something but don't dare. He is a native Floridian but I don't know whether or not I should believe him.

[colleenj]

Another Linda- I bought a house that had two orange and one grapefruit tree in the back yard and have not had any problems with rodents or snakes hanging around the yard. I'm not saying your son-in-law is wrong, just that I have not had this experience. The fruit sure does taste great too!

[otherbruddaDarrell]

Hi Linda
Yes there are citrus rats that will eat fruit. For the most part they live where there is an adequate supply like in orange groves.......and yes the snakes will eat rats and the predator birds will eat the snakes.....
I don't think a couple trees would be much of a problem where your cyv is.

[zcaveman]

I have seen several snakes and snake skins in the area but I doubt that it was my orange trees that attracted them. The skins were near the green electronic boxes.

Originally Posted by Jeff Bieberfeld

good morning: i would like to plant 1 or 2 citrus in the yard, but am unsure of what orange varieties would be best for yield and hardiness. would like something mostly for juice, and also maybe a lemon or lime.
and can we do bananas here also?
thanks. care information and good sources for these trees would be appreciated.
jeff

i just want some advice on what varieties would grow and be successful here....and what about bananas? snakes are good predators and keep the mice population down, and i love all sorts of wildlife anyway....
jeff

[KathieI]

Originally Posted by Jeff Bieberfeld

i just want some advice on what varieties would grow and be successful here....and what about bananas? snakes are good predators and keep the mice population down, and i love all sorts of wildlife anyway....
jeff

Hi Jeff, I have a Meyer lemon tree growing in my lanai in a pot. Its doing very well. I recently had about 18 lemons on the tree. What's nice about it in a pot, is that this winter I was able to move the tree in the house to protect it from the freeze. BTW, I think its a dwarf tree, won't grow very large which makes it easy to move inside.

Don't know about oranges but Valencia's are nice fruits. Very juicy. I had both a Meyer lemon and a grapefruit tree planted in my yard in my home in Los Angeles and they did very well. No snakes, no rats... lol... Good Luck!!!

[wilsonem]

A landscape guy told me we should remove the bark mulch from around the muture grapefruit, young valencia, and small lemon tree in our recently purchased Springdale yard. According to him citrus trees don't like moist "feet". But the grapefruit tree is full of small fruit, so someone else told me to leave it. Would appreciate hearing from a successful grower.

[Forsyth]

Jennings Citrus sold me 2 Ponderosa lemon trees $14.99 and $24.00. So far, so good. I've had them in 2 huge pots for about 2 weeks now.