[2newyorkers]

We have a lemon tree that I planted about 5 years ago. It was a couple of years old when I planted it. About every 2 weeks I water it with Epsom salts. I fertilize it 3 -4 times a year. I trim it twice a year. It gives me about 30 lemons every year. The cold does affect the tree and any lemons on the tree but it has to be about 3 days in a row of frost. When it is smaller you can cover it when frost is predicted.

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

Originally Posted by Choro&Swing

There’s a woman on my street with two big grapefruit trees, and I’ve found a few mentions in Talk of the Villages to planting lemon trees, though I haven’t seen any, but I haven’t seen any orange trees, nor references to growing them here. It’s Florida! Why aren’t people planting more citrus here? Is there some secret about them? Are they forbidden?

Our area apparently used to be a citrus grove. We do have several neighbors with fruit trees in their yards. But I was informed (when I asked the same thing) last year that most people actually had their fruit trees removed, because it was too difficult to keep up with them. They would put out baskets of fruit they'd collected every day during the season, at the end of their driveways. But so did everyone else. There weren't enough people who needed fruit, that didn't already have it growing on their own trees.

Rather than spend days crouched over the ground picking up rotting fruit to keep the rats away, they said to heck with it and got rid of the trees.

It's also unsightly, if it's in your FRONT yard, to see oranges rotting on your driveway because you're out of town for a week and unable to pick up after they drop. Makes a HUGE mess once they've already started to rot and can stain your driveway.

So placement is definitely an issue. Put a tree in the back yard as close to the house as the arborist feels safe without risking long roots damaging your foundation. Keep it trimmed so you can control how high/bushy it grows, and once the growing season starts, make sure someone is around to pick the ripe fruit every single day until the season ends.

Or, you can keep it ornamental by cutting the branches when they start to flower. Orange blossoms have an intoxicating aroma.