What is needed for normal fruiting of citrus fruits?
It is important to know how to properly form the crown of a tree - that is, what are the types of branches and what is the order of their appearance. Then you can manage and the timing of the beginning of fruiting - through timely pruning and inoculation of the processes.
Fruits appear in citrus plants on branches of the fourth and higher orders. Fruit citrus fruits, as a rule, on shorter, more thin, horizontally located shoots( fruiters call them "fruit trees").
If the crown of the citrus tree is formed correctly, it looks beautiful: almost spherical, with small, densely leafy fruit branches, with a sufficient number of vegetative shoots. The more the crown is filled with small fruit branches, the more yield you can expect from the tree.
A properly formed tree should have a small bole - 10-15 cm in height( the stem is part of the trunk of the fruit tree from the root collar to the first skeletal branch of the crown).Also, it should have 3-4 correctly located side branches of the first order. When forming the crown, you need to monitor the order of branching branches.
In the middle belt, with an unusual for a subtropical plant a short day, on lemons often develop large, so-called "live" shoots, clogging others. But on these intensively growing shoots, as well as on branches of the first-third order, the fruits do not appear. What can be done? The upper branches and shoots, which grow rapidly in the vertical direction and often do not bear fruit, should be shortened by trimming or grafting. Do not be afraid to cut the too lush crown of your lemon tree! Mark the height of the stem, count 4 normal buds and cut unnecessary shoots above these kidneys. The remaining buds will very soon give life to the shoots of a new order. From them again choose and leave 3-4, the most correctly located, and others cut out.
Shoots that reach 20-30 cm, pincers - that is, pinching, removing the top to stop growing in length. When newly grown shoots ripen, they are cut again - by 15-20 cm.
Weak plants after the first pruning sometimes form only two shoots of the first order. In this case, the stronger one is cut very shortly( by 2-3 eyes), for forcing out the missing skeletal branches, that is, forming the crown.
Cut branches of the first order grow sprouts of the second order. Of these, only 2-3 are left on each branch, after punching and aging, they are cut to 20-25 cm, after which they give shoots of the third order.
For one year it is possible to grow shoots of two orders, and the formation of the crown ends with the cultivation of shoots of the fourth order. Only now our tree is ready to go into fruiting.
After the plant begins to bear fruit, it should be cut every year. The first pruning is done in the spring, during the period of intensive growth. To cut it is necessary:
small, with drying ends of a branch on which there were fruits( usually they without leaves);
"live" shoots;
sick, dry and broken or those that grow deep into the crown;
are those that too thicken the crown. The fattening crown is cut for 20-25 cm for
forming small fruit branches that will yield the crop next year. After pruning on branches, a large number of new shoots grow, of which 2-3 should be left, the strongest and correctly located, on each branch.
If the plant is abundantly blooming and bearing fruit, without giving a new growth, then in the period of butonization, cut every 2-3 shoots to 2/3 of the length. Short cutting leads to the emergence of new shoots, which next year will bear fruit.
Long shoots, already bearing fruit, cut too short. All unnecessary processes appearing on the trunk, skeletal branches and branches of the crown, should immediately be destroyed - cut or plucked.
An indication of a strong and healthy plant is the growth of vegetative shoots simultaneously with flowering and fruiting. The lack of growth indicates a weakening of the tree and unfavorable growing conditions for it.
Top dressing
This is a very important condition for growing a strong tree - if it is done in a timely manner. If the plant nutrients are not enough, the ovaries, flowers and fruits begin to fall off. Citrus fruits during the cultivation in the rooms are fed in the period of mass setting fruit, that is, in May-June. Do this regularly, every 10-15 days. For top dressing, take a solution of mineral salts: 10 liters of water - 7 grams of saltpeter, 5 grams of potassium salt and 0.25 liters of boiled superphosphate. Superphosphate is prepared in the following way: 50 g of superphosphate is dissolved in 1 liter of water, boiled for 30 minutes, cooled and defended. The resulting concentrated solution before use is affected by scutes, spider mite. With a strong infection of the plant must be treated with an insecticidal drug, adjust the humidity of the air.
You can fight citrus pests with the help of citrus fruits. Toxic for aphids and mealybugs is a decoction of orange peels. A kilogram of dry crust is poured with 10 liters of warm water and left for three days in a warm dark place. The infusion is used for processing plants undiluted.