Phoenix Tropicals Gardening

[Ondria]

We just moved into a new house that four citrus trees out front that look like they need to be trimmed. When is the best time of year for trimming citrus trees? And is there any special way to do it?

[phoenixtropicals]

The best time to trim is mid-October because the tree will have the most time to grow back before next summer. The only downside to trimming that time of year is that you will be trimming off some fruit. For this reason, you could hold off trimming until early spring.

Citrus do best and produce the most fruit when they are allowed to grow like big bushes with the leaves dropping close to the ground. However, you still want the branches to start out a ways up the trunk so you can make sure the rootstock doesn't send out any shoots without you knowing about it. The rootstock shoots should always be cut off.

Citrus can also be trimmed like a shade tree but you have to paint the trunk if you do that to keep it from sunburning. Use a 50% white latex paint 50% water solution.

I generally just trim my citrus to keep them from getting too large, meaning I just prune the branches when they get too long. That kind of trimming can be done any time of year because it doesn't really expose the bark to burn. I only thin my trees out when they have dead branches on the inside, which happens when branches don't get any sun.