Oranges and Grapefruit

[kalakoa]

I would smother the grass rather than use chemicals: cut the grass, lay some cardboard around the tree, put a layer of mulch on the cardboard, add a bunch of peanutgrass starts.

[shave_ice]

Citrus should also have dolomite lime applied. Particularly in Puna, where it rains so much. Yellowing leaves is a sign that you should add lime.

[d96778]

I have a ruby red grapefruit & a Fisher orange tree, both are growing really well, but in spite of everything I've tried, I just can't get them to bloom or set fruit. Both of them bloomed the first year, but didn't set fruit, and neither has bloomed since. They're about 3 & 4 years in the ground. I've tried K-Mag, dolomite lime, 10-30-30 feed....nothing seems to work. We are located in Ha. Shores, about 1/2 mile up from the coast.

Any help?????

Thanks, Dee

[Guest]

I wish you luck!

[MarkP]

I cut down the grass around the lemon tree and spread some cinder, mostly to fill in holes but also to provide more soil-like growing media and to act as a mulch. The leaves are starting to green up very slightly. It has dropped some leaves and some new leaves are emerging. I guess the grass was the problem.

Some of you may remember that I had planted some american chestnuts. I had about 8 at one time. a couple were 7' tall and looked very promising. A few just seemed to peter out. The 3 largest got attacked by some type of boring insect. The state forestry people couldn't offer any good suggestions to save them, saying that such attacks correlated strongly with poor health of the tree from other things. The tree is weak so it gets attacked. It might have been a type of root rot, which I hear attacks a few kinds of trees around here. I recall one of the trees actually putting out a couple of the tassle-like blossoms characteristic of chestnuts, so I got all excited like it was a good thing. I think now that the tree was making a last ditch attempt to live on through its progeny. I have heard of sick trees doing this, suddenly blossoming. Anyway I am down to the last tree. It was the runt of the litter if you don't count the few nuts I planted directly in the ground. The direct seeded ones did very poorly for some reason and after 3 or 4 years were still only a few inches tall. I thought I was going to lose this last tree too since it had no leaves and only a few feeble buds at the middle of April. I cleared the grass away from it as well and now it has a fair amount of foliage. That grass must be some stiff competition. I have been going out daily and hand-pulling little sprigs of grass from the mounds. The trees are planted in mounds of imported soil. Seems like the grass grows almost an inch a day.

[rainyjim]

Mark, there is a large variety of 'companion' plants you could try planting around the base of your valuable trees. There are many beneficial plants you could choose, but based off the information you've given I would suggest some type of ground cover with a benign root system that will not interfere and compete with the roots of your tree's. Establishing a beneficial ground-cover where grass has already firmly entrenched itself will be difficult but not impossible - requiring lots of hand weeding as your companion plant spreads around the base of your trees.

I would recommend perennial peanut or tropical alfalfa for the following reasons:

-shallow root system (doesn't compete with trees)
-hosts nitrogen fixing bacteria in root nodules and will help 'green' up your trees by converting atmospheric nitrogen into a bioavailable nitrogen for your trees.
-easily available in hawaii, not invasive.
-given time and attention will cover area nicely as a thick mat preventing grass/other weed seeds from germinating or taking root.


Aside from the grass, you could try to ferment some IMOs (indigenous micro-organisms) using some basics like milk and rice to make a probiotic innoculant for your trees. Milk and rice are the main ingredients for EM-1 (effective microorganism - 1) and are used as a aerobic "micro-herd" to combat pests like fungi (think root rot, powdery mildew, etc). Besides EM-1 another effective ferment is making a compost tea using worm castings. Establishing beneficial microbes in your soil strengthens your plants, and is fortunately environmentally friendly and can be done with home-made ingredients like milk, rice, and worm castings.

I prefer to think of myself as a farmer of micro-organisms and the micro-organisms as the caretakers of the plants.

Aloha mai kakou