Is it to late to fertilize citrus trees?

I fertilized some small trees I have back in Feb. then it didn't rain for two months. Well the rain is back and the trees are growing but the leaves are a much lighter green. I'm trying to grow them bigger as fast as possible, good idea or bad idea to hit them with some 10-10-10?

Do you have any kind of watering schedule for your trees? Your first sentence implies that you fertilized, but didn't water the trees for two months. Citrus prefer consistently moist soil to grow well. However, they do resent overwatering and tend to get root rot.

Use a citrus fertillizer that contains the micronutrients that citrus trees need. Certain types of urea used in non-citrus fertilizers can cause permanent toxicity problems.

Light green leaves could be caused by a lack of nitrogen, but there are other causes too. Young leaves are also a lighter green. A photo of the leaves would be helpful. Why the rush to get the leaves "bigger as fast as possible"? Citrus grow in flushes several times a year. Over fertilizing will not help increase the leaf size faster. There are hormones that increase plant and flower size, but I don't know if they can be used safely with edibles.

"The latest recommendation for citrus is a bag labeled 8-3-9 or 8-2-10 and it should have at least 3% magnesium. See the back of the bag for other nutrients (minor elements) and their quantities. Minor elements are critical for citrus health."

http://www.seminolecountyfl.gov/lls/coopext/articles.asp?articleID=142

Yes I have been watering them but just by a hose so the ground around them sucks up the water. The siol is sandy so that doesn't help much either.

I'm not trying to get the leaves bigger but the actual tree to get bigger.

Here's a picture of the grapefruit tree.

They don't look bad to me. I just want them to grow big enough to support a decent amount of fruit. Also I'm figuring the bigger they are the more cold resistent they will be.

Thanks for the link that pretty much answers my question.

this is considered a good resource around these parts:

http://www.lsuagcenter.com/NR/rdonlyres/D88C319D-8F9D-41A3-AF2E-8CF09F60C57B/35394/pub1234homecitrusHIGHRES.pdf

it is specific to Louisiana but you should find some useful info

Thanks for the link.

Slawter; Thanks for the link to the ag center. I knew it was there I just couldnt find it on the their site when I looked for it. I was about to drive to the rural life/agcenter on Essen to get the info. that I was looking for. I am in the shopping and choosing stages to plant this Jan. Looks like maybe brown select statsuma and myer lemon
Lance

I planted all cold hardy citrus this spring. Bloodsweet grapefruit, satsuma mandrain, dancy tangerine, red naval and a harvey lemon. I know I have 3 oranges but I'm trying to figure out which works the best around here. The one thing with meyers lemon is they're sweet for a lemon. That harvey lemon I got is supposed to be a true cold hardy lemon.

I got a hold of a member of the Southeast citrus grows association that lives by me and he really knew his stuff. A little to much info at one time. LOL.

We got a late frost here late in the spring and everything was fine except the red naval got a little burned on some of it's leaves.

Good luck I should know what I'm doing by next year. Have to go through the cycle and see what happens along the way.

Don't forget to take the fruit off for the first 3/4 years so the tree can put it's strength into building a strong frame.:)