by Elizabeth Shaheen
Imagine having your own greengrocers in your garden, where you can relish and enjoy the visual effect of citrus blossoms, followed by the picturesque fruits and the seriously seductive fragrance of their flowers. We enjoy in our orchard, lemon, lime and orange trees. A long-standing citrus tree in Bahrain is citrus medica. This is one of the oldest citrus trees grown and known worldwide.
It holds distinctive religious importance. The large fruit is oblong, thick-skinned and exceedingly scented but its flesh is bitter and in effect inedible. Nevertheless, it can be made into a most scrumptious marmalade or the peel can be candied.
The tree is small, weak-growing and short-lived because it is very sensitive to wind, heat and the common tristeza (quick decline) virus disease.
Citrus are members of the Rutaceae family and a wide number of citrus varieties are available. Grow a number of varieties and you will benefit from an extended fruiting season.
Pummelo (citrus maxima) is a good choice for Bahrain’s gardens and it is naturally domiciled in Malaysia and distributed to other countries by traders. It is also called “shaddock”.
The Pummelo bears very large, ball-sized, yellow-green fruits with coarse pink or white flesh and very chunky rind with a white pith. The rind and pith make a wonderful marmalade.
You can while away quite some time by eating a Pummelo. You can replace a grapefruit with Pummelo in your culinary creations.
Sweet limes are widely cultivated in India, where they are valued for their medicinal qualities. They have an insipid taste, for they lack acidity. The fruit is of medium size with a smooth finish and the thin rind is greenish to orange-yellow. It has a first-class juice content and relatively few seeds.
Bahrain provides ideal conditions for the grapefruit, for it demands hot, dry growing conditions to guarantee good flavour and quality.
Orange trees (Citrus sinensis) are by far the most important and there are several types. Among the post popular is the navel with its characteristic navel at its base.
Another good choice is the blood orange. Bitter oranges, such as the Seville, have darker skins and contain an abundance of seeds. It’s the one to select if you intend to make a superb marmalade.
Lemons are one of the most versatile of all fruits. They are the basic souring agent for British cooks, employed in all sorts of culinary temptations.
The smooth-skinned smaller fruits are heavy and are usually juicier than larger, knobbly ones.
Although citrus trees grown from seed do not come true to type, it is rather fun growing them this way.
Common citrus varieties available from Bahrain’s nurseries are usually propagated by budding the requisite scion or variety on to specially grown and appropriate understocks (rootstocks).
Nursery trees are usually sold in pots or grow-bags. Prepare your growing site by digging over deeply for several months (preferably) before planting, to feed the soil with some manure of either cow, horse, sheep, goat, chicken or a farmyard mixture of these.
The most appropriate season for planting a citrus tree is early autumn, spring or summer. The latter providing the plant receives little root disturbance and it receives a frequent watering.
When planting a citrus tree, it is fundamental to prepare an adequate planting hole. I prepare holes one metre deep and one metre in circumference, with one part manure to two parts soil.
When planting the tree, the garden soil level should meet the original level of the container soil ensuring that the bud union is at least 15cm above ground.
Carefully remove the tree from its container and tenderly tease-out the external roots away from the compost to free them in order that they can find their new soil easily.
Cut away the bottom roots, if they have spiralled and formed a platform, for if you fail to do this – as with any plant – the roots will continue to circle resulting in a weak plant.
Press the soil firmly around the plant’s root-ball by treading around it as you plant. Form a basin of soil to act as a reservoir in order to prevent the watering from running away. Re-water several times a week until new shoots have formed and the plant is well settled in its new home.
A light pruning of foliage may be required at planting if the root system has been badly damaged. Otherwise, there is no need to prune, as the citrus tree is self-shaping.
It is however, fundamental to remove – cleanly – any dead-wood, as this will invite disease. Also, remove any suckers as they form, which arise from the original rootstock below the bud-union.
The main fertiliser citrus needs is good old-fashioned animal manure. Artificial fertilisers designed specifically for citrus plants are available.
As citrus trees are evergreen, giving out two main flushes of growth (spring and autumn), they require more feeding than do deciduous shrubs, trees and climbers.
The chief nutrient essentials are nitrogen, to promote growth and fruit size. Phosphorous is also usually lacking, and, if your soil is light sand, regular additions of potassium are needed to preserve the trees’ vitality and fruit quality.
Magnesium and calcium may be needed in some soils, together with small amounts of the trace elements zinc, manganese and copper. Feed in spring and autumn.
I sincerely hope that you benefit from your own home-grown citrus trees and not only delight in their fruits but also in their, oh-so-lovely, perfumes. Remember that you don’t need a garden in order to grow a citrus tree; they make for ideal container plants.
Elizabeth Shaheen – GDN – 17 June, ’07