Holiday Lights, Citrus, and Fertilizer

Something I love about our street is that people work together to string holiday lights across the street from the roof of one home to another. Today was that day.  In addition to the lights going up across the street, we put up our own along the front, in the apple tree, on a couple trellises and on the ivy and into the pigmy date palms.  We also have some big ornaments we put in those date palms. I love watching them blow in the breeze, although sometimes it blows so hard that they blow right off.

We also added composted chicken manure and organic citrus fertilizer to all of the fruit trees. The lemon got an extra dose of humic acid (Gro-Power), as did the star jasmine.  Also, several pots, the star jasmine, a camelia and a few other plants got some all purpose fertilizer (OsmoCote).  Some rain would be welcome to really water that in well.  This week we got some long awaited rain... 0.09 inches. I know... impressive.

Front Pot and Citrus Update

The front pot... the soil sulfur is going to take a while to work.  I'm told it requires breakdown by soil microbes, which are more active in warm, moist soil.  To continue the chemical experiment on this sad potted plant, I added humic acid and ferrous sulfate today. Do you think the soil will ignite?  It did not immediately do so.

The Eureka Lemon is loving the liquid iron, humic acid and citrus fertilizer I applied last month.  It is in the least sunny position of all the citrus I'd planted and wasn't growing much. With those recent additions it has put up considerable new green growth.

Soil Sulfur to Front Pot and Star Jasmine update

The poor plant in that front pot.  It's hating life even more after flushing it out. I think partially because the soil has stayed so wet after all of that soaking.  Working another angle, 10/30/18 I put soil sulfur in the pot to see if acidifying the soil might help.

On the bright side, the star jasmine has been quite pleased with the humic acid, fertilizer and fish emulsion. The leaves have stopped turning red and there are new green leaves developing.

Flushed pot on front patio

On 10/14/18 we did a deep soak and repeated flushes with water to the potted plant on the front patio that I mentioned in the last journal.  It has been struggling.  A kind and helpful blog reader (thank you!) suggested flushing the pot as salts from regular watering may accumulate.  Why didn't I think of that!?  I use Reverse Osmosis water for exactly this reason on our houseplants, but I do not do this on the outside pots.  This is the only one on a hard surface and, therefore, in a saucer.  Fingers crossed... let's hope this helps.

Garden Update at Home

I'm updating some from this weekend's gardening.

The potted plant on the front patio had a hard summer and lost many leaves. The only real difference in its life is a saucer under it that doesn't let it dirty up the tiles.  But that hasn't been wet holding much water, only damp after watering.  So, I don't think that's the issue. Over the years, its had white fly issues. I periodically add worm castings to it.  I don't think that pattern has changed. I showed it to my mom and she suggested iron.  So this weekend, I gave it some liquid iron and an all-purpose fertilizer.  Did I also give it some fish emulsion? Can't recall.  So much for writing this down quickly.

I also gave liquid iron to the lemon tree. That tree is closest to the house of the recent ones planted and does not get enough sun.  I knew the site was suboptimal, but figured a lemon tree could survive that spot.  It is doing ok, but not taking off as some others are.

Two star jasmines are acting more deciduous than I like. Is it the variety? Location? It isn't that cold here.  And some of the leaves that turned red last year stayed on and continued red. Which is pretty, but I'd rather it be leafy.  Wondering if it needed any soil help, I added some humic acid to the incredibly hard soil. Also gave it all purpose fertilizer and fish emulsion to help those leaves.  Maybe this is all futile and I'm just expecting it to keep more leaves than that variety does. Other star jasmines around, don't turn as red and lose as many leaves though.

The tangelo had first an aphid problem and now some black residue on its leaves. I've been spraying it off with a hose, which helps some.

All the citrus got a dose of humic acid and citrus fertilizer.

Planted New Citrus

I've been wanting to get more citrus in our yard.  So last weekend we planted:

Algerian Manderin (Front NW)

Eureka Lemon (Front NE, closest to house)

Minneola Tangelo (Front NE, next out from house)

And this weekend we got the 4th one in at the nursery and planted:

Gold Nugget Manderin (Front NE, furthest from house)

(I'm back publishing this. It happened 1/28/18 and 2/3/18)