The Florida agriculturist., 1907-10-30
When to Ferti1ize Citrus Fruit
Trees

tor Florida, on page 572, WISH 10
make some comments, and also to sug
gest that there may be something in
the opinions held by some, that the
roots that make the fruit are near the
body, while the roots that make for
wood growth are the long ranging
roots. Trees in a nursery will bear
younger than when set in grove form.
The best paying orange grove I
know Of has trees set 10 or II feet
apart, and there is room only for culti-
waiting once each way. This grove has
been cultivated the year around and it
had practically no humus in the soil
when set and evidently less now 1t
is on deep sand 20 feet to water and
sand all the way. People say orange
trees will not bear until the roots grow
together in the middle. May not the
true explanation be that the trees natu-
rally grow their limbs in dense mass
close to the ground? People scatter
the fertilizer outside the branches
where it can be readily cultivated in
and is also much easier of application.
In the nursery and the grove mention
ed the fertilizer was necessarily ap-
piled close to the trunks, where the
fruiting roots are. AS very few use
any but chemicals for orange trees, as
a general proposition it is not neces-
sary to p1ow them in, the only waste
will be from heavy winds. Through
the great drought that has recently
Mexico, Central America and also
Florida, the average growers on pure
sand, without any clay or permanent
4
weather better than growers on the
flat woods and those with clay subsoi1
AS for humus, [ worked for years for
humus in my grove, and got few Of
anges and plenty of weeds and grass
Now I cultivate the year around and
get plenty of fruit Of course, I speak
of sandy land It does not pay to buy
expensive chemical fertilizers to make
humus; better haul it in. F. H.
The culture of Citrus fruits in the
poor, sandy soils of Florida and the
West Indies, is something that is in
deed complex. It often taxes the best
efforts of the mind economically to
solve the problems that arise. In the
absence of the ordinary means of en-
riching the soil, as it is usually done
by northern farmers and fruit growers
who have stable manure at command
commercial. fertilizers must be used
Indeed, there is very rarely any escape
for the Florida growers from the neces-
sity, expensive as it is [ am one of
this number, and know of the perp1ex-
ity and expense from experience I
have some land in that state that is
rich, and would produce oranges and
other crops for a time without addi-
tiona1 plant food, but it is in heavy,
hardwood timber, and situated far
from transportation, at present. But
our large citrus orchard is in the Bis
cayne Bay region, where the soil is
almost pure sand, and tanderlaid with
cora11ine rock and which comes to the
surface far too much for convenience
in clearing anil cultivating the land
There is some humus in it, but far less
than we like and the growing Of velvet
beans is our principal means of getting
it. into the soil. Humus will hold nitro
gen, and that is one of the main plant
foods that is needed The nitrogen
may be applied in chemical form, but
is more transitory in sand than in
organic fiber; at least that is my opin-
ion. The potash and phosphorus are
not so difficult to handle nor are they
so expensive, as we all know
The feeding roots of citrus trees are
mostly very shallow, but 7 do not be-
l1eve that they naturally cluster near
the base Of the tree. They will go
where the plant food is and if that
is placed under the branches only, the