Help & Advice

How exciting! First things first, jump to the top of this page and get familiar with our Citrus Care Basics! These handy tips will set you off to a strong start.

This depends on the size of your tree and your growing space.

In general, you should always choose as large a pot size as you can manage. (With consideration to the fact you may need to move the tree at some point)

The bigger the pot is, the bigger the root system can be. This will allow your tree to get some decent size which can lead to more fruit.

For younger trees (like our 200mm range), we strongly recommend sizing pots up gradually as their roots are a bit more delicate. You don’t want them swimming in soil, as that can hold a lot of extra, unnecessary moisture.

Example: If you have one of our 200mm pot citrus, try potting up into 30cm or 40cm.

With more mature trees, you have a bit of leeway in terms of their next pot since their roots are going to be stronger and more established.

One thing you should avoid, though, is downsizing. Going from a larger pot to a smaller pot is not going to be fun for you or the tree!

A general rule of thumb for ground planting is to dig a hole that’s twice the size of the pot your tree is currently in.

Double the height and width in all directions.

Yes, this means you’ll need to dig quite a bit when planting more mature trees, but their roots will have a much easier time settling in.

If you start digging and find you have a lot of clay soil, consider digging even deeper and wider, then replacing the poor soil with a good quality garden mix, and mound it up above ground level before planting your tree. This will give excess water the space to get clear of the root system.

We can certainly try! First, take a look at our help & advice section. We’ve got info on common bugs and diseases that may solve your mystery.

Citrus Pests – The Usual Suspects

Citrus Diseases – What to look out for

We’ve seen a LOT of citrus growing quirks over the years, and many issues present similarly, so photos can be super-helpful. You can send them directly to our email.

Be sure to include:

• A clear close up of the problem area (leaves, branches, etc.)
• A good, clear shot of the entire tree and where it is in your yard or balcony
• The soil around the base of your tree
• Any insects you notice on the tree

Yes, this is normal. In the cooler months, citrus don’t take up much nutrition from the soil. Because they’re not “eating” much, their leaves often go a bit yellow with a few visible darker green veins. This is a seasonal mineral deficiency and nothing to worry about.

Once the weather warms up, fertilise your tree and the leaves will turn green again.

Please note: Recovery times can vary! Some trees bounce back quicker than others, but just keep them warm and fed, and they’ll be looking lush again come summer.

Yes! New shoots and leaf growth will be a paler shade of green compared to the older, more established leaves on your tree.

If you’ve got a lemon tree, new growth can often present with a reddish or brownish tinge, too. This is especially noticeable on Eureka lemon trees.

New growth will typically be much softer and more delicate to the touch, as well. In some cases, you might even see some prominent thorns on your usually thornless tree (like orange trees), but those won’t stick around as the branch matures.

Technically, about 3 years old if you count the full year they spend as rootstock before we graft them.

In general, we say our youngest trees (the 200mm pot size) are between 2 – 2.5 years old, as that’s how long they would have been grafted for.

Yes, they are! We do all our grafting on-site in Dural during the hot summer months which is the best time for the process.

You’ll notice a graft point, or union, near the base of our citrus trees which looks like a little trunk that has a main branch coming out the side of it.

We grow our rootstocks on site so we have good control and visibility over each stage of our trees lives.

For our standard, fullsize trees, we use a rootstock called Trifoliata.

For our dwarf trees, we use a rootstock called Flying Dragon.

Both types feature a small, somewhat delicate tri-leaf pattern. While Trifoliata has long, straight spikes, Flying Dragon has curled ones.

Flowering will generally start in the springtime, with a bit of variation per variety. A few, like Meyer lemons, or Calamondin cumquats, will often have a second or third batch of flowers in summer or autumn.

When trees are in flower, take care not to spray them with anything as this may cause the flowers to drop earlier than expected, causing you to lose potential fruit.

In a majority of cases, citrus are self-fruitful and don’t need a pollinator to produce. Fruit originates from the flowers on your tree and grows in size over the spring and summer.

Grafted trees start to fruit sooner in terms of their age, not the time of year.

This highly depends on the variety, weather and your region. Citrus fruit do their major growing over the summer. Most will ripen from autumn through winter or early spring, so you can look forward to picking your fruit anywhere from late April to September.

There are a few reasons for this. Flowers take a lot of energy to grow, so first check the tree is getting enough sunlight and soil nutrition.

Another cause could be pests, like possums, rabbits, wallabies, etc. or insects that all like to munch on the soft, new growth areas of trees. Look around for damage or animal droppings to determine if this is the cause.

Especially while the trees are young, you may benefit from protective netting or chicken wire to keep critters at bay while your tree grows.

Another concern with a few possible reasons.

Number one: Again, is soil nutrition and sunlight. Producing fruit is a huge energy expenditure, especially with citrus being some of the larger fruits (think oranges or grapefruits). If the tree can’t get enough nutrition from sunlight or fertiliser, it may elect to preserve itself until it can get the nutrients it needs. For more about feeding, click here.

Number two: We look at weather and environment. If the flowers were damaged or blown off in an early storm or perhaps a late cold spell, this can affect your crop potential. Insects and wildlife can also play a big part here, as mentioned above, so be sure to take preventative measures when possible.

No, they’re not. Especially when compared to other common garden trees, they would much rather go around obstacles, than go through them.

As always, consider the eventual size of your tree, as some citrus varieties can be quite large at maturity. While they don’t have a hugely deep root system, they do like to spread beneath the soil in search of water and nutrients.

Even though their roots aren’t considered invasive, if you plant them in tight spaces close to pavers, plumbing, or other structures, you’ll likely see some disruption at some stage.

If this is a concern for your garden, stick to the smaller varieties or consider dwarf trees, as they’ll be a little more contained.

In terms of which will fruit sooner, we find both dwarf and full-size trees to be pretty much the same. Grafted citrus tend to fruit sooner in general, so expect similar performance across the board.

In terms of which will produce more, a full size tree will simply because they’ll be almost twice as big as their dwarf counterpart, which means more room for fruit.

However, if you were to keep your dwarf and fullsize trees trimmed to the same sizes, you’d probably find almost no difference in fruit volume.

Even if you’re doing everything right with regular feeding and watering, you may sometimes have an established tree bear small or no crop after fruiting reliably for years.

Often, this may occur because of those large fruit volumes. As trees mature, they produce more fruit, but growing these crops takes a huge amount of energy. After a few very heavy crops in a row, it may “take a season off”. This is essentially self-preservation, as the tree will have used up a lot of nutrients and will take some time to recover.

This can be more common with Mandarin trees. To try and minimise unpredictable fruiting, you can thin out the crops each season to help trees preserve their energy.

This can be happening for a few reasons, like an insect, overwatering, or underwatering.

Start by checking the leaves for damage, specifically a slivery or brown trail along the back side of them. This would be citrus leaf miner, a very common insect pest.

You can learn more about it, and other bug related damage, here:
Citrus Pests – The Usual Suspects

If your leaves are clean, it will be time to check your watering schedule. Refer to our care guide above for tips about that.

If your watering is normal or unchanged, it will be time to dig a little into the soil to see if you’ve got any grubs or other fungal infections going.

Feel free to send us photos and get in touch about it!

Much like all things in the world, even our beloved citrus trees have a lifespan. It can range anywhere from 10 years to 25 or more.

With proper care, and co-operation from Mother Nature, we estimate a minimum of 20 years for most fruiting trees. That said, we’ve had plenty of customers come back and say they’ve had some of our trees in their yards for 30 or 40 years.

Many factors can affect lifespan, but it usually comes down to care, soil quality, weather conditions, and how much fruit a tree produces.

Putting on huge crops year after year is very taxing on a tree and, if conditions aren’t quite right, this can lead to shorter lifespans. If you notice heavy cropping for several years in a row, consider thinning out the next few crops to allow your trees to spend that energy on itself, rather than putting it all into its fruit.

Unfortunately, cockatoos are the worst. Yes, they’re beautiful and iconic, however they can pick a tree clean in a matter of minutes and we simply aren’t a fan.

Often, you’ll notice they only pick out the seeds and leave the rest of the fruit. One way to combat this is by trying to grow seedless fruit. They’ll still try a few, but when they don’t find any seeds, they generally give up.

Alternatively, net your trees, or create a netted enclosure over them. This is another reason you may want to try dwarf trees; they’re smaller and easier to protect.

So do we! Sadly, they’re one of those pests that are very difficult to get rid of once they’re mature. And, of course, we usually only see (or smell) them when they’re mature.

You can certainly use Raid or Mortein insect sprays. Anything that can kill a cockroach, can do the same to a stink bug, but for your safety, we don’t recommend using these sprays while they’re still on the trees, or if you’ve got large or several trees because it’s not really economical.

We have recommendations on how to handle them. You can find those here:
Citrus Pests – The Usual Suspects