When is the best time to trim/prune an orange tree?
Right now. Pruning will induce growth–which is about to come with spring temperatures anyway. If you wait until warm temperatures, you will have wasted some of the tree’s energy and if you prune in the fall, you will have it growthy at the wrong time of the year and make it more vulnerable to cold damage. Why does a tree only have a few blossoms this year when it had lots of fruit last year? Some varieties are naturally alternate bearers. For others, very often the nutrition necessary to provide blooms is used up by a heavy crop and it takes a while to recover. We see this in early oranges when much of the crop isn’t harvested–the next crop is diminished. Extra nutrition is necessary when a big crop has been produced–and this needs to be available to the tree before the spring growth occurs. Commercial groves are usually fertilized in December and January. Do citrus trees go dormant every year? For how long? Why? Citrus is a sub-tropical plant which does not actually go dormant. How
