Thanks for your prompt and authoritative answer, Millet, regarding my lime. I am most grateful. I have spent 30 minutes in your forum learning of my ******ld citric errors. I notice you are averse to fruit spikes. You suggest high nitrogen fertilizer with trace minerals. OK: I am convinced. I have a glorious Meyer lemon in front that I love more than my house. I had been using stakes. The lemon is on the lawn surrounded by (crab)grass. If I put the nitrogen on the lawn, won't I just be fertilizing the (crab)grass? How does one proceed in such a circumstance? Also, I am assuming that using Ortho crabgrass killer would be a) bad for the tree and b) bad for me, so I have desisted. I think they mess with the salt intake of the weeds. Do you happen to know if these assumptions are true? Again, please accept my gratitude for sharing your knowledge with us.
There is a commercial slow release fertilizer called shake and feed that contains trifluralin--it is a pre-emergent herbicide and will stop crabgrass from sprouting but will not kill grass that is already there--You should remove that manually and keep a grass free ring around your tree. Trifluralin is safe around citrus. You can supply most of the fertilizer your tree needs with another fertilizer that contains traace minerals.
I use Roundup on all weeds & grass around the base of my citrus trees with no ill effects... As stated in another post for my in ground citrus I use a three pound bag of Vigoro citrus fertilizer on each tree three times a year. My Meyer lemon is about 10 ft tall now & producing excellent lemons. It was planted three years ago from a 1 gal plant. It is on it's own roots & has never skipped a beat. I make rooted cuttings of it every year.
