The high cost of everything...

[Carey]

macuu222, We have a navel orange that fruits pretty much year round (very sweet & juicy). When we bought this place in Keaau, the Filipino seller had told us to use 10-10-10 about a cup, around the drip edge during the A months (April & August). Many of our old Japanese neighbors with trees have confirmed that this is what they do. That said, we found out that 10-10-10 is not that easy to find, only have found it at Garden Exchange, and not all the time (but did find it late April last year...PHEW! would have hated to mess with the citrus garden gods!) I have also heard that some citrus trees have on & off years, but 15 years sounds like a long off time. Our tangerine tree produces like crazy from late Dec. through Feb., then sleeps, but most our our neighborhood oranges produce heavy in the winter (10+ lbs./week), but lightly (3-5 fruit/week) throughout the year. We did rent a house just below Beach, and our neighbor had an orange that produced just a few fruits, but it was planted only 5 years ago, and they didn't do anything to it...If you think it could be salt spray, you may want to put up a salt screen (burlap on posts, used alot up north to protect trees from road salt).
Aloha, Carey