Citrus and Fruit Tree Catalogue
Let's get planting!
About our Supplier:
The trees we purchase on your behalf are grown in the open ground, wrenched and dug up in May and bagged for sale. Our experience with them is that they establish much more quickly than pot grown trees. Trees we planted two years ago are already fruiting prolifically and growing extremely well. Planting in autumn while the soil still retains its warmth helps a speedy establishment.
General Citrus Care:
- Citrus all need free drainage and consistent moisture levels in the soil. If you have heavy soil, make a raised mound 1m diameter before planting
- They need protection from wind and frost, but some varieties are more cold hardy or heat demanding than others
- They are gross feeders and love a dressing of chicken manure, other animal manure or blood and bone spread around the drip line at least 3 times a year: spring, early summer and early autumn
- They need good levels of Magnesium as well, provided by dolomite lime or Epsom salts.
- Mulch well to keep down weeds and retain soil moisture, making sure the mulch does not come into contact with the trunk
- Try to plant Lemon and Grapefruit away from seedless varieties of citrus (they will cross pollinate and make seedless varieties seedy)
- Now here’s the tough bit. Remove all fruit for the 1st year after planting, to encourage your tree to send its energy into developing a strong base for many years of fruiting ahead
- Citrus in general don’t need pruning except to form them a little as young trees
- When picking fruit, it is best to do it with a pair of secateurs rather than pulling the fruit off, leaving the stalk button on the fruit, and ideally clipping back the shoot to a new lateral growing further back from the harvested fruit
Citrus Rootstock:
All these varieties, unless otherwise mentioned, are on Trifoliata (Poncirus trifoliata) rootstock, which is able to withstand various soil conditions including heavy wet soil, (however MUST be free draining,) is root rot (Phytophthora) resistant and produces very high quality, thin skinned, great flavoured fruit.
ORDERING AND DELIVERY NOTES
Order for citrus are open now! Please order as soon as possible, as our supplier has limited availability of certain varieties. Last year we tried to order our citrus in January and already most varieties were out of stock. So, early bird gets the worm!
These trees will be available in May 2021. Gerald and I will be collecting them from the mainland and bringing them back in our van. They will be inspected by Auckland Council Biosecurity for argentine ants and rainbow/plague skinks prior to being allowed on the barge.
You can choose whether to have your trees delivered on May 22 or June 26 (approx). Exact date will given closer to the time. There is a $10 delivery fee for the citrus trees, unless you collect them from Okiwi Passion.
We will be in touch closer to the delivery date to discuss pick-up/drop-off locations.
PAYMENT
At checkout, you will be required to pay a 10% deposit on your trees. The outstanding balance will be invoiced to you in April 2021.
Payment options include credit card via Stripe, which will incur a 3% surcharge; or by direct bank transfer via PoliPay.
Let’s get to ordering our trees!
Grapefruit
The New Zealand grapefruit is a pummelo (C.maxima) crossed with a mandarin (C. reticulata) and is not a true grapefruit at all, in fact it is more of a tangelo!! Wheeney came into NZ from Australia, probably from a similar cross, and is closer to the pummelo. Star Ruby is a true grapefruit, but needs very warm conditions to do well.
| Type | Price | Ripens | Requirements | Summary | Buy | hf:att:pa_how-long |
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Lemon
Such a wide choice of varieties here! Essential in any garden! Squeezed on fresh fish, lemon curd, G&T, lemon risotto (ask us for this amazing recipe!)
| Type | Price | Ripens | Requirements | Summary | Buy | hf:att:pa_how-long |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lemon, Lemonade | $29.50 | July-August | Not really a true Lemon but looks like one, cross between an orange and a Meyer lemon. . Produces heavy crops of pale lemon fruit which peel easily. The flavour is like a mild grapefruit and is very delicious and refreshing. Eaten fresh from the tree or juiced. Spreading bushy shape with distinctive pale green leaves . Loved by children. | |||
| Lemon, Lisbon Seedless | $29.50 | July on | most tolerant of heat, wind and cold | This is a large growing thorny tree. It is one of the hardiest lemons, tolerant of both heat and cold. The sharp, full-flavoured fruit are large with thick, slightly rough textured skin. Excellent culinary lemon, very clean sharp taste and zest has excellent flavour. Heavy cropper almost year round. Can prune to keep height down. | ||
| Lemon, Meyer | $29.50 | nearly all year round, mostly winter/spring | very hardy | Highly productive, reliable small compact growing tree with thornless stems that is the most cold hardy variety of lemon. Excellent choice for small backyards or containers. Large crops of high quality, smooth skinned, sweet juicy fruit which can be enjoyed fresh off the tree. It is quick to fruit.
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| Lemon, Yen Ben | $29.50 | June-March | Improved Lisbon selection, large oval shaped fruit, smooth skinned with a thin rind and low numbers of seeds. The flesh is very juicy and sharply acidic. Produces abundantly throughout the year with over 60% of harvestable fruit developing in winter. A densely foliaged, fast growing, vigorous upright grower. A main export variety. Ours are loaded after only 3 years! |
Lime
Limes can be used green when they are considered immature right through to when they turn yellow when they are fully ripe. The most tangy ‘Lime’ flavour is obtained when the fruit are half way between and are coloured a yellow-green.However, it is very difficult to produce green limes in NZ as fruit turns yellow with the cold in winter. It is the cold that gives all citrus their colour.
| Type | Price | Ripens | Requirements | Summary | Buy | hf:att:pa_how-long |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lime, Kaffir | $29.50 | needs very warm spot | Small bumpy green, seedy, thick-skinned, very acidic fruit. Rind and unique aromatic double-lobed leaf is used in Middle-Eastern and Asian cooking. Fruit can be used as a hair rinse/shampoo. Flowers can be used in tea. Compact thorny shrub. |
Mandarin
| Type | Price | Ripens | Requirements | Summary | Buy | hf:att:pa_how-long |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mandarin, Afourer | $29.50 | late winter | Juicy rich flavoured fruit with easy peel smooth orange rind, and rich sweet flavour. Seedless if planted alone, but will become seedy if planted with other citrus varieties. Originally from Morocco. | |||
| Mandarin, Corsica No. 2 | $29.50 | June/July on | Improved clementine type, with larger fruit and less pips. Tangy very sweet flavour. Peels easily and cleanly. Heavy crops. Compact bushy growth, with smallish dense leaves . |
Mandarin Satsuma
Satsuma generally have the greatest cold tolerance and also fruit the earliest of the citrus. They probably originated in Japan. Fruiting times may vary with local site conditions, and are approximate only.
| Type | Price | Ripens | Requirements | Summary | Buy | hf:att:pa_how-long |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mandarin, Miho | $29.50 | April – May | Very warm spot | Heavy crops of quite large, rounded flat shaped fruit. The flesh is v. juicy, seedless, sweet and mildly flavoured. High sugar levels. Easy-peel, cold-hardy. Slower-growing. Begins cropping as a young tree. 1m.
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| Mandarin, Miyagawa Wase | $29.50 | Early June | Very warm spot | A Satsuma strain variety fruiting very easily. Quite large typically ‘flattened’ fruit with smooth thin loose rind, easy peeling with no pips. Sweet tangy flavour. Low growing with spreading branches. Early. Slow growing tree. 1m | ||
| Mandarin, Okitsu | $29.50 | March-May | Very warm spot | Very similar to Miyagawa but may fruit earlier or later depending on location. More vigorous growing. Very flavoursome, seedless, sweet, spherical to slightly flattened, medium-large sized smooth pale yellow easy peel (baggy skin). Segments easy to separate. Earliest to fruit. Forms a large shrub to 2.7 m | ||
| Mandarin, Silverhill | $29.50 | June – July | Cold resistant | Large, thick skinned, easy peel, sweet and juicy. Segments separate easily. Very heavy crops. Stores well when picked, but fruit does not hold well on tree. One of earliest mandarins to ripen. The fruit is low in acid and therefore really sweet and juicy. 1m |
Orange
| Type | Price | Ripens | Requirements | Summary | Buy | hf:att:pa_how-long |
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Tangor
A hybrid between a mandarin and a sweet orange
| Type | Price | Ripens | Requirements | Summary | Buy | hf:att:pa_how-long |
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Tangelo
| Type | Price | Fruiting | Requirements | Summary | Buy | hf:att:pa_how-long |
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| Tangelo, Seminole | $29.50 | Extremely juicy sweet/tart fruit with brilliant orange flesh. Skin deep orange and fades to less intense orange at which int they are ripe to eat from August/September on. Thin skin, becomes easier to peel when ripe. A cross between a mandarin and a grapefruit. |
