Bill was asking why his garden clementines have all come out tasteless. I bought some recently in Mercadonna which were tasteless compared to the ones bought a week before which were wonderful. Does anyone know which are which?

Also, on the subject of citrus trees. Mine have developed a bad case of curly leaves alongside yellowing. I think the yellowing might be down to not having enough iron but the curly leaves appear to be some sort of parasite. Last year we got loads of flowers and even tiny baby fruit, but they all dropped as little buds of fruit:-( Any suggestions? I also find my soil is quite acid... I'm chucking 'cal de obra' on to cure the acid. There's plenty of it about as we're building, I hope that's OK. It's certainly a lot cheaper than any other source of garden lime. I bought some iron at a garden centre when I was down in Portugal so that's gone on too.

Matt's the boy to ask, but we get leaf miner that curls the leaves. Confidor will do it but it's expensive. Terrasita (I think is the name is the same chem. - imacloprodid or something)& it's a lot cheaper.

A friend with rather a lot of citrus trees told me to use Fairy Liquid or even secondhand dishwater.

I’ve got a big garden and I’ve tried hard for many years to grow things. When I came to Spain I eventually got the house I’m in now and my garden was an established one which I tried to keep going and improve.

I’ve won some and lost some, I’ve lost a peach and apricot tree, but an upside down tree I planted a year ago is now taller than I am. A house plant that died indoors is now in a corner of the garden, six feet tall. All the roses I’ve planted have died, but the ones already there are flourishing.

A pomegranate tree (bush) produces fruit every year without any attention whatsoever.

I’ve come to the conclusion that if I interfere with things by spraying, watering etc, they die, but if I leave them alone, they flourish.

But I’m overwhelmed again and a Spanish gardener is coming in March to sort things out. He prunes everything to a frightening level, but it all comes back a couple of months later.

Citrus fruits and their sweetness or otherwise are something of a mystery Angie, and we are surrounded by them here.
Our neighbours trees usually produce wonderfully sweet fruit, but not this year, they are so tart that they still sit on the trees or on the ground and the neighbours are buying them in from the shops.
On the other hand some friends of ours have a finca at El Chorro and the clementines coming off their very large and old trees this year are the sweetest I have ever tasted!

A point with clems etc. I have a major gripe with citrus anywhere. All too often you get samples with no taste whatsoever. Partly I think it's to do with being picked too early and shipped and ripened in a box, but then if that's the case, why do some get thru that are fantastic?

I think there are some varieties that are great, and some that are rubbiss, but why produce a rubbish cultivar anyway?

Re your acid problem. Just how acid is it, and does it actually need 'curing'?

I was told Spanish soils tend to be acid. Such a cure might just cause more problems than it fixes.

My husband says its "5"... Because he's the one with the tester. I don't know what that means though! We do live under a pine wood and on Granite so apparently it will have a tendency to be acid. But it is fairly rich and fertile. BTW Bil the coffee grounds and other garden waste will be acid as they compost.
Hugs
Angie

Not quite on thread.

I have just come over for a few days and cannot believe the amount of oranges left to ripen/rot on the trees.
Is there a horticultural reason or is it just plain over supply?

FYI

Any figure less than 7 (7.2 actually) is acid and a number greater than that is alkiline.

In the which case what's the point trying to move the pH over? In koi keeping I used to know people that tried to alter their basic water chemistry, which was always doomed to failure in the long run. We have a simple rule here, if it grows it grows, if it sickens, it's compost.

Living in the Guadalhorce valley area I know what you mean about the rotting fruit.
The large growers here are OK, but the smaller ones are finding it not worth their while to pick the fruit, this goes for oranges lemons and olives.
With the recent olive crop the price paid per kilo was just a few cents, and that has to cover all the work of rotorvating involved throughout the year as well as picking the olives by hand....
It all comes down in the end to the supermarkets wanting crops at rock bottom prices, it makes it not worth while for the small growers to harvest the crops....I wouldn't work like that for the price they get either!

Sorry, a tiny bit off-thread....

One of my most memorable moments in coming to Spain was eating an orange straight off of a tree! (Though they grew in supermarkets now).

Anyway, I have an orange tree and a lemon tree planted just last year. It'll be interesting to see how they grow... and how they taste!

On the way to the supermarket to buy Kakis (sharon fruit) at nearly 2 euros a kilo, there's a tree in the middle of a field just overloaded with them. Makes you want to scrump doesn't it! As you say meg. It's the cost of picking them. Same with firewood. A load of firewood (back of a very small pickup van) 150 euros... It's lying around all over the campo. But it's the time taken to chainsaw it all up, and the cost of the chainsaw you're paying for.

We bin a mountain of oranges each year. The trees produce far more than we can eat each year, or give away, but I am loathe to fell them.

If I run out of space for fruit trees, I might rip out a couple.

If you could find out who owns the field you could offer to buy some, the chances are they would tell you to just help yourself.
With the wood we paid 240 euros, that included thirty euros for delivery from Alhaurin el Grande to the other side of Alora.
We got 45 bags in October that weighed approx 25kl each, it's lasted us until the end of this week, but we will need a few more yet.
I know what you mean about it laying around in the campo, but even if we could collect it we would need somewhere for it to dry out and to store it....the last thing you want is to be trying to burn wet wood!

A bit off subject I know, but it gives you something to compare your to.