On a warm spring or summer day, there’s nothing better than biting into a fresh citrus fruit picked right from your backyard. The delicious juices help revitalize your body, the taste satisfies a craving, and it’s a hassle free snack. Although growing a citrus tree to full maturity is incredibly rewarding, growing the perfect citrus tree can also be intimidating and a daunting process to most beginning gardeners. To make the process less worrisome, Grandiflora Services has put together this hassle free mini-guide for making the most of your citrus tree growth this Spring and Summer!

Fertilizer
Depending on your tree’s life cycle, it will need a different amount of fertilizer. For most mature trees, it’s best to apply three applications of fertilizer throughout a year (one in the winter, one in the late spring, and one in the late summer). Citrus fertilizers come in a variety of forms, although granular is the most popular and easiest to apply. Whether you choose to use granular or organic fertilizer, it’s important to make sure it includes the most ideal nutrients for citrus tree growth!

Ideal Nutrients
Whether you’re wanting to grow oranges, lemons or grapefruits, all citrus trees require an immense amount of nutrients to grow to their fullest potential and produce the best fruit. When you apply your fertilizer make sure it has the correct nutrients for citrus trees. Citrus trees require fertilizer with nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, all called macronutrients. Out of these three nutrients, nitrogen is the most essential for the growth of citrus trees. As far as micronutrients, citrus trees also need iron, manganese, and zinc.

Signs of Nutrient Deficiency
Because citrus trees need an abundance of nutrients in order to reach full growth, it’s important to listen to your tree’s signals of nutrient deficiencies. Trees display deficiencies through their leaf color, canopy density, and fruit maturation. For most tree species, yellowing of leaves is a sign of a nitrogen deficiency. In order to get the tree back in optimal health, spray it down with a foliar liquid spray! In addition, a tree with an iron deficiency will produce newer leaves that are light green in color with dark green veins. To treat an iron deficiency, it’s best to spray down the affected tree with a solution that contains iron, manganese, and zinc.

Spend your Spring and Summer sitting under the sun and eating fresh citrus fruit picked right from your garden! Following our tips on the best fertilizer and nutrients for your citrus tree will allow your tree grow to its full potential. For more information on the health of citrus trees, contact Grandiflora Services today!

Unfortunately, our nation’s drinking water infrastructure is slowly deteriorating and is reaching the end of its lifeline. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Water Companies, 7 trillion gallons of water per day are wasted due to inefficiencies in our system. The unstable infrastructure has annually over 240,000 water main breaks resulting in a drastic amount of lost water. Unfortunately, repairing our system would be costly and time consuming. It is quoted that in California alone, we will need to fund $39 billion to fix the drinking water infrastructure.

Installing a Rainwater Harvesting System
Although fixing the system is a daunting task faced by our government, there are steps as citizens we can take to help the problem at hand. By switching our main use of water from utility water to rainwater harvesting, we will help take away from the stress the infrastructure is facing. Having a personal rainwater harvesting system installed on your property will provide your home with safe, high-quality drinking water for both residential and personal use.

Why not capitalize on nature’s resources?
Annually, there is an average of 12 inches of rainfall. This means that a standard rainwater system can collect 10,000 gallons of rainfall from a 1,500 ft2 residential roof. The 10,000 gallons of rainwater collected from your single home will benefit you financially due to the drastic decrease in your water bill. In addition, if every home was able to collect 10,000 gallons of fresh water, the stress put on our nation’s drinking water infrastructure will be reduced drastically. Also, collecting rainwater will help reduce stormwater runoff and therefore decrease pollution being dragged into our local freshwater lakes and rivers.

Still considering whether or not a rainwater harvesting system is the right fit for you? Contact Grandiflora Services today and we will walk you through a long list benefits experienced by our current and past clients!

Most trees are planted to provide shade or for visual appeal. Although these are great reasons for their existence, trees also provide many other benefits. A landscape full of trees tend to bring relaxing vibes, lower our heart rates, and reduce our stress. However, in addition to their plethora of health benefits, trees also better the environment as a whole. For more reasons why you should defend a tree’s standing, read about their environmental benefits:

1. An average tree produces enough oxygen in one year to keep a family of 4 breathing.
Without trees in our environment, the Earth would almost be uninhabitable. Trees convert carbon dioxide into oxygen through a process called photosynthesis. Through photosynthesis, the tree uses the energy from the sun and to combine carbon dioxide and water and produce a sugar. The tree uses the sugar that’s produced as their food. However, in this process the tree also releases extra oxygen from the water particle. This extra oxygen is released into the environment and therefore gives us oxygen we can breathe. So in short, a tree does the exact opposite as humans- trees breathe in carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen. Therefore, trees are our perfect counterpart!

2. Trees provide shelter and food for wildlife such as squirrels, birds, and bugs.
For many species, trees act as a year-round form of shelter, protection, and food. Birds for instance use trees to scan the environment, build nests for their eggs, and source food. Having trees on your property encourages the ecosystem to continue thriving, wildlife to keep producing, and allows natural predators to control unwanted pests.

3. Trees help with water conservation by reducing storm runoff. 
When a storm hits and rain pours down onto a tree’s canopy, a large percentage of the water is caught on a tree’s leaves or absorbed by a tree. When tree’s capture rainwater, the tree allows some of the water to evaporate while the rest of the water is able to slowly filter into the ground. Trees slow down the process of a storm and give the ground time to absorb a storm’s shock. By absorbing some of the storm, trees can reduce as much as 65% of water runoff. Less water runoff means less water rushing into city gutters and as a result, water is cleaner when it reaches a reservoir such as a river or lake.

Trees are not only beneficial for our personal health and property value, but they also help encourage a better quality environment to all of Earth’s species. For these reasons and so many more, plant a new tree on your property today!