GROW YOUR OWN ORANGES A FOOLPROOF GUIDE TO BACKYARD CITRUS SUCCESS.

Byline: Elizabeth Smilor Correspondent

Tor MacInnis, a horticulturist and San Fernando Valley native, can't imagine living someplace without citrus trees. He lived with his father on a 1 1/2-acre Sunkist contract property in the Valley from 1959 to 1963. He now has 23 citrus trees on his own property in Northridge.

``There's no longer enough citrus in the Valley,'' he laments. MacInnis would love to see a citrus tree in every yard and says there's no reason not to have one.

``They give you tremendous fruit. They don't have a huge list of problems. They're easy to grow,'' he says.

MacInnis, now a horticulturist at the Los Angeles Zoo and Botanic Gardens, shared some tips for buying, planting and maintaining citrus trees.

Buying your trees

Most retail outlets purchase their trees from the same few wholesalers, so selection is not likely to vary much, MacInnis said. Looking for the best value is fine, but freshness is also important. Ask how long the tree has been at the nursery.

Also, bigger is not necessarily better, he says. If a tree looks too big for its container, it could be root-bound. Most nurseries offer the trees in 5- and 15-gallon containers. Boething Treeland Farms in Woodland Hills, where MacInnis worked for 10 years, specializes in larger trees and will special-order, deliver and plant the trees for a fee. Most nurseries carry standard and semi-dwarf trees. A semi-dwarf tree is genetically the same as a standard but will grow to two-thirds the size.

The two most popular orange trees in the Valley are Valencia and Washington navel. Hania Saoud, a salesperson at Sperling Nursery in Calabasas, said they recommend Valencia as juicing oranges and navel for peeling and eating. MacInnis agreed, adding that Valencia oranges can also be frozen, while navels become bitter when frozen.

``If you only have room for one tree, the one that will offer the most year-round production is the Valencia,'' he said. ``Navels have a shorter harvest season.''

Lemons are also popular and come in two varieties. Eureka lemon trees produce fruit like you find in supermarkets, while Meyer lemon trees are a cross between an orange and lemon that produce a sweeter fruit, Saoud said.

Grapefruit, limes, mandarins and tangerines also grow well in the Valley. Sperling sometimes carries ``citrus salad,'' a tree that produces more than one type of citrus, Saoud said.

Planting and care

It is best to plant citrus trees in the early spring or fall, but they can be also be planted in the summer, Saoud said. However, anything planted in the heat of summer might require additional water to get off to a good start, she said.

MacInnis shared his recipe for planting and caring for citrus trees, which he said was developed after ``40-plus years of trial and error in the San Fernando Valley.''

--Dig a hole 1 1/2 to 2 inches deeper than the height of the root ball and 4 to 8 inches wider.

--Fill the bottom 2 to 2 1/2 inches of the hole with Kellogg's Nitro Humus. Sprinkle 2 to 3 tablespoons of Tru-Green iron chelate on top for 5- and 15-gallon trees.

--Slip the citrus tree, as carefully as possible, from its container and place it directly on top of the nitrohumus.

--Ensure that the top of the root ball will be slightly above the native soil line.

--Fill the sides of the planting hole a third of the way up with nitrohumus. Sprinkle another 2 tablespoons of iron chelate around the sides for 5- and 15-gallon trees.

--The remaining side should be a 50/50 mix of native soil and nitrohumus.

--The top of the root ball should now be slightly (about 1/2 inch) higher than the native soil grade.

--Water should drain away from the tree's trunk. Citrus are prone to bark and trunk diseases when kept moist. Sprinklers should spray away from them. The worst place for a citrus tree is in the middle of a lawn with a sprinkler system. Also, most landscapers prefer building a beautiful dam around a newly planted tree that can concentrate moisture against the tree's trunk. MacInnis prefers a moat that allows water to infiltrate and percolate through the edge of the root ball and amended soil.

--Slowly water the root ball and moat area thoroughly after planting. Then every five to seven days, water in the moat area through the warmer months.

--Fertilize once in spring and again in the fall with Bandini Citrus & Avocado Food.

--As your trees mature, they probably won't require any fertilization or pruning, just proper watering.

--While the trees do not require much pruning, anything that grows below the graft union should be snapped off. If the below-the-graft portion is not removed, the grafted portion will eventually fade away, and you'll have a beautiful, vigorous, often thorny plant with inedible fruit.

Growing citrus in containers

Citrus has been successfully grown in containers for centuries, MacInnis said.

``Our friends in the Northeast covet citrus like we do tropical houseplants and move their potted citrus from one location to another according to the seasons,'' he said. Such care is not necessary in our arid climate, but MacInnis offers a few tips:

--Use a sealed pot of light color to reflect sun, one that will not absorb heat nor dry out through the sides. A white glazed pot would be superior to a redwood or cedar tub. If a slatted wood pot is mandatory, line the sides (do not block the bottom drainage) with plastic.

--Use a sandy potting soil rather than garden soil.

--Fertilize with a citrus or citrus/avocado food every four to six weeks. Water thoroughly but infrequently. Be sure water enters the root ball. Soil in containers often pulls away from the sides as it dries and may divert water through that space.

--Potted trees will thrive with six to seven hours of direct sunlight but should be protected from all-day, direct sun in the interior valleys.

CAPTION(S):

5 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) ON THE COVER: Oranges are ready for picking at Bothwell Ranch in Woodland Hills. Of the original 30 acres, 14 are still planted with some 1,900 trees.

(2 -- 3 -- color) Gustavo Rizo, above, picks ripe oranges at Bothwell Ranch, while the freshly picked fruit, top, is ready to be transported. The ranch was started in 1923, and today the fruit is marketed under the Sunkist label.

Evan Yee/Staff Photographer

(4 -- color) Proper planting technique and fertilization are the keys to a healthy, fruit-laden orange tree.

Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer

(5 -- color) Northridge's citrus heritage is preserved in the colorful fruit labels, left, that used to decorate orange crates.