It's a grumpy sod and took dislike when we moved house almost dying in the process. It has since been a shadow of its former self always looking a bit crabby and not amused.
However for reasons unknown it has decided that this year will be the first year it will flower.
We don't hold out any hope for fruit but it is nice to see some flowers after twelve years of care.
Hi R.
ReplyDeleteMy sister had the same problem, when she moved. In her case it turned out to be the tap water. When she started using rain water from a water butt the problems went away. She keeps it in a big pot in a south facing conservatory in the winter. She wheels it outside in the summer months. It flowers most years but has not had any fruit so far. You have to use an acidic plant food as the tendency is for the soil to go alkaline.
Mick
Before we moved house it was in excess of 7ft tall. It used to live in an easterly facing living room which wasnt the lightest of rooms. It has always been fed with a specific citrus fertilizer.
ReplyDeleteWhen we moved house we found it the perfect spot in our bedroom in front of a south facing window. Sunshine all day for the orange tree. You would think that this was a good thing, right? Wrong! It slowly started to die back and look more and more sickly.
Eventually after over half of it had died we decided to repot it in fresh compost and on the instruction of a citrus grower stopped its feed until it started to regrow. Apparently too much feed whilst citrus are in a dormant (looked dead to us) can burn the roots and kill it off.
It has eventually recovered a little but it has been some six years since its dying act and it still isnt anywhere near as healthy looking as it was. It has put on a bit of a growth spurt this year so we have started feeding it again and it is beginning to slowly start to look healthier again.
It will require a remedial prune once it is back up to strength again as it has a couple of dead branches in the middle of an otherwise green bush!!