Environmentality 21 January 2015, Jodi Jackson, My Everyday Garden - Citrus Special

Summer is upon us and what better way to beat the heat than a summer citrus lemonade, a refreshing citrus salad or a delicious citrus mocktail (or cocktail for Jodi). This week our regular gardening expert Jodi Jackson was with us today to talk about “Citrus”, some citrus that we have never heard of and also some hybrid varieties.

image: adamsgarden.com.au

We started with oranges and in particular an orange by the name of Dwarf Valencia. Dwarf Valencia has an amazing sweet musky flavour that bursts in your mouth. How do we know this??? Because Jodi brought some into the studio for us to taste and let it be known to all our blog readers that there is no comparison whatsoever between the tastes of the oranges you get in Supermarkets and the Valencia  we tasted. Another variety of orange we talked about is the Seville Orange, a sour orange which is very popular in Spain (Jaime confirmed this for us!). It has very high acid content, sets very well and is therefore used mostly for marmalades and jams.

Rangpur Lime highly recommended by Jodi

We also touched on essential oils from citrus including  Bergamot Orange, a type of orange that is used for essential oils and can be used for cleaning purposes and Sweet OrangeOil, another essential oil that comes from Valencia with digestive properties.

Also mentioned was the Kaffir lime Chinotto, Kumquats, Tangerines, Tangello and the Rangpur Lime. Rangpur lime is a cross breed between a mandarin and a lime and Jodi recommends people to try growing this at home because of its versatile taste.

Jodi's show and tell this week

During the show we said Jodi had a list of citrus by type and we weren't lying! So here is the list and just a reminder, it is not exhaustive but rather citrus that is right for a home garden...
Oranges - Sweet: Navel, Valencia, Joppa, Blood Orange, Sour: Seville, Bergamot, Chinotto
Mandarins - Clementine, Emperor, Imperial, Thorny
Lemons - Sweet: Meyer, Lemonade, Sour: Lisbon, Eureka, Fino, Villa Franca, Rough Lemon
Limes - Acid Lime, Kaffir, Rangpur, Australian Red Centre, Australian Sunrise, Sweet Lime, Native Finger Lime
Cumquats - Nagami, Marumi, Variegated
Grapefruit - Thompson's Pink, Rio Red, Marsh, Wheeny, Pumelo
Hybrids - Tangerine, Tangor, Tangelo, Honey Murcott, Satsuma, Calamondin

In terms of citrus care, Jodi emphasised how important the early preparations are before planting. Citrus is shallow rooted and is a heavy feeder so Jodi recommends planting them in partial shade where the plant gets enough light but not too much sun Jodi also recommends NO PLANTING IN POTS otherwise the plants become too much like babies, needing extra care and attention.  Another piece of wisdom from the show was to reuse your fish tank water on the your citrus tree. See… so many good tips! .

Gall Wasp and illustration of the galls that form

We finished the show talking about citrus pests and ways of dealing with them, in particular the two most common, the Gall Wasp and  Scale. Gall wasps are usually found around the foliage of the new shoots, they lay their eggs inside the branch and as the pupa grows and it causes these “galls” which is the swelling of the branch. Cutting if off and incinerating the branch is the best way of getting rid of it according to our expert

Jodi. Scale is found underside of the leaves and along the branches and the best way of its detection is the movement of ants up and down the tree as ants love the secretion from the scale.The best way of dealing with scale is to bust it off with your finger or use white oil in extreme conditions.

Well that wraps up a pretty comprehensive review of this week’s show but make sure you have a listen to the show so you don’t miss any important tips!

Leaving the best for last, listeners of the show this week were told of a chance to win some movie tickets. Environmentality will be giving away two movie tickets this week to one lucky listener who fills in the survey below. Pretty simple equation: 60 seconds of your time filling in survey = chance to win movie tickets.

CLICK HERE FOR SURVEY and Good Luck! We'll contact you next Wednesday if you are a winner.

Next week on the show we have Riki Edelsten, Melbourne Director of the Grow It Local campaign. Riki also has a long term association with the Sustainable Living Foundation so we will be discussing both the Grow It Local campaign and the upcoming Sustainable Living Festival which is occurring in Melbourne next month.

Environmentality wants to thank Smriti Panday for helping out with the blog this week ;)

Music Tracks:

Grandma’s Hands by MEG MAC

The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face by Roberta Flack

Clouds Over Tamworth by John Williamson

Love Me Do by The Beatles