CITRUS/TROPICALS:

Rutaceae

Relatives: Many!

Rabbit Ridge Nursery also offers a limited number of Tropical Fruits for our gardening customers. Tropicals, by definition, are plants that are too tender to last outside all year in our Climate Zone (8); they must be protected from freezing temperatures by moving them inside into a climate controlled shelter. When you bring your Tropicals inside for the winter, they become awesome house plants in Beautiful Pots. These Tropical Fruits will perfume you home all winter with wonderful lemon / lime / orange fragrances. Unlike the other fruits we sell at Rabbit Ridge Nursery, Tropicals do not need chilling hours to have proper fruit set the following year.

THINGS TO KNOW BEFORE YOU GET INTO GROWING CITRUS

Growing Citrus for yourself is both a rewarding and fun gardening adventure to embrace, and especially so if you have a bright window in your home for your Citrus plants to sit through the winter and make those long winter days be filled with lemon and lime scents.

Facts about growing Citrus at home:

+ Both lemons and limes take about six months from blossom to ripe fruit.
+ Both lemons and limes start out green. Lemons and limes will both turn yellow when ripe.
+ Young lemons, limes and mandarin Citrus trees will normally drop some fruit and continue to do so until they grow older.
+ Lemons, limes and mandarins are self-fruitful and are therefore self-pollinating.
+ Potted Citrus will benefit from a fertilizer feeding about three times a year.
+ Lemons, limes and Mandarins take about four years to mature enough to bear reliably.
+ All lemons, limes and Mandarins will benefit from pruning. We generally prune all our Citrus once a year, in late fall, just prior to freezing weather and before bringing them into a protected winter location (ie. not below freezing). Our general rule with pretty much all our prunning is to reduce the height of the Citrus by at least 1/3, and also shorten any laterals that are too long. This actually seems to make them grow better, as a lot of Citrus tend to not want to be bushy and would be happy to just grow up and up forever.

 

(Click a fruit below to link to its details)