Double Checking that I have this Right

Hello all.

I recently got some new trees - 2 pomegranates, a valencia orange, a navel orange, and a mandarin. I'm posting to make sure that I do this right, and get any advice that may be offered.

The poms are for out front near the easement. There are two, so they should be able to polinate each other, right? They are the same variety (Ambrosia). That should not hurt for polination will it? If so, I can go out and get another one for when the time comes - like a Sharp Velvet (yes I want fruit the size of my head so I can get lots of juice) if you need to have two cultivars.

The oranges are going to be spaced about 10' apart, so that should be enough room to grow, right? And they can also cross polinate each other to make sure I get some fruit? I know that you need two plants for oranges, for best results, but I couldn't find anything against valencia and navel but want to make sure.

The mandarin is going in the back, on the other side of the fence, near a neighbors satsuma. That should cover the polination questions, for making sure the mandarin is taken care of, right? A fence is not really a very good deterrent to bees, I should think.

I'm planning to let them flower and make any bees in the area happy (I'm even thinking of planting some borage near each tree, just to make sure that any bees in the area feel welcome), but for the first year or two, I'm planning to pinch off the flowers once they start to die, in the hopes that it will concentrate the growth into ... well, growth. I am looking to make sure that they all get a good solid start before I request fruit from them. This is the right thing to do, right?

For fertilizer/nutrients I am planning on periodically spreading a bunch of compost around them, and then mulching with something like bark. That should take care of them, correct? Is there a particular mulch that might help them more than others (like I mulched my blueberries with pine needles because I know that they love a little acid in the soil, and that will break down to acid).

Squirrels don't eat citrus do they? One of the reasons for citrus is because I want to have something tasty that the squirrels will leave alone (unlike my tomatoes).

Like I said, I think I'm doing this right. I've been reading everything that I can, but quite frankly, asking in here is far more educational than half the books out there.

Thank you, in advance, for any advice you offer.

Hastur, It sounds like you have given your planting plans a lot of thought. One thing I would suggest is that if your citrus are standard trees that you space them at 15' rather than 10'. If you have the space. You can always control their size by pruning but letting them spread out a little and controling their height is a good way to go.. Don

Hrmmm... I can push it to about 12 feet, or get the permissions of my neighbor to encroach on their space a little. I figure that eventually getting fresh oranges would be a good enticement to allow encroachment. *grin*

Thank you. I had thought that 10' would be enough, combined with a bit of pruning to keep the trees within something that I have a vague chance of harvesting, but I'll spread them out a little more.

Thank you again!

Hastur,

Pomegranates are self-pollinating, but for future reference, when a fruit tree needs a pollinator, it has to be a different compatible cultivar.

Most citrus are self-pollinating as well. The flowers are so fragrant that I've had bee find their way into my greenhouse to get to the flowers. As for the compost/mulch: That will help keep the roots cool especially here in Texas, but it will not supply all the nutrient requirement of a citrus tree especially one loaded with fruit. Citrus fare a lot better if you feed them fertilizer made specifically for them and divide the amount recommended by 4 and feed that amount 4 times a year instead of all at once. There are organic fertilizers for citrus around. I hope you purchased your trees grafted on the trifoliate rootstock.

http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/pomegranate.html
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/extension/homefruit/citrus/citrus.html
http://www.gardenguides.com/102088-grow-citrus-trees-houston-texas.html
http://sites.google.com/site/johnpanza/whyyouwanttogrowcitrusontrifoliata
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/southerngarden/Figcitrus.html

A question about your blueberries. Were you able to get the pH down to 4.5 before you planted your shrubs? Blueberries need fairly acidic good draining soil. In Houston, raised beds filled with acidic soil designed for acid loving plants might be the best way to go. Also having a pH meter will help you figuring out how acidic or alkaline the soil is.

I did not actually measure the PH, but they did fruit after they very first went in. I basically dug a hole about twice as large as I thought I would need, filled it half way with soaking wet peat, added the bush, and finished the hole with yet more soaking peat, and put a little bit of the clay on top of the peat - mostly to make sure it was covered. They seemed to appreciate it, as there were definite berries last year. This winter, I mulched the daylights out of them with the pine needles because I remember that my best bushes back in Maine were the ones under the pines. They have some lovely growth on them, so I have hopes that they will do well.

I havent' done more than cover them during this snap but they don't look like they are complaining. If they fruit again this year, I'm thinking that I will want to put an entire hedge of blueberries in front of the house. The drainage where they are planted is pretty good - it never pools there, but the grass that was growing there was healthy. I may want to add some acidic fertilzer to them though, just to be sure.

I did not check the rootstock on the trees. The trees themselves are nice and strong looking, healthy (and seem to be enjoying the cold - although I still bring them in when it gets REALLY cold). Not that that means anything other than that the trees looked strong. I'll have to call the nursury. However, after reading the articles you so kindly linked, I would guess that there is a graft. Each of the trees has the distinctive ridge, so my best guess is that they are on some sort of different rootstock.

I am very much taking your advice on the fertilizer. Thank you!