21. Resurrection of The Citrus Babies
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Citrus Rebirth
Full disclosure, this is what worked for my citrus plants, it might not work for yours. It is also an unorthodox way of resuscitation so go with your gut and consult your local nursery or plant nerd friend if you are unsure about reviving a plant.
My mind was quite occupied leading up to the most recent winter holiday season. The fact that my three citrus trees were incredibly high maintenance escaped underneath the carpet of my consciousness. When I returned from Italy they had completely dried up and everyone who looked at them (including my gardener father) deemed them dead with no chance of survival, with all fingers of accusation pointing at myself. At that point, with nothing to lose, I tossed out all equally morbid advice from the gardening online forums and decided to go with my gut.
My father always says that you should commune with your plants daily. Listen to them, feel the first few inches of their soil, look at the leaves and give the plants space to tell you what they need. This sounds literally insane to anyone who isn’t a plant lover but makes complete sense to myself and a few friends who also dote on their plant babies.
I began with moving the plants away from the ground where they were susceptible to Elvis’ jealousy tantrums, which he has been partaking in since we adopted Lulu. This means peeing in the plants as an act of revenge, it is fantastic to wake up to and is a great form of birth control. I begged Nico to install shelves due to the lack of thick windowsills in the kitchen, just for these citrus babies. I teetered the pots gently on their terracotta feet along the new shelves, which is always a worrying balance. Elvis did knock one over soon after the move but has not since, so fingers crossed that was just a one off - frequent readers might remember this incident:
I also switched up the soil to a new citrus Pokon blend from the nursery, shaking out the root ball gently and fully replacing the soil. Every time I see a major brand in the gardening world I worry it is somehow related to the Monsanto MiracleGro world so hopefully that does not happen with Pokon because truly their Mediterranean fertilizer is the star of this story.
I started the first few days with just water but it seemed futile. The leaves were falling off more and more every day and Nico thought I was just wasting my time. I decided to do something risky, if they were going to die I would rather revive them in any way, even if it was not ideal. Most gardeners and citrus plant experts warn against overfertilizing since it can result in too many leaves and barely any flowers or fruit. I thought, fuck it, I would rather have the plants alive with full heads of hair and no fruit than not there at all. So I began dosing half a litre of watered down fertilizer to each pot every two days. I used this concentrate and followed the water measurement instructions on the bottle:
The red citrus (Citrus Limon Rosso for those wondering - not blood orange) began regrowing its leaves almost instantly.
I was overjoyed, even if one survived I would consider this experiment a success. The yuzu was next, a couple weeks later. The finger lime took forever, I decided it was probably dead and since after two weeks the other two had started regrowing leaves, I stopped fertilizing all three. I followed up with a watering every day or two when needed, more on sunny days, less on rainy. I should point out that Nico and I are quite Gwyneth Paltrow about water - we have a slightly intense filtration system hooked into our kitchen tap so my plants are quite spoiled on that front. I’d recommend using filtered water wherever possible, especially in this intricate process of reviving. I really think it made a difference in bringing them back to life.
I listened closely to the plants, the red citrus was stoked, the yuzu was pissed but still growing, the finger lime was taking its sweet ass time so that I felt guilty every time I looked at it. For those unfamiliar, finger limes contain an infinite amount of small spikes that make it impossible to trim back or tame without gardening gloves (which I should really invest in but it’s hard to find cute ones, at least here it is). So I just watched it, intimidated, with a few pruning attempt wounds on my fingers and begged it to come back to life.
It took weeks, I think even over a month but I never gave up. Eventually, I noticed the tiniest sliver of green poke out along the trunk close to the soil. A few days later, an identical one on the other side followed. Now it has been a month and both have barely grown a centimetre, but they are there and a clear sign that the finger lime will persist.
Eventually, the yuzu began flowering. I blame the overfertilizing for the short lifespan of this beautiful occurrence but I am too grateful for the rebirth to care. Going forward I will take care of all three extremely well so that next year they can live out their fullest potential, flowers and all - they are still too young to fruit according to the nursery in France where we bought them, maybe in 2024. The flowers began as little green buds and two quickly grew into two white flowers, only one of the two opened to release its antenna and intoxicating scent. When I was watering a day or so after the flower opened, it just fell into the soil, no explanation, perhaps a passive aggressive move on the part of the yuzu, of which I completely deserved.
After a few weeks of leaves growing, I began pruning with renewed confidence. I did not prune the yuzu because it completely recovered leaves on all its branches/is in the process of doing so. The red citrus needed some dead branch pruning and the finger lime needed a buzz cut. I did not want to shock the caviaaarrr so I am slowly trimming a few branches back every day, to the detriment of my hands, Lulu’s way too curious taste buds, and cute but not particularly practical garden shears.
My mandarin and kumquat trees hopefully never have to live through my poor plant parenting skills and suffer the way the first three citrus babies did. What I learned? Always hire a plant sitter kids, or drop your plants off at a planty daycare (a.k.a. the nearest plant nerd), and listen to the plants even if it means going against what everyone says.
P.S. the installation of these windowsill shelves makes it impossible to open the windows sideways (we did not think it through) and clean the outside of them so you can nag on me all you want but it’s fucking impossible, yes it bothers me as much as it probably does you but whatever the citrus babies are alive <3
Some things nourishing me this week:
The sun, holy hell we have not had this much sun since the first covid lockdown. It’s a miracle and I am fully embracing it. Please don’t disappear behind the clouds of the North Sea.
This article about fruit.
Khinkali
This article about female war photographers who are beyond badass.
This illustrated neighbourhood map of pastry shops
I hope this newsletter was uplifting for the many of us that suffer to keep certain plants alive - I swear I am the only gardener in the world that can not get a handle on monstera but sometimes perseverance works! Times just keep getting a bit scarier and I know the news loves to keep us a bit in that fear scroll so indulge in what you love, chat with your plant babies, and start prepping your spring/summer gardens so there is something to look forward to <3 so grateful for you all and see you next week!
Know a friend who also loves growing citrus?
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