Blood Meal and Citrus Trees
Question from Kevin:
I would like to know how much blood meal I should put under my citrus trees, even the ones that are flowering?
Answer from Pat:
It sounds to me as if you have been killing your trees with kindness—I mean the ones that are not doing well. Mulch should not be deeper than 4 inches unless you plan on doing lasagna gardening and then you would be planting on top. Why put down newspaper and then cover that with all that mulch in layers? How can the water get through to tree roots and how can the fertilizer reach the roots? Two or three inches of mulch under citrus is fine in home gardens and it gradually rots and adds to the humus content of the ground, but should not be much thicker than that. The UC Extension says don’t make mulch deeper than 4 inches and about 3 inches deep is better to allow for water penetration but to keep down weeds. I have heard of newspaper used to keep down weeds or to act as the bottom layer in a “lasagna garden”, or to use as a covering for pathways in vegetable gardens and I have heard that it attracts earthworms, which is good, but it sounds to me as if the way you have used newspaper on the bottom of all this mulch, it would act like a raincoat keeping moisture from rain or irrigation from ever reaching plant roots beneath it. All that paper and mulch will absorb all the water and the nutrients as well.
The horse manure under the Washington navel orange last fall was an excellent idea and now you are seeing the results. That would have been good for all your citrus trees instead of this other mulching system. If you want to fertilize your citrus trees with blood meal you should also add some bone meal, Sul-Po-Mag (for potassium) and seaweed or chelated minerals for iron and trace minerals. Blood meal contains 13.25 % so for a dwarf tree four years old ground in the ground I would mix 2 cups of blood meal with 1/2 cup Sul-Po-Mag, 2 cups bone meal and 2 cups of seaweed meal and sprinkle that on the ground from a distance of 2 feet from the trunk to one foot beyond the drip line and water it thoroughly into the ground. Repeat the nitrogen (blood meal) in June, but do not repeat the bone meal and Sul-Po-Mag and see how that goes. If there is not enough results, you could increase by one cup blood meal for each application next year. I am being a bit conservative since blood meal can burn and your trees are dwarf. The seaweed meal is to provide iron and trace elements. Wear a mask when mixing and don’t breathe in the dust.
Regarding the tree’s that are flowering, I did say to you earlier on that sometimes if we fertilize with nitrogen while the trees are flowering this might make the flowers drop off. This is why commercial growers feed their citrus trees in late January. I was leaving the decision up to you to make. But since you are asking me, my answer is next year feed the trees sometime at the end of January and no later than mid-February before they begin to flower. For those that are flowering already this year, hold off and don’t feed until after they have finished flowering and you see the little fruits beginning to grow. But next time be ahead of the game. Okay? In most climate zones citrus trees flower in February. They may be a little later where you live. But if they bloom in February, you should feed in late January, like my book says.
Your beautiful Mrs . Welsh, THANK YOU! and Happy Easter! Christ be with you.
Thanks Kevin! I expect 28 family members for our Easter breakfast and egg hunt in my garden. Happy Easter to you also.
I have been reading the month to month book and I have a question with starting the feeding in February on Deciduous fruit trees. The book says to feed horse manure in the fall and/or add 1 cup blood meal, 1 cup fishbone meal and 1/4 cup sul-po-mag. Can horse manure and blood meal, fishmeal and sul-po-mag be added together all at one time?
No. Do not add that all at once. Deciduous fruit trees should never be overfed or you will get a lot of growth and not enough fruit. Do one or the other. One way my book said to feed is to mulch the trees with manure in fall. Another way is to fertilize just as the flower buds are swelling and to feed lightly at that time with balanced organic plant food. I suggested the blood meal, bonemeal, and sul-po-mag as one way to provide the necessary nutrients for this feeding. It is too late to do this now since your tree will have already bloomed. Feeding now might make more fruit drop off than usual. A deciduous fruit tree growing in fertile soil might not need any feeding at all. Another way to feed deciduous fruit trees that need it is to use chicken manure sprinkled under the tree from about 2 feet out from the trunk to about a foot or two further than the tips of the branches. If your tree is looking lackluster, you could sprinkle a little chicken manure under the tree now and wash it into the soil. For a medium-sized tree, perhaps two cups of chicken manure would be okay. But if your tree is growing well and bearing fruit, why fertilize? It might do more harm than good. Why not wait until next fall or spring? As I understand it, there are no precise guidelines for correct amounts to fertilize deciduous fruit trees. The best authorities for California fruit trees say to fertilize lightly and to do so just as the flower buds are swelling in spring. To fertilize now might encourage too much leafy growth. I also might change the instructions in my book another year and suggest applying the bloom ingredients (phosphorus and potassium) earlier, since these are slow acting. I am going to ask some professional organic fruit growers about this. Though some guys won’t tell me their secrets, I have nonetheless learned an awful lot about the right way to grow things this way. I know manure in fall works great since I have seen the results myself, but the manure should be applied after leaves fall in order not to discourage dormancy.