How to Prune Citrus Trees

All citrus trees apart from lemons only need pruning once every two years or so to keep them looking good, healthy and within bounds. This can be carried out any time between March and August, but is best done before flowering begins early in the year. Lemons need to be pruned more frequently to keep them within bounds and make fruit picking easier, as they grow more quickly than other species of citrus. In any event, all citrus trees should be inspected annually for any disease or infestation and abnormal growth (see the note on suckers, below).

To simplify the task of pruning citrus trees, these are the important tools you will need. Heavy duty gardening gloves are essential to protect your hands as many varieties of citrus tree have nasty thorns. A pair of good quality bypass secateurs (hand pruning shears) is necessary for the accurate and clean pruning of smaller branches and deadwood. Long handled loppers are necessary to prune thicker branches while a pruning saw should be kept at standby in case an extra thick branch needs to be removed.

Inspect the tree from all angles starting from low down on the trunk. First of all, identify the graft joint. In layman's terms this is the point where the growing shoot of the tree species was joined with the rooted stem of a stock variety. It is usually found on citrus trees between one and two feet (0.3 and 0.6 metres) from ground level and looks like a slightly swollen lump, although it is not always obvious. Above the graft joint is where the main branches of the tree are seen to branch out. If there is strong new growth starting from low down on the main trunk below the graft joint these are suckers that must be removed. Suckers are new shoots produced by the donor rootstock and will not be true to the variety of tree. They will often be extremely thorny and will grow strongly but produce no edible fruit. They sap the strength from the tree and will severely reduce fruit production, so it is very important that they are removed as soon as they are noticed. Use your hand pruning shears to cut them off as close to the trunk as you can get with a clean vertical cut. If they are very thick, use the long handled loppers to prune them. A vertical cut is essential to allow moisture to run away to prevent rot setting in and to allow the trunk to heal and absorb the wound quickly.

Once all the suckers are removed, pruning of the main canopy can begin. It is important that the centre of the tree is opened to allow sunlight and air to penetrate. As you prune, walk around the tree several times if necessary to get different viewing angles of your work. Prune out any branches that cross in the centre and remove all thin, spindly twigs by cutting hard to the main branch. Also cut out any dead wood to prevent infestation by wood boring beetles. You can prune quite brutally when opening out the centre of the tree's canopy, leaving as few as three main branches to grow outwards evenly from the centre with smaller fruit bearing branches growing outward from them. To keep the size of the tree in check to ease fruit picking, prune tall branches back to keep the height of the tree to below eight feet (2.5 metres). All length shortening cuts should be made at an angle where possible.

These easy to follow steps will simplify the process of pruning your citrus trees. You will see that it is easier to prune than most people suppose and will protect the trees from disease and infestation, liberate them from strength sapping suckers, encourage new, fruit bearing growth to appear and will ensure better quality fruit and result in healthy, good looking trees.

For more in-depth info, get the "Pruning Made Easy" book. It's simply the best book on the subject:

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Comments driver I have a lime tree more than six years but never has lime not even has bloom i tried every thing. what can i do ? Aaron8555@yahoo.com Thank's Los Angeles #32 - Harry - 02/20/2010 - 19:39 driver I have a lime tree more than six years but never has lime not even has bloom i tried every thing. what can i do ? Aaron8555@yahoo.com Thank's #31 - Harry - 02/20/2010 - 19:37 Citrus off-shoots, I am a grower of Kinnow Mandarins in Pakistan,citrus plants face a problem of off-shoots whenever pruning in done. Removal of one off-shoot produces two or three on its place, so no production at all. the off-shoots get a major portion of fertilizer and water. Plz find a solution. the age of tress veries from 2 to 8 years Thanks #30 - Ghulam Ishaq - 01/21/2010 - 12:15 prunning The one time that I prunned my orand, lemon and grapefruit tresses I got no fruit the following season. Is this normal? Also the oranges are not sweet, what do I do to sweeten them? #29 - Margaret - 01/12/2010 - 13:38 lemon tree food supplement for growth My husband and I bought a very small, pint size, lemon tree @ Ft.Meyer Int'l Airport in 10/2006 in Florida and brought it home to MD. Now, 3 years later, It has really grown, about 2 ft. high yet has no flowering blooms. What kind of food supplement should I give it to boost its growth??? thanks! Deega32@aol.com #28 - demetra brytvych - 01/05/2010 - 19:10 retired If your lemon tree bears only a friuts I think the problem is that during the flowering if you do not watch out for the wind it may blow them all off. The best bet is to protect your tree with plastic sheets until you get strong buds and you will harvest a nice crop, also organic fretilizer. One of my tree has got sick this year, I think my wife had it over prune while I was away, but it hads happened before and I nursed it back to bear juicy lemons. Just prune it a bit and do not let no one touch your trees, good luck to all. #27 - B-Lo - 01/04/2010 - 13:16 What to do with a lemon tree My parents have a huge lemon tree that has only yielded 3 lemons this season and they are concerned about the fact that the tree keeps on growing but renders little fruit.(only 3 so far -June 15th 2009) What fertilizing formula would you recommend and how should they go about pruning, would it be ok to start little by little or shoud they do it in a more aggressive fashion?Mind you we are from Arentina. Thanks a million. Nilce #26 - Nilce - 06/15/2009 - 11:23 schulte i have a10 ft orange tree lots of small fruit but good sood i fertalize with ESPOMA for organic gardening? i also made a mote around tree for watering is that nessary? #25 - duane - 05/02/2009 - 16:07 transplanting citrus trees I live in zone 8 in southern California. I have a dwarf orange and lemon tree and grapefruit tree that are in pots. I put them in pots about 3 years ago to help them survive, due to the heavy rains we had, plus the soil they were in wasn't so great. Now, I would like to transplant them to an area in our back yard that has better soil, but I don't know if now is the time to do it. They are getting new buds, and still have fruit from last year. However, the fruit on both the grapefruit tree and orange tree only amounts to 7 - 9 each tree. We got no lemons this year. Last year, I had to battle the CLM's among other elements, so I am glad to have any fruit. I have not tasted any of them yet, and I fear the grapefruits won't be any good. They aren't very big, compared to last year. Thanks for any information you can give me. Joan #24 - Joan Evoy - 03/08/2009 - 22:27 Fortunella Japonica - Failure to thrive I live in zone 8, on the Fl/Al line. I've been struggling with the care of a variegated kumquat. I kept it in the plastic pot for a year or so, very healthy/fruiting. It then dropped all fruit and leaves (I suspect too dry then) and has been struggling every since with periods of die back to the trunk from a prev. 6 ft tree! Its now in the ground with full sun. I wrapped it with a white frost blanket this winter, to help with those isolated 20 deg. nights, and set a water timer for 15 mins a day...now find out they are cold hardy and prefer drier soil?? I have added fert. spikes and miracle gro on occasion, but it hasn't bloomed in 18 mos. Is my prob. temp, water, or fert? Thanks in advance. #23 - David Jones - 02/28/2009 - 10:14 Sour Orange Tree I have three sour orange trees. Is there anything I can do to try to switch them so they can become better to eat or juice? #22 - John Burnfield - 01/19/2009 - 18:28 My parents purchased a home in central FL. 3 yrs. ago. The home has one huge orange and tangerine tree. They've never had the trees pruned. This year the trees didn't provide as much fruit as they did the first year they moved in. When should the trees be pruned? I did notice that the trees now have new leaves on them. Is it too late? How should they be taken care of? PLEASE HELP!Thanks in advance. Desperate in Central FL. #21 - Zee Rosario - 01/12/2009 - 08:09 Mrs. We have an orange tree in our yard. Two years ago it grew & produced about 8-10 oranges. Last year, it had buds (white flowers) all over the tree, but later fell off. We had ONE orange. The tree looks healthy here in south Texas. Please advise. #20 - Rosanne Boczar - 01/03/2009 - 14:05 owner I have stepped into a small orchard. I now have overgrown trees that are comprised of orange, tangarine, lemon, and a appox. 20 ft. avacodo tree. I don't have any idea on how to prune them back. Please help. Jeanna Erickson #19 - Jeanna Erickson - 11/30/2008 - 18:26 Lemon tree I live in Southern Canada and I have a lemon tree that grew from a seed now the lemon tree is just one long branch sticking up with lots of little branches growing of of it all the way to the top.What shall I do? #18 - Kat - 11/13/2008 - 08:32 Mrs We have lemon,Orange and grapefruit tree's in our garden. All of them being about 4 years old. We are now finding they are getting rather large for the garden .We live in Turkey.The fruit is not ripe yet but we wanted to know now and when to prune.We have cut them back but only slightly in the past as not sure how to do this propely. Could you help please #17 - Sue Roberts - 11/04/2008 - 02:22 pruning orange and lemon trees hi, we rent a house with 3 huge orange trees and 1 HUGE! lemon tree. all of the trees are higher than the house. i dont think they have ever been pruned. last year the fruit was beautiful however this year the fruit didnt seem as tasty as last year. we just dont know where to start pruning them. we've heard if you prune them too hard they can die. help!! please email the answer to alicia.hobbs@hotmail.com #16 - Alicia Hobbs - 09/30/2008 - 23:19 CA orange tree should I remove all old oranges from last year that were not harvested? 3 year ago oranges were sweet, juicy, plentiful. Each year since they are no so good. Seems like hundreds of old, not so good oranges remain. Advice? #15 - jayef - 09/24/2008 - 10:18 Out of control citrus we rent a house on the southern west coast of FL. there are 2 orange trees and 1 grapefruit tree that look like they have never been pruned and seem to be out of control with branches everywhere some dead, some look good..... HELP! i don't want to wait until March or next August to prune but heard that is the time of year to do it. what should i do? #14 - Kate - 09/19/2008 - 14:18 re:pruning new tree Whether or not you pinch the fruit off depends on what you your goals are. If you want more vigorous growth you can remove the fruit to allow the tree to put its efforts into vegetative growth. The idea is that you'll eventually end up with more fruit since you will have a bigger, more established tree. You may also choose to do this for only the first growing season. When I do this, I also remove blossoms and don't wait for them to set fruit generally. However, if you want to allow it to fruit now it certainly won't kill the tree and may help in size control if that is an issue for you. Meyers tend to fruit quite vigorously, even when they are not looking so good. I use a slow-release fertilizer and supplement it with Miracle-Grow Acid and fish emulsion periodically--I'd have to say that I rely more on the acid fertilizer/fish emulsion than the slow-release--as well as adding epsom salt and a chelated iron/zinc supplement every once in a while. Have been also using some alfalfa tea to see how it works--but it smells pretty bad...But I am certain that everyone uses something different or has their favorite formula. You could always start with your citrus fertilizer and then see how your tree does--they do like a heavy nitrogen formula. As long as the color stays a deep green you are giving it enough nutrition (though leaf color changes can be due to other things too). Go light--much easier to add a bit more fertilizer later if you need it. #13 - Al - 08/15/2008 - 22:45 pruning my new tree Hi, I am an excited owner of a brand new Meyer lemon tree. My tree appears to be about 2-3 years old. It has multiple flower buds and several very tiny green lemons. I was told by the garden guy that I should pinch off the lemons for the first two years to encourage more root growth. That way, the tree will grow faster. I feel kinda sad that I have to wait 2 years to see lemons but if that is what I should do, then I will do it. Is this correct? I bought some citrus plant food and plan to use it according to the instructions. However, is that enough? Do I need to get that muracid ( I think that is how it is spelled) to use that along with the citrus fertilizer? #12 - anne - 08/15/2008 - 22:44 Bush and Blair I have two lemon trees, both grown from random seeds taken from supermarket lemons. They are both 18 months old, and about 3ft tall. One is bushing nicely, but the other is one long spindly trunk with leaves.I have never deliberately pruned them but they are otherwise magnificent. How/when/where should I prune to encourage health and growth? ANy hel much appreciated. #11 - Anneh@ntlworld.com - 07/22/2008 - 05:45 orange tree Five year old orange tree.deck it with a chainsaw at about 3 feet high. No joke within 2 years you will have more oranges than you can poke a stick at. #10 - egg man - 06/29/2008 - 05:46 mrs I have a small lemon tree about 4 feet tall that was started from a lemon seed.  It is now into its third year.  Will it ever bear fruit.  It is in a large pot, on the patio for the summer and in a bright window inside for the winter.  I live in Canada. #9 - juanita kolaritsch - 06/16/2008 - 06:57 What was the answer to this post? I have a small lemon tree and know have it in the house do to cold wheather do the leaves all fall off or just some of them i have a heat lamp on it for 6 hours per day and i mist it every once an awhile let me know if im doing anything wrong #2 - anthony colon - 12/06/2007 - 13:28 Is there any way I can see what the answer to this past was? liljujubee@verizon.net #8 - Julie - 05/10/2008 - 19:31 Pruning an orange tree how do i prune 5 year old orange tree Never had fruit yet . #7 - Trevor Dixon - 05/01/2008 - 08:51 Mr. I have a miniture tangerine tree,I live in central Florida on the west coast. I would like to prune and get more fruit.It had very little fruit on it this yr. Also,what do I fertilize with and when.? Thank you yostashvo@aol.com #6 - Stash Blekicki - 03/11/2008 - 06:44 I have a lemon tree that 2 years ago had enormous lemons on it. It has basically been ignored apart from fertilising it last September and removing some dead twigs a month later This year the tree has hardly any leaves and the fruit is small. It is regularly very windy where we live which is probably why the leaves hae gone! How do I care for my tree, i.e. when should I fertilise and prune it? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks #5 - ginty - 02/04/2008 - 02:37 mr I have a very good lemon tree unfortunately growing in the wrong place (it was there when i bought my house. It is too big to transplant so I want to take a cutting to grow another tree before I remove the old one. How do I do this? #4 - les dinsdale - 01/11/2008 - 07:16 Pruning large tangerine trees Live in Northwest Florida in US. Have 2 16 ft. tangerine trees that need to be pruned. How far do I cut them back? #3 - Fred L. Crutchfield Sr - 12/09/2007 - 16:00 I have a small lemon tree and know have it in the house do to cold wheather do the leaves all fall off or just some of them i have a heat lamp on it for 6 hours per day and i mist it every once an awhile let me know if im doing anything wrong #2 - anthony colon - 12/06/2007 - 11:28 I would like to know when and how to prune citrus trees. I live in Southern Turkey and want to know how to care for my trees thanks #1 - sandra - 11/28/2007 - 13:45 Mrs I live in Southern Spain in new flat which has a small lemon tree about 3 years old in a wall trough - the leaves are all curled up but the tree does not look too bad. Can you tell me what you suggest I do to it I do know that it has borne fruit Brenda Moore #0 - Brenda Moore - 11/19/2007 - 10:22 Name Title Comment To prevent automated Bots form spamming, please enter the text you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. 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