Here’s a very interesting lemon growing method I saw when travelling overseas in Southern Italy (Sorrento). A lemon farm fertilised their lemon trees with fresh manure! In this video, I compare my method of mulching under lemon trees for maximum results to the “Sorrento way” of pit digging and fresh manure for fertiliser. Cheers 🙂
How to grow a ton of lemons video: https://youtu.be/PRzD0W0MB30
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Self Sufficient Me is based on our small 3-acre property/homestead in SE Queensland Australia about 45kms north of Brisbane – the climate is subtropical (similar to Florida). I started SSM in 2011 as a blog website project where I document and write about backyard food growing, self-sufficiency, and urban farming in general. I love sharing my foodie and DIY adventures online so come along with me and let’s get into it! Cheers, Mark 🙂
This is not a new system of doing fertilizing. For thousands of years this was the method used not only for fruit. It was used in most gardens and fields.
well the problem with raw manure is the bacteria that can poison fresh fruit and veggiesand in turn people. but since it doesn't have direct contact. the warm temperature may cook the manure faster
We grow our citrus in large wine barrels (They call them whiskey barrels… but they are wine) should I mulch and give composted manure to our citrus trees in the barrels? Oh I can buy steer manure but we have two ponies that give us plenty of manure would that be okay to use their manure? We also have chickens turkeys guinea hens and ducks could we use they're in the newer as long as it's composted or is it too high in nitrogen? Thanks much!
Dear Mark, just wanted to ask if you would be willing to post a video if you do make some limoncello, and say that I love your videos and am glad that you decided to continue with youtube. Wishing you and your family all the best!
Hi Mark,
I live in rural Andalucia, Southern Spain, Lemon, Orange, Almond and Olive trees are everywhere, the local farmers here don't dig pits down to the roots, but they build up a ring of soil around the trees, which looks similar to your video of Sorrento lemon farms, this helps retain moisture, as water here is a very precious commodity, we can go months and months without any rain, so they do all they can to keep moisture in the soil.
They do mulch and use well rotted manure, and their trees produce tons of Lemons all year round.
Local Spanish recipe for Limoncello.
6 lemons, 1litre of Vodka, 750 grams Sugar, 750 ml of boiling water.
Zest the lemons, but no white pith. ( it makes it bitter)
Put the zest in a large clean jar and pour over the vodka.
Cover with a tightly fitting lid and leave for 2 weeks, but shake the jar each day.
Put sugar in a bowl and pour over the boiling water, stir till all sugar has dissolved. Allow to cool.
Add to the jar of vodka and zest and leave for a further week, shaking the jar daily.
Strain into bottles, adding a few strips of lemon zest to each bottle.
Enjoy!
Like your video's and keep up the good work, your enthusiasm for self sufficiency is infectious.
Regards.
Nice vid Mark… it's as you say there are numerous ways to grow different plants and fruit. However I tend to agree with you, I'd rather mulch using woodchips or other organic material than put fresh manure around the base of a tree or bush. But if it works for them, then fair play. Did you try one of their lemons?
The ground was shoveled out before the trees were planted, and soil tossed around the outside of the pits to make the soil a little higher. The pits are for irrigation. The water fills the pits all the way to the top. As as the trees are watered the manure is broken up. It is something like making manure tea. The soft parts of the manure sink into the ground and are gone fairly quickly. What is left are the undigested grass stems. In not much time the remaining "grass" would look just like any other compost.
Definitely your way is better than the Sorento Farmers. They use fresh manure.??? Thats GROSS. They bring flies and STINK the environment. Keep up the good work mate.
Thank you. I have a small lemon tree (been in ground for 15 months but the lemons look more like an orange and although the fruit is tart it us very sweet. My other lemon tree was at least 33 yrs old (I lost it in subdivision of land) was a definite yellow fruit but had a very thick skin. Would you have any idea what type of lemon my new plant may be?
why would anyone dislike, thumbs down this video? It's short (too short for my liking:), to the point and interesting if you're into this sort of stuff, if not why watch in the first place? Thank you for sharing and taking time to create content worth watching!
very interesting…
It's fascinating growing plant's in different area of the world. In Vietnam the people have to build mounds of clay dirt in a river swampy area to grow cucumber and sweet potatoes. In situations away from this area, you can just build soil and plant them. Technique, to many way to say how.
Good day Mark from self sufficient me !! Great episode today fantastic hints and tips !! Brilliant information !! Thanks for sharing
Thanks, Mark, love your philosophy and sharing your experience 🙂 <3 The pit forces the roots to grow down lower…
I can't get over how heavily your lemon tree produces. We tried to buy a lemon tree off Amazon and they won't ship to Texas, and it's the same story all over the place. Finally I found some seeds on ebay and I've got them going now. Your information is so important and we are so grateful you take the time and effort to share all this with us. If I get a tree half as good as yours, my family will be happy. Thank you for everything you do so well.
I grow most of my citrus in the chook (chicken) pen and they are doing very well on the continual supply of fresh manure…admittedly it doesn't come in large amounts! My father used to feed his citrus on fresh humanure and they thrived! I think the key for citrus is feed them regularly. The mulch is good as it reduces the competition – which citrus don't like.
Hi Mark
How about spiking the mulch/cow manure with edible mushroom mycelium. This breaks down mulch, denatures manure and produces edible mushrooms. Ref: Fungi Perfecti/Paul Stamets.
Hi
Have a question I have a young lemon tree which not fruit yet so bought some chicken manure and put around the roots now the leaf kind of burning and falling down . Do you think the manure killed the tree?
I’m not knocking the way people fertilize their trees, but my son has a lemon tree by his house that was there when he bought it. He has been there for years now and does nothing to this tree and it produces more lemons than I have ever seen on a tree. Not sure why. It should be dead. It gets only water now and again.
Thanks for showing these 2 different ways to grow lemons. I’m in the UK and I’m trying to grow lemons in a container. Our climate here is much cooler.
“It was a lemon and olive farm” jealous
I loaded my lime tree with 10 wheelbarrows of fresh horse manure just to see what would happen. It literally went ballistic shooting out lemons. Some trees you have to be careful with as they burn easier, but citrus seems to be GREEDY for fertilizer.
So who has better tasting citrus fruit? That's what I'm interested in.
I just planted a semi dwarf Washington Navel Orange tree. I dug the hole twice as deep and twice as wide as the pot. I back filled with goat and horse manure with a small amount of native soil mixed in, but it's mostly all manure that is less than a month old. I'm excited to see how it turns out.
What about rabbit poo?