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Citrus tree guild

 
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Location: Texas Gulf Coast
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A few years ago we lost all our mature citrus trees to a freak freeze. This spring I replanted the orchard and want to plant some companion plants with them. However, I'm finding that there's not much information about planting citrus tree guilds. Any ideas on what plants would be good to plant around them? Thanks!
 
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This article from the Galveston Monthly suggests marigolds, petunias, sage, fennel, lemon balm, and parsley:

Marigolds and petunias are useful in driving away troublesome and unwanted insects, while sage, fennel, lemon balm, and parsley can help to draw in beneficial, predatory and pollinating insects all while also improving the soil quality.



https://www.galvestonmonthly.com/home-garden/citrus-companion.html

This article add a few more and suggest planting legumes:

Companion plants are a great way to keep pests away from your citrus organically! Attracting helpful bugs to your citrus trees is like summoning a defensive army—they’ll eat any aphids or caterpillars that might try to make your citrus plants a tasty snack! You can plant edibles, such as dill, fennel, lemon balm, parsley, or flowers such as petunias and marigolds for a top-notch defense. Legumes are a good set of companion vegetables as they help fix the nitrogen in the ground, which will help your citrus tree grow nice and strong!



https://www.pinehillsnursery.com/citrus-for-your-garden/

I am looking forward to hearing other suggestions.
 
Angi Schneider
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Thank you Anne!
 
pollinator
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Location: North FL, in the high sandhills
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Just made my best guesses and put in 5 citrus guilds.

In the center, Ponkan trees I started from seed. These are supposedly among the citrus that come true from seed. Hopefully so, the tree they came from makes delicious Ponkans.

I'm also going with the most freeze resistant citrus in the future.  Ponkans and satsumas are high on the list of ones that can take freezes.

To make up the rest of the guild I've got named cultivars of Autumn Olive, which are invasive in some places but here in N FL they're not as quick to grow as elsewhere. out of all the Elaegnus  cultivars I'm trying these have been the best in that they root from cuttings very easily and aren't struggling as much as the others I'm trying.
All the Elaegnus fix nitrogen.

Comfrey is the other "working" plant in the guilds.  I think everyone knows about this so I won't go into detail on those.

I have a few Sunshine Blue dwarf blueberries in there but as tough as this particular cultivar is it doesn't seem to like the full sun it's supposed to need. They seem a ton happier in partial shade.
The guilds run from an area of partial shade to full sun so I can compare.

Something that's popped up in the last couple years nearby are mimosa trees. They too fix nitrogen. A lot of folks hate these because they're somewhat invasive, fragile, drop lots of litter and are susceptible to a number of disease problems.
having said all that the few that have volunteered over the years have always done fine here.
One of the other complaints is that the leaf litter has too much nitrogen in it. Maybe a problem for some but I'll take all the nitrogen I can get.
Haven't done it yet, but I'm going to work these into the guilds.
Even if something gets them they could be considered disposable with it being easy to grow more.
One other caveat there. The seeds are poison to dogs and other critters or livestock.
My dogs never showed any interest in them but that doesn't mean another dog won't eat them.

I laid out the support plants in a pattern like four spokes from a wheel hub. The idea there being not to have to tramp all over the lower plants harvesting the citrus.

The citrus guilds are also right by some oak trees. It's been discovered that oaks discourage the deadly citrus greening going around as long as they citrus is within 10 - 20 feet of the oaks.
One of the sad things about citrus greening is that you absolutely can not get citrus from another state and some of the frost hardy ones I would like to try just aren't available here.

I too took some terrible hits last few years with early frosts down in the teens. to counter that, I'm going to wrap some of the old greenhouse plastic around a cage made from 4 x 4 fence wire and have those standing by for freak freezes.
i think I'll leave them in place for the winter and pop a trash bag or some other plastic over the top if a bad freeze is coming in.
I was also reading about a fig grower who cuts the top and bottom out of plastic barrels and slips them over the trees for the first few years.  

Here's a bit of a link dump:

Wild Citrus in a Florida Forest? Why It's a Big Deal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtO0Pa6tD8s

https://blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/irrec/2020/01/21/oak-trees-may-hold-antibacterial-to-help-infected-citrus-trees/

Grasshoppers are a current problem with mine so maybe what's here might help
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/fruits/citrus/citrus-tree-companions.htm

http://www.thesurvivalgardener.com/growing-gardens-oak-trees/

cold tolerant citrus cultivars list. They can't ship out of state but this will give you some ideas what works
http://www.mckenzie-farms.com/photo.htm

https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2020/04/fruit-trenches-cultivating-subtropical-plants-in-freezing-temperatures.html










 
Angi Schneider
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Location: Texas Gulf Coast
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Thanks so much Dave! I'm along the Gulf Coast of Texas, so I know what you mean about the blueberries needing but not liking the FL full sun. For the freeze I have plans of making a make-shift green house around the orchard. I've planted my citrus in two offset rows to facilitate that. My boys will come over and help set it up and take it down but I'll need to be able to manage it by removing and replacing the covering as needed throughout the season. They have their own families to worry about and I don't want to have to ask them to come help every time it freezes. We'll see how my plan actually works out...lol.
 
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