Pomelo
Citrus maxima
A citrus with an appetite for sun and little else — three feeds a year, and stay ahead of the cold.
Spacing & sowing
- Plant spacing
- 19 ft 8 in
- In-row spacing
- 19 ft 8 in
- Between rows
- 24 ft 7 in
- Square-foot density
- Not suited to SFG
Growing
- Type
- Fruit · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Sunlight
- Full sun, six to eight hours of it at the least.
- Watering
- Deep and infrequent watering, letting it dry part-way between.
- Feeding
- A citrus-specific fertilizer three times a year.
- Frost tolerant
- Yes
- Flowering
- March
- Pruning
- Minimal pruning: shaping and dead wood, once the fruit is off.
- Overwintering
- Move it indoors before the temperature falls below 7°C.
Through the year
- Feb–Mar Bud Break
- Mar–Jun Flowering
- Jun–Nov Fruiting
- Nov–Dec Senescence
- Jan–Feb Senescence
Pests & problems
- Leaf miners Citrus leaf miner
- Scale insects Immobile brown or white bumps fixed to stems and leaf undersides, sucking sap and weakening growth. Wipe off with a damp cloth or dab with horticultural soap; watch for the sooty mold that follows.
- Canker Citrus canker
- Phytophthora root and foot rot Root rot (Phytophthora)
- Iron chlorosis Yellowing leaves that keep bright green veins, on acid-loving plants growing in soil or water that is too limey.
Garden allies
Beneficial predators that hunt this plant's pests — grow their favourite flowers nearby to recruit them. companion plant
- Hoverfly SyrphidaeHunts Scale insects
Bee-mimicking flies whose legless larvae graze aphid colonies clean while the adults pollinate. A ribbon of shallow, nectar-rich flowers kept in bloom all season recruits wave after wave of them.
- Ladybird (lady beetle) CoccinellidaeHunts Scale insects
The gardener’s favorite ally: adults and their alligator-shaped larvae each eat thousands of aphids, plus scale, mealybugs, and other soft-bodied sap-suckers. Grow flat, open flowers for the adults and never spray a colony that ladybird larvae are already working.
- Parasitic wasps Braconidae & TrichogrammaHunts Leaf miners
Tiny, stingless wasps that lay eggs in or on caterpillars, aphids, and moth eggs — the white cocoons riding a hornworm are their calling card, so leave that caterpillar be. Umbel flowers with shallow nectar keep the adults fuelled.
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com