My one grapefruit tree is still yellow in color after applying the iorniate and citrus granular fertlizer last Feb. The fruit is ready for the picking. My one lemon tree has some dead branches but leafs are starting to come on some of the old wood. The other lemon tree has tasteful bumpy somewhat rounded lemons on it ready for harvesting is has greened nicely. The ruby red tree is aalso ready for picking. I think the past lack of care is what made this crop of fruit smaller in size although the lemons are nice sized. Guess Ill start juicing next week. No fruit has fallen off the trees as yet. Is that the sign as to when to pick the fruit? My one orange tree that yeilded sweet seedless wonderful oranges is producing many white buds now. The sick orange tree with all the trunks appears healthy and some of those small sour oranges way up high are still hanging on. The lime tree has not produced any fruit this yr but it is a smaller tree and seems to be filling out after the pruing we did our first yr here. The strange orange tree with the sour bumpy oranges on it still has them on it. It is one I will try grafting and also the one with all the large root stocks. Think I will try the grafting and see what happens. I apreciate all the advise. Oh yes I will freeze the juice for summer drinking. Since Ive never done this before I need to read up on pealing the fruit or cutting it and using the attachment with my juicer. Since our soil here is very alkuline should I apply epson salts around the fruit trees? If so how much do I use? Or will the fertlizer I put down be enough? It was granular and was for citrus trees. Our weather has been in the 80's last week and the 70's this week but expected to climb back to the 80's within a day or two. Ive been watering with the drip lines which flow for about 3 hrs once a week since feb. At what temp do I water the trees twice a week. My one palmagranet tree has filled out with new leafs this week and the other gets more shade and is just starting to open its leaf buds. Last yr remember the fruit was all split. You said it was from wrong watering. First it didnt get enough and when we took over the property and I watered once and twice a week it was to much. I water 3 hrs at a time. Is that ok? Any standing water disapears within 20min after the water is shut off. If I adjust the drip lines to go slower it takes forever for them to get any water at the base of the trees. I got the 3hr thing from a paper at a local nursary and once and twice a week from the same paper. When its 100 degrees and above dont you think they should be watered more? Dont know if this is the right place for this one but we also have a olive grove and several single olive trees throught the property. Do I call these fruit trees? At any rate when we purchased the property these trees were huge bushes with large branches. We trimned them all back into wonderful trees and suddenly we had black olives all over the ground this yr. Its now time to go around and break off all the trunk suckers again. Do they produce olives every yr? Anyone know how to process olives for eating purposes or are just to rake up the mess every season? The olives taste bitter but look like the ones you get in a can. You can Stop laughing at me anytime now. Back in Iowa I tried to grow a russian olive tree 3 times and failed all three. They do not like Iowas severe winters. The trees here are huge and beautiful now that their trimned. I was told when we purchased this property that we had some pecan nut trees but so far I havent found any. I have some trees that I dont know what they are as yet- but the only thing falling to the ground is tinny messy seeds of some sort that you have to brush off the cement or rake off the ground. What forum do I go on to figure out how to kill grass and weeds. We had an unusual amount of rain in Feb and early mar this yr and suddenly all the empty desart ground has what looks like geranium leafs on the back 40 creeping twords the fruit trees. On the areas we applied 1/4 and1/2" minor rock we now have grass and weeds in patches and some those geranimum leafs. We have applied weed killers on the vacent areas but are afraid to get close to the palms, trees, and other bushes and plants and flowers, with it so we weed eat or pull them on a whole acre. Someone said to use dawn dish soap. We havent gotten around to purchasing a new battery for our garden tractor to mow off the weeds but we are afraid of uneven ground with it. Seems to me if we just cut the weeds and grass and the heat comes it will kill the weeds wont it? People havent seen it so green around these parts in yrs im told. I planted ice plants under the palm trees and suddenly last week grass is chocking them out. The vinca minor didnt come back but the mexcian primrose has started coming. What was so baren or overgrown when we bought the property has sprung to life. I have areas around the housing that Im not sure is weed or flower and im waiting to find out. There was none of this last yr. We could pull or put weed killer on the few patches that werent welcome. Someone told us that yrs ago the property had grass. I cant imagine watering grass with all the other watering I do daily on the property to just keep up with the drip systems and soaker hoses and sprinklers and hose. I found if you can get a plant to summer or winter over it is established. I keep reading and learning and trying as this desart is certainly different than Iowa gardening. Thanks for all the wonderful help and suggestions. A story you might enjoy is that I couldnt figure out why my watermellons were orangish and not red in the middle and sweet. They were yucky. The cantelope was fine. I was told I over watered the mellons. They seldom water here and have acres they dont water and the mellons grow and taste wonderful. I decided if I could purchase a mellon for 1.00 it was not worth my time to grow them. No wonder I had such wonderful vines. This sure is not Iowa.
With alkaline soil, you may want to use ammonium sulfate as a primary fertilizer on your citrus trees--that will help keep the soil acid and supply the N for the trees--you can add some balanced fertilizer for the P and K. I do not know if desert soils are low in Mg, you might ask your extension service. As for water, I have no experience in desert climates, but if your trees survived several years without any extra water, they will probably do fine with a little extra---you can kill your trees much quicker with too much water than too little. Dawn soap will not kill weeds--it will kill insects. Good luck on your grafting-- the time to do it is when the temps are in the 70s and 80s and your tree is actively growing.