How to Prune a Citrus Tree | Citrus | Gardening Australia
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- Опубликовано: 20 июн 2019
- Do you have a mature lemon tree that's really slowing down? Might be time for a 'skeleton prune' to coax it back to vigour. If an old citrus tree has slowed in fruit production, but is still otherwise healthy and has a sound root system, try this method of heavy pruning in late winter or early spring.
Costa visits an awesome orchard in the hills north west of Sydney and meets up with third generation citrus grower, Mark Engall to help him prune an old favorite. Mark's Red Grapefruit (Citrus paradisi cv.) hasn’t been pruned since planting - and it shows. It's lost vigour, has poor foliage coverage in the canopy, plenty of dead wood and small fruit.
00:51 HOW TO SKELETON PRUNE
1. Remove all small dead and damaged branches, and those crossing over or rubbing on others
2. Remove all leaves and twigs cleanly, with sharp pruning tools
3. Cut all the main branches that form the framework of the tree at 2 - 5cm diameter so that only the skeleton remains
4. Assess the skeleton of the tree, and further remove any multi-branched ends
5. Within 18 - 24 months, this tree will come back beautifully, and produce buckets of fruit
a. Trust the process - the tree may be without fruit in the first 12 months as it puts its energy into foliage production, but after that, you’ll be rolling in citrus!
03:51 GRAFTING
Rootstock - the underground and root-forming part of the citrus, generally selected for vigour and disease resistance.
Scion - The “top section” of the plant, grafted onto the rootstock, that will eventually produce the foliage, stems and of course, the flowers.
Process for growing and grafting - it's simple so why not give it a try!
Plant seeds of desired rootstock into pots (Mark uses ‘Flying Dragon’ - a mutation of Citrus trifoliata, highly regarded for it’s dwarfing properties).
After 12 months of growing, rootstock are potted on into individual grow bags
At this stage, during the growing season, the grafting of the bud stock to the rootstock can occur
Select appropriate scion or budstock - individual buds are cut from new growth of the desired citrus - each bud/leaf petiole can become a new citrus tree
Using a sharp budding knife, slice just below the leaf petiole, with the knife almost flat against the stem. Slice upwards, under the bud and remove.
On the rootstock, find a clean, undamaged area of trunk to graft on to and remove thorns and foliage in the area.
Using the budding knife, make a shallow, vertical cut on the stem, and a horizontal shallow slice across the top of the original cut, to form a ‘T’ shape
Using the bark-lifter on the budding knife, gently lift the bark on each side and top of the ‘T’
Slip the prepared bud into the ‘T’ on the rootstock, fold edges of ‘T’ over the bud and trim any excess “tail” from the bud-stock
Wrap area tightly with budding tape to prevent moisture ingress - bud can be covered as it will grow through the tape.
After a month or two, this bud should have begun to grow away, and develop its own foliage. Once this has occurred, the excess top growth of the rootstock can be removed. This ensures all the plants energy and growth is directed into the graft, rather than the rootstock
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Развлечения
There are not enough “ heart” buttons on RUclips for this video. Thank you!
Without a doubt a PERFECT video. Informative. Efficient. Entertaining. Visual. Beautiful. Well edited. Just great!
..except it's all wrong!
@@andrewst9797 why?
I have cut down one of my trees to a stump twice and that sucker grew back stronger than ever.
Amazing! I would've been afraid of killing it. Now I know I can keep my fruit trees smaller with this kind of pruning. Wow!
This was one of the best videos I've seen on drastic pruning AND the grafting process! Well done!
A very clear introduction for beginners.
Thanks for this! I was afraid I went to hard on my citrus, but not hard enough it seems!
After watching your video, I gave my citrus tree a massive prune. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens.
What happened?
Yeah what happened ?
@@NpgSymboL After a hard prune in 2021. This year the tree has sprouted with new growth. I've had the odd 1 or 2 tangelos on the tree this year. However, I will be expecting a surplus on tangelos next year. Our tree appears to be much healthier too. I'll keep you updated.
I've done that my Mandarin is really good and that's your blooming lot Richard Courtney Adelaide south Australia
More videos on how to 'renovate' neglected fruit trees please. Apples, pears, peaches etc
Yes please.
This is a really awesome watch good going guys!
Amazing video
Engall's Nursery In Dural is the best source from where to buy citrus trees for fruit. I bought my trees from their original site in Epping, some 16 years ago. Beautiful trees and fruit. I've since been back to add to my collection of Washington Navels.
I used to love going to that nursery on Carlingford road. I was sad when they shut down :(
Fantastic video. Thanks guys!
Thank you too!
Thanks a lote, from 🇨🇱 Chile
*Thank you very much Kosta*
I have had great success using a flamethrower on citrus trees. Kills all the stink bugs and sets up a tree to recover without all the issues before it was hit with flames.
Amazing
Awesome 👌 💕🍃🌿☘🌴🌱🌲
Just subscribed. Great video!
Great video.! New sub from Canada!
Brilliant!! ~ Thanks~* All Very Inspiring!! : )
Why I am watching this. I never had a garden :D ... fun though
Thanks for sharing. Can you tell me what is the best way to relocate a well established Lemon tree. My sister has a tree that well grown but not getting enough sun light.
Thanks
This video is great! Do you have any other fruit tree pruning videos?? I have an overgrown pomegranate and 5-in-1 and I'm wondering if I can do the same thing.
Glad you enjoyed it, Samantha! Yes we do - we recently released a video on pruning lemon trees but if you search through our videos there is a lot of content on this subject. Thanks for watching!
Wow, brutal, I would never have thought it would recover.
I have a very old lemon tree infested with citrus gall in Essendon, Melbourne, I think I'll give this a go next winter.
PS lets me arc up the chainsaw.
If your tree hasn’t been left unpruned for 20 years, you might want to try something a bit gentler www.abc.net.au/gardening/factsheets/citrus-success/9437008
Mate, if I may suggest, after the big prune, water well, add lots of matured cow manure around the tree and a little (actual) chicken manure (not the pellets) and water in. I've done this a couple of times and get the best results on an old mandarin and lemon trees. Best to do in mid July to early August, after the tree has finished fruiting. Good luck.
How did your prune go?
Wow mind blown
Love it
brilliant video. Too late to do this now (sunny coast)? x
Simply wow, that was awesome.
Nice
i have been given a couple of propergated or grafted citrus and plum , is that why some of the tree has wicked lethal spikes on them , i always wondered why only some of the tree has spikes and the majority of it dosent. from nz
Yes, spot on! The spiky ones are usually the rootstock. These species vary depending on your location - Flying Dragon, mandarin Cleopatra or even a citrange hybrid.
Thank you so much ❤️💕❤️
holy cow - you massacred my boy!!
If I don't want to miss a fruiting season, I wonder what the cutting back I should do?
I would have thought with the that citrus that was pruned back the year before you would trim the excess growth as the grow was taking too much nutrients away from the tree. It looked very bushy and even too thick.
Thanks for the Tips - Could you please advise us a bit details what are the root stocks used for Grafting - Cheers
Totally depends on climate and soil type; Phoenix uses sour orange. Buy your trees at a citrus nursery; forget grafting it will many years to get a healthy tree..
If love to know whether it is worth doing a hard prune on, say, 1/3 of the plant. Would that just push extra energy to the existing branches or could you rotate each year and have healthy growth on the cut tree?
Outside of Australia the usual recommendation is to prune no more than 1/3 of your citrus at a time. Whitewash the exposed trunk.
I pruned my lemon tree back like this and it's not flowering yet. How soon afterwords all it start flower again? I did everything for it that it needed.
Good luck with Gall Wasps! The new grow is fantastic, but the gall wasps from your neighbours that don't care is going to harm the new growth.
Can you use the skeleton cut for fruit tree other then citrus like apple?
Nope. Only citrus. Don't do this to apple, pear or stonefruit trees.
I have a tree in perth what would be the best time to do this sort of skeleton prune as it gets hot in summer I’m worried about the bark burning?
Make sure you prune in the cooler months so the canopy has a chance to bounce back before the summer sun.
Costas looks like my brother in the 60's.
Last year the branches of my orange tree dried up. I cut all the branches off just like you did to this grapefruit. This year it started to grow a whole lot of new baby branches. But unfortunately, they stopped growing and instead the tree started to produce lots of flowers on those small new branches. My question is, will my orange tree grow new branches like the mandarin tree you had or should I just dig it out and plant a new tree? I thought it would grow its limbs back in the spring. But its not growing.
Patience my friend it will reach full growth in time.
@@organicgrow4440 I hope so. This orange tastes very delicious. I dont want to lose it. I dont know what variety it is. It qas herw when I bought the house. Its a big size fruit and very sweet when ripe. It started growing new branches again a couple of weeks ago but stopped. Im hoping in the next year or 2 it gets to full size and produces feuit. Thisbus the 2nd year still no branches.
Feed it. Sounds like not enough nitrogen. Pee on it a couple of times and it will grow.
I was given tulips in water for mothers day. what do i do with the bulbs now the flower is spent. I cut the flower stem but still have the bulbs in water. The leaves are still green.
So I have a mandarin tree i got from the nursery planted in my garden the stake is about 3ft high and the mandarin tree is about 5ft high there are not branches at all until 4ft then it bushes out with alot of branches. Should I be cutting it back to get branches to start lower on the tree?
Your tree is most likely grafted onto a different rootstock. If you cut it back you'll probably end up harvesting bitter orange.
Would Teflon piping tape work as budding tape?
Should have seen him with the ppe in the last vid lol
I planted a tree from a citrus seed.. I believe it is a lemon because it has thorns.. it is now about a meter tall, will give it the first proper prune in late august (SE QLD), would love to see a video on pruning baby trees, like a year or couple of years old..
You don't prune babies!
Kostas whiskers need pruning also , lol
Fantastic video. Thank you.
Do we cover the whole bud with that tape? Will it break free from that tape when it grows into a shoot?
Yes cover the grafted bud. Leave the tap on for a month and then remove it. If the bud is still green, it has successfully merged with the rootstock. The bud should then start growing and once it has good amount of leaf growth to sustain itself, cut off the rootstock body just above the graft.
Margo Belle-Fleur, thank you.
Great video. I have a lemon tree which I made it from seed. It has 3 metres tall and it doesn´t give any lemon yet. I would like to make a graft, but I can´t find any other good lemon tree (and in quarantine is more difficult). The bud to graft, must it be from another tree or can it be from my own lemon tree? Regards
Lemon trees start bearing fruits at an early age. At 3 metre tall that's like 10 years, and no fruit? Something is wrong there. They are easily attacked by gall wasps and affect fruit production. Even the fruit of the Eureka lemon (my favorite) has deformed skin because of these little, unstoppable critters and their larvae.
@@mickcarson8504 ok. Thanks a lot for your answer
Lemons grown from seed are notoriously slow to bear fruit. That's why nurseries graft. Plus you don't even know if it'll taste good (children can differ a lot from parents, seeds do not generate clones!)
It likely isn’t bearing fruit because it was grown from a seedling. With citrus seedlings, some will bear fruit and some don’t. This is why mainly citrus trees are grafted onto a root system rather than grown from seedlings.
@@AristonSparta Thanks for your answer
Can you do this with a 10 year old apricot tree or other fruit trees?
Or is it only citrus that bounces back this well?
i have done this to my friends Apricot and Persimmons tree and they have come back.
apricots, plums and peach regrow quickly after hard prune. Apples and pears dont like it much, bit subtler with them would be better
@@WibblyWobbly Cheers Anna
@@FKSPARTO Thanks SPARTO :)
What plant is he grafting with? Anyone know?
I just pruned my lemon tree like this. Is it ok? I feel like I may have done it too early.
I cut my tree like this, how long does it take to fruit again. It's got good healthy leaves
If you cut it back like in the vid, you will lose 1 season, it should fruit the following year.
@@chrism3845
Nah, my tree took 4 years to estabilish foliage and then fruit again but not the same before pruning, maybe 20-30 fruit first time, then a better crop the following season. Lemons are fussy and can die from shock.
I find when I do prunes on citrus that the new leaves are highly prone to disease and pests. Any suggestions?
Thats exactly what happens when you 'prune' like this! Just uncrowd and rejuvenate your tree lightly and it should be ok..
Where the hell is the tree?
Hi Costa what do you call that root stock the he used that you can plant it buy seeds? I want to know because I’m in propagating citrus trees and I want more root stock to use. The name of the seeds and wondering where I can buy?
you can order from auscitrus, I'm sure there are other places aswell, but i would make sure to only order in the country you live in, you don't want to spread disease
Here was I thinking it was the episode where the legendary Peter Cundall pruned a lemon back almost to the stump.
An updated version of that would be like a remake of Dr Zhivago, using the cast of Married At First Sight (whose cast consists of people waiting for a call-back from Spearmint Rhino).
Come on ABC: with a billion dollars a year, you can surely find a week's wages for someone to upload the old stuff. Nothing against Costa, but the Cundall version is the duck's guts.
Always been scared of going to hard on my tree, next winter
Wishing you all the best of luck
The commercial orange growers prune their trees every year. The are shaped as fluffy clouds instead of shade trees. Much better yield of fruit.
5:00 for the t bud graft
Should I skeleton prune a grapefruit tree with active disease? When I bought my house the citrus tree was already infected by fungus and a good portion of the bark shows active fungus growth and it is pealing. I've removed as much as I can but it's clear the tree will eventually lose the fight. I'm worried if I prune too much it will only accelerate the tree's death. Perhaps I am mistaken, though, and the extra dryness and more sun might help the tree fight off the fungus. Let me know!
Prune it back and make sure when you are cutting the infected parts to disinfect your saw after when pruning the healthy bits and when you finish. Don't do it in the wrong season tough.
@@AnxietyDenial sorry which season is best?
@@ibolmo Late winter/ early spring when there is the least amount of sun that can sun scald the bark and preferably when there is no heavy frost either. Your practically removing the entire canopy of the tree removing any sun protection so it can get sun burned if its bad enough just like humans.
Whitewash the trunk and branches. It's a must.
Hi, my manderine tree needs pruning, But because I have no idea when and how, I might've left pruning to late?.
Fruit has started growing.. can I still prune it?
ah . so this is actually good process lol. Funny how people here used to cut non fruiting tree like this because its too messy and then grow back up even more. without the knowledge that they are pruning it (beneficial)
Wow
I cut mine right back and it took 2 years to produce again.
❤️❤️❤️❤️
Can I do this to a lemon tree ??
lemonentry my dear watson
ive growen my lemon tree from seed
Why did Costas leave stubs on the small branches. I was taught this was wrong.
I planted a lemon tree 4 years ago and my dog always pees under it twice a day It has popped off and already giving lemons of a good Size. Not much yield ofcourse but still early days.
when is the best time to prune citrus though?
Why does the tree look as if someone has covered it in soot/ Love the video
Likely covered in black sooty mould, a fungal disease usually brought on when aphids appear. Very common in neglected fruiting trees due to a lack of airflow and sunlight penetrating through the canopy.
My citrus tree won't bearing fruit after get pruned 😢
Exactly. Pruning stuns them and take a long time to recover in the balance of survival or die. Its best if dead branches and twigs are pruned seasonally rather than the entire canopy. Don't flood it with water but give it a generous amount of iron, e.g. rusted pieces of metal cans, sardine cans, etc., and fertilisers. You won't believe this but my lemon tree tribes when large Cymbidium orchids in pots are underneath its trunk.
You have probably removed the scion of your grafted tree and have ended up with a vigorous root stock that bears no fruit or bad fruit.
Hello, how do you fertilize citrus trees?
Pee pee diluted
Old mate needs a good prune
I can't believe you're not wearing chainsaw pants when using a chainsaw.
I'm always just trying to keep my expensive purchased trees to not die.
Omg I really didn’t think at the time I bought some container lemon trees from a nursery admitted they were tatty and eaten leaves but heaps of flowers and 2 with fruit
I over pruned it ti jut the stems have I killed it
Will it fruit again
For its size it stem is so thin as scrawny
Not thinking I cut al flowers and branches and leaves and fruit off
Shot me
an excellent example of drop starting a chainsaw, just amazing !!!!
"I planted this tree 20 yeeees ago"
Lol. Puts a safety hat on for the camera. Classic
that appears to be chop everything, leave just a little.
Yep, brutal - but it works!
Got rid of all dead branches and then no info on how he decided which living ones to cut off
Click the description. They have more detailed information on what and where to cut 😊
Looks like... The lot
Omg I laughed this guy is a goof ball
They choped the whole tree
😆
They looked huge fruit when one has desert framed eyes .
Sir How to prune mangotree 60 yrs old
I've seen them literally chopped and left only the trunk and then turn into a lollipop when it grows back.
@@hcr32slider after cutting what chemical is used to prevent the tree from drying
@@minijohn877 none, they have their own hormonal reaction when cut, adding chemical does not necessarily help. Google "CODIT in trees"
Current best practice in arboriculture is to apply nothing. But choosing the right time of year for the species you have is advised.
Now be honest people in the nicest possible way, when Costa starts to prune who else reckons he looks like a minion from the movie despicable me? Your a champion Costa, love your work 🙂
Damn the whole tree is gone!
U need to prune Ur beard haha
George Thomas yes, good grooming is paramount for both trees and people
Grafting a1
You shouldn’t drop start your saw mate. Best practice is to hold it between your legs or start it firmly on the ground. That way you minimise the chance of the running saw swinging into your leg. Thanks for the pruning demo and explanation.
Modern Stihl saws are pretty difficult to do that with.
M Kuc yep agreed, Sthils are hard to do that with but there are lots of other saws out there and you might pick one of them up one day and just follow your habits. Plus a 70 year old forester taught me to follow best practice when I first started working in the bush so I reckon it’s one of those lessons that is still relevant.
Chainsaw 🍻
PPE overkill :-)
The thorns on citrus can be pretty evil tho
Hi, I tried this method and my tree probably looks like it's dead.
Even the inner section of my alive plant even that has browned now.
My 16 y.o. tree died, it seems.
You need to prune your tree twice a year - take a little at a time. Trees require active maintenance, not once in 20 years pruning! How about never go a season without fruit.
Yes, if you’ve been maintaining them as you go, you’ll get a much more consistent response! See citrus legend Ian Tolley’s top tips. www.abc.net.au/gardening/factsheets/potted-citrus/9437354
Yes, I don't want to miss a season, as I want to be self-sufficient in fruit and veggies.