My thoughts on growing citrus in Puriscal

Lemon tree in Costa Rica

Shortly after moving onto our property we planted many different varieties of citrus trees. They were mostly grafted and purchased from local nurseries. Within a few years they began producing. It was delightful to have fresh citrus whenever desired. That carried on for several years until the lime trees came down with a disease and died. We replaced them, but planted them in a different area.

Lemon tree grown from seed.

As the years went by many of the trees produced very well and then slowly began to decline and many died. I was surprised by this. I thought the citrus trees would last more than ten years. I believe the local environment is very harsh for long term success of citrus. 

There is a type of citrus called mandarino that does very well. It will grow from seed and seems fairly resilient to disease. When we were living in Ciudad Colon I saved seeds from a lemon and planted them on our property. They have grown and continue to produced very well. The photos in this blog are of those trees, there are two.

I think a big problem with success of fruit trees is how they are pruned. My two lemon trees have never been pruned. Our gardeners do not utilize best practices when pruning the fruit trees. They simply chop branches with a machete. They do not prune in a way that is best for the health of the tree. I noticed after a chop job that the trees would begin to decline. I am grateful for all the work they do that turns out well and have never felt the desire to correct their pruning methods.