Citrus trees work hard to produce flowers and then grow the fruit, as well as keeping the foliage green and growing. If undersupplied with nutrients they may abort their fruits or concentrate on growing the fruits at the expense of the leaves. To help them stay healthy, they need regular feeding with a finely-tuned fertiliser which will give them the nutrients they need to perform all these tasks.

.

In Autumn, as the temperatures drop and day length gets shorter, a Citrus tree will slow down its growth, and below 10°C it will go into dormancy. During the Winter months the tree needs enough nutrients to keep its fruits growing, but new growth should be discouraged while light levels are low, because new growths will emerge weak, spindly and too elongated as they look for higher light.

Taking this into consideration, the Winter Citrus feed formulation reduces the amount of nitrogen (to avoid encouraging new growth) while keeping up the trace elements to keep the leaves green and the fruit developing. Remember that in Winter Citrus trees will use less water than in Summer, so check the compost daily and when the surface becomes a paler colour starting to dry out, water right through the pot, ensuring that all the compost is dampened. Then don't water again until the surface starts to dry again. This may not be for 3 weeks in cloudy, cool weather, or may suddenly be every week if the weather is sunny. And in Summer it might be every day in hot sunny weather.

The Winter fertiliser should be added to the water either weekly (if you are needing to water every week), or whenever you water (if less than weekly). Use the Winter Formulation between November and March. 1 tub of 160gm is enough for 1 houseplant-size tree for 2 seasons. Dilution rate is 1 teaspoon to 2.5 ltrs of water.