DON'T PRUNE YOUR CITRUS TREES like you do your Deciduous Fruit Trees! How to Prune Citrus

Citrus trees differ from your deciduous trees in many ways. As a subtropical tree, it doesn't go dormant, doesn't lose its leaves, it can have a months long fruit harvest season, etc. This impacts the way you prune citrus, compared to pruning your peach trees, apple trees, plum trees, etc. You DON'T prune citrus as an open center "vase shape" because the inner bark will easily burn without the foliage.

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00:00 - Intro
01:54 - Pruning for Balance
03:11 - Pruning off Pest Damage
04:09 - Why I Let My Citrus Grow Taller
06:02 - Pros of Citrus
06:39 - Pruning Example (Tangelo and Grapefuit Cocktail)
08:17 - Conclusion

Pruning citrus differs from pruning deciduous fruit trees in that you can easily prune citrus as a hedge. When you prune citrus trees, you want to let the "skirt" go down low on the tree. Citrus grows as more of a hedge or bush, so don't worry about training it as a tree with an open canopy. A dense canopy will protect the interior of the tree from sunburn. Fruiting on citrus happens primarily on the bottom 2/3 of the tree, so don't be too aggressive in pruning the lower half.

[debbievelazquez]

I love the way you explained short and sweet the simple dynamic of pruning citrus! I feel so free now! Thank you! God bless!!

[GardeninginSpanglish]

I've never been more comfortable with pruning my citrus trees. Thanks for doing this!!

[monicaroberson]

Thanks so much for this video. It really helps me to understand that growing citrus is more like an evergreen bush not a deciduous tree.

[ChefCrys]

I live in a very warm state (zone 8b) that is moderate for a few months (spring), crazy hot for a few months (most of summer, a bit of fall) and has random, wicked winters with occasional crazy freezes. I have to put shade cloth on my citrus and persimmons in the summer and greenhouse tents (Aldis $20) over the citrus in the winter, tree jackets on the rest of the fruit in the winter. I also have lovely, red clay soil 😅. All in all, we are blessed with fresh fruit from our own trees. Your information contributes greatly by encouraging us and providing fabulous info. Thank you.

[OliveCityOasis]

I'm really enjoying watching some of your back video content, Cameron. 😊 This was an excellent video on pruning citrus! I agree with you - citrus are such wonderful, easy fruit trees to grow! I'm enjoying learning how to help them thrive, and my young Meyer Lemon - which is hardy down to 20F - gave me over 200 fabulous lemons this season! Made tons of lemon zest, lemon extract, and lemon juice (froze that!), and now enjoying all sorts of lemon baked goods for the holidays. My dad gave me a Buddha's Hand Citron tree for my birthday recently, so can't wait to see that fruiting next year! 😊

[Apollo_Blaze]

Thanks for this Cameron!...I have to say that I Love the idea of just clipping off the leaves with leaf miner damage...I never thought I could just do that but now I know I can and wow how easy is that!...This is a great video and you explain things really well...and yes, I also let my tree grow as a big shrub, as it likes to. To me the less you trim off of citrus the more natural it is.

[milkcoffee-hg]

I'll prune my lime tree as you showed in this video, thanks

[cedricmoore]

Hi
I am a new gardener due to working from home. I wish I had started years ago. After watching your videos I started planting my backyard orchard. I am in the Northern California Bay Area. Thanks for being my inspiration and I love your videos and good to see a man of faith. Cedric

[DaniJepp]

Thank you! Came here after seeing you on Epic Gardening, and now I'm super inspired to start a citrus hedge. We live in AZ and already have a few mature tangerine and lemon trees that just don't give us the same quality fruit that they used to. After watching this, I feel much more confident now giving them a good pruning to see if it helps!

[theupsidetotheoutside]

Thanks for letting me know citrus is different from deciduous. I was told you can grow them in a hedge but I saw huge lemon and orange trees. After seeing huge trees I doubted myself I could grow so many so close in my backyard but I went off the word of my YouTube gardners and grew them close together. I’m sure I can manage 6 semi-dwarfs into a nice hegde. Thanks

[WCRMcG]

How are your groupings doing? Any regrets about doing the close multi plant holes?

[Tori--Blessed]

Awesome video and information on the citrus trees! Well done!!! 🙋‍♀️✌😊

[shanesmith]

Phenomenal video and exactly the education I was after. Thank you so much!

[samday]

I like your tip of leaving the bush hang low. Sure, weeding may be difficult, but low fruit may mean less snapping of over burdened branches.
I try to open my citrus up to provide light and airflow though.

[InvestwithKhan]

I just planted improved meyer lemon small 3 gallon already giving fruit should I thin out fruit? Or keep it there? Thnkx!!

[gpabui]

I saw you cut lot of young tips off a citrus tree, does this cutting weaken the tree? Thank you for your great video. I just start to plant 3 young citrus trees (1 orange, 1 mandarin, and 1 tangelo). Therefore I watch lot of channels to learn how to trim to keep them more healthy. Your video is very special and I love it 💓💓

[LuckyFigFarm]

Thank for the video, Cameron. Nice citrus there. I’m in a great cities growing area too, similar to north Cal - Western Australia - zone 11

[chantaltulliez]

Another citrus question!!! do you pick the flowers and or baby fruit from your citrus trees the first and or second year???

[nagatang]

It a bush because of human prunning. To enable many branches= fruits, and for easy reach.

[nmnate]

Yeah...learned my lesson when I did what I thought was a fairly mild prune on my satsuma tree (15 gallon size pot) and then had some major branches die back on me from massive amounts of sunburn. The tree is now recovered and is very bushy. I've noticed that the citrus branching that occurs after pruning isn't as well behaved as a deciduous tree (as you said, they kinda grow they way they want). Seems like the overarching message is to not thin them and just tip them back into a balanced shape, but no more. I'm excited that I'll probably get my first satsuma this winter. I grew up eating fresh mandarins off my grandmother's tree, so I know how insanely tasty they can be.