Fruit trees like citrus are easy prey for pests and diseases. Fortunately, companion planting provides an excellent way to improve your plant’s health in an easy and organic way. The task is thus to determine which particular plants offer the most benefits to ensure your citrus tree thrives.
The companion plants to grow under your citrus tree are herbs like basil, mint, and thyme, edible plants like nasturtium and borage, and ornamentals like lavender, geraniums, and roses. These plants support your citrus trees by feeding on harmful pests and adding beauty to your garden.
In this article, we explore what kind of plants to grow under your citrus trees. You will also get useful tips on how to grow your own companion plants. Keep reading to learn more about:
- The benefits of citrus tree companion planting.
- The kind of plants you shouldn’t have near your citrus trees.
- Companion plants for potted citrus trees.
- Whether you can plant citrus trees together.
Advantages of Citrus Trees Companion Planting
As mentioned earlier, citrus trees companion planting is beneficial because it helps to deter pests that harm your citrus plants. But that’s not all. This gardening practice offers you several other benefits. Growing companion plants is advantageous because:
- They can be used as mulch.
- They attract beneficial insects
- They can help boost soil fertility
- They can help in reducing weeds
- They produce nectar for bees
- They can form part of an edible garden
- They can help maintain moisture in the soil
- They brighten and add beauty to your fruit garden
- They help minimize your dependence on fertilizers and herbicides
What Not to Plant Near Citrus Trees
Since citrus trees are prone to attacks by preying insects, it’s essential to have the right type of companion plants growing next to your fruit trees.
Nonetheless, not all insects are bad for your citrus trees. In such circumstances, companion planting works to attract the right kind of bugs. The kind that enjoys feeding on the things that love eating your citrus plants like mealybugs or aphids.
So, what kind of plants should you not plant near your citrus trees?
Citrus trees have shallow feeder roots. They also don’t require a lot of moisture and prefer dry topsoil. Therefore, you want to avoid having deep-rooted plants or those that require a lot of water near your citrus trees. This is because deep-rooted companion plants might disturb the roots of your citrus plants.
35+ Plants to Grow Under Citrus Trees
Plants ideal as citrus tree companions are those that share the same resource needs as citrus fruits. These include the type of soil, temperature, light, and moisture content.
It’s also best to surround citrus with fragrant herbs, ornamental and edible plants since they support the ecosystem systems in your garden. For instance, grow companion plants that feed birds, insects like bees, and the soil for your plants’ overall well-being.
In general, citrus trees typically prefer well-drained soil and a regular amount of water for optimal growth. But even with these requirements, there’s a wide variety of plants that are appropriate as citrus companion plants. Plus, they are suitable for planting either under or near your citrus plants.
Yet, the most suitable companion plants are the type that act as deterrents to or ward off harmful insects and bugs, among other benefits. Some of these companion plants have the following characteristics:
- Beautiful umbellate flowers that attract beneficial insects like bees, ladybugs, and lacewings.
- Sweet-tasting nectar that draws in beneficial insects and butterflies.
Now, let’s look at some examples of appropriate citrus companion plants and the benefits they provide:
- Lavender. It sports bouquets of pastel purple tones that form the perfect backdrop for your citrus fruits.
- Marigolds. These make superb companion crops for most plants owing to their strong smell, which repels most of the insects/bugs that attack your citrus trees. Marigolds keep away pests that live above the soil and those that hide within the soil through their secretions. Also, their brightly colored, daisy-like flowers attract predatory insects like hoverflies and lacewings.
- Calendula. Like marigolds, these plants deter nematodes. They also ward off beetles, and their beautiful flowers are edible.
- Basil, cilantro, thyme, and rosemary are herbal companions that complement citrus fruits like lemon in your kitchen.
- Clovers, blue false indigo, and lupine. These help fix nitrogen in the soil.
- Petunias and borage. They keep away common citrus pests, aphids included, and borage, also known as bee balm, brings in beneficial insects like bees and butterflies.
- Yarrow, dill, sweet alyssum and fennel. These plants use their wide, umbel-shaped flowers to entice ladybugs, wasps, tachinid flies, and lacewings, which consume aphids that prey on your citrus plants. They also make alluring companions to your citrus due to their beauty. Yarrow, a spreading plant boasts beautiful spires filled with flower clusters.
- Scented geranium, roses, and jasmine add an aromatic presence to your citrus garden that complements the distinctive citrus scent. Lemon flowers and fruit have a distinctive, pleasant scent.
- Lemon balm, tansy, and parsley. These attract wasps and tachinid flies, which kill caterpillars harmful to citrus trees. Also, upon flowering, they entice beneficial predators like ladybirds, lacewings, and hoverflies that prey on harmful citrus pests like mealybugs, mites, and scale. Tansy repels ants so planting it underneath your citrus trees helps discourage them from farming whiteflies and aphids for honeydew.
- Sweet peas and alfalfa. These legumes help feed your citrus trees by adding nitrogen to the soil. Sweet peas also brighten your garden with their beautiful flowers.
- Calendula and black-eyed alfalfa. These flowering plants help to attract hoverflies, which feed on mealybugs, a common lemon pest.
- Nasturtium. Nasturtiums are interesting companion plants in that they act like pest magnets, drawing aphids to themselves. This helps keep the aphids on the nasturtiums and off your citrus trees. Nasturtiums are also edible.
- Garlic, cilantro, and mint. Strong-scented herbs that help repel insects. Garlic, in particular, is quite effective against aphids.
- Daffodils. Useful in repelling fruit tree borers and wildlife such as deer. They also prevent grass from creeping underneath the citrus trees.
- Marjoram, oregano, and thyme. These are shallow-rooted herbs that will not disrupt the growing citrus trees.
- Black-eyed Susan. Attracts the hoverfly, which preys on mealybugs that are harmful to citrus trees.
- Lemongrass. This plant forms an appealing ground cover, helps to retain soil moisture, reduces weeds, and its strong flavor keeps away bugs.
- Comfrey. Has three-fold benefits. Its bell-shaped flowers attract pollinators, the leaves are perfect for green mulch/manure, and also offer a home to beneficial insects, keeping your citrus pest-free.
Other fitting companion plants to your citrus trees include:
- Other citrus trees. Well-maintained citrus trees can be excellent companions to other citrus tree varieties as hedges, espaliers, or living fences. The ideal planting distance is 2–5 feet apart. You could also plant citrus trees intensively, which entails having as many as 4 trees in one hole and raising them as a single tree.
- Mediterranean garden plants such as the bay laurel and the Carolina cherry laurel go well with lemon trees. Besides, you can prune them into desired shapes.
Companion Plants for Potted Citrus Trees
Citrus trees make enchanting potted plants due to their evergreen hue, attractive fruits, and sweet-smelling scent. Among the things that potted citrus trees need, regular tending, which includes pruning, is paramount. Also, companion planting is one way to keep your potted plants happy.
For instance, growing petunias, nasturtium, or marigolds alongside your citrus will provide the latter with a natural pest deterrent and encourage them to produce delicious, healthy fruit. But, since there’s not much space in the container for both the citrus tree and the companion plant, you might want to avoid plants with large root systems.
Potted citrus trees encounter various problems due to their confined space, such as root binding and nutrient exhaustion. Over time, the little soil in the pots gets exhausted, and your potted trees might start showing signs of nutrient deficiencies.
As such, you may need to add compost and also consider using organic fertilizers. This is also when you want to use companion plants that help with nitrogen fixation, like sweet peas and alfalfa.
To maintain your citrus plants’ health for the long term, you may need to move them to larger pots containing fresh soil every 2–4 years. This will help them produce more fruit. To protect them from root binding, you can remove and carefully prune the roots — when the citrus is not fruiting — and then replace the soil in the pot to help protect them.
Can Citrus Trees Be Planted Together?
Depending on the variety, regular-sized citrus trees planted in the ground can grow up to 25 feet tall (7.62m), claims Four Wind Growers. These plants require ample ground space between them, such as 8–10 feet (2.4–3.04m) diameter space for a semi-dwarf citrus tree and around 15–20 feet (4.5–6m) for a standard tree.
Ample spacing between the citrus tree trunks is essential as it gives room for their canopies to spread out. For taller trees, ensure to plant them as far apart as possible.
Bearing the above information in mind, it’s not good to plant citrus trees very close together because:
It Can Cause the Citrus Trees to Yield Less Fruit
Planting citrus trees close to each other leads to the formation of an intertwined overhead canopy. The fruits and foliage found along the canopies’ edges remain under constant shade, which results in reduced fruit production. Without adequate sunlight, the leaves are unable to photosynthesize effectively enough for the tree to bear fruit. What’s more, if the canopy grows denser, the citrus trees stop producing fruit altogether.
Additionally, harvesting and pruning become tedious and time-consuming since the canopy makes it challenging for you to find your way in between the close-knit trees. Again, few plants can blossom underneath the deep shade occasioned by the dense citrus tree canopy.
Thus, companion planting would also be a challenge, and you’d have to grow your plants towards the canopy’s outer edges, where they can get adequate sunshine.
It Can Lead to Depletion of Soil Nutrients
Citrus trees require a substantial amount of nitrogen to enable them to grow, flower, and produce fruits. As the plants grow, their roots dig further into the ground. This results in the close-planted trees competing for limited nutrients. You will then start to notice the leaves wilting or turning yellow.
In such a case, adding a high-nitrogen fertilizer can help improve the soil. Nonetheless, you don’t want to be constantly struggling with poor soils, as this could lead to over-fertilization. It’s, therefore, best to plant your citrus trees the right way from the get-go.
It Can Lead to Stunted Growth
A lack of soil nutrients coupled with dappled sunlight can cause stunted growth in a wide variety of citrus trees.
Not only does their foliage begin to shrink in size, but the trunk growth slows down as well. With the intense competition for resources, the trees are unable to produce enough energy. They thus respond by conserving what they have and using it for basic needs such as photosynthesis.
It Can Cause Transplanting Challenges
Transplanting a group of closely planted citrus trees can present a big challenge since their roots and canopies are bound together. Besides, if all you need to do is transplant one tree, you’d need to cut the roots and extricate the intertwined limbs so as to separate them from the other citrus trees.
This procedure damages the roots, places immense stress on the citrus tree, and could lead to the plant not surviving the move.
The Citrus Trees Could Graft Together
Planting your citrus trees too close to each other not only causes their roots to bond, but the trees could end up grafting together.
In this scenario, neighboring tree branches rub together, causing sap to seep from the bared spots. The two trees then press tightly together at the wound site, and with time, they become a single citrus tree bearing two separate trunks.
It Could Attract Harmful Pathogens
GardenZeus recommends growing your companion plants at a distance of 2–4x the diameter of any citrus tree’s trunk and up to 30.4 cm (1 foot) from root buttresses or surface roots. They also advise against using mulch, which traps moisture, thus encouraging pathogens destructive to your citrus trees.
A dense canopy is also detrimental to your citrus trees’ health because it encourages the growth of fungi. In addition, keeping vegetation such as grass far from the root area helps to prevent root diseases. The recommended distance is about 6 inches (15.2 cm) from the base of the citrus tree.
Moreover, harvesting and pruning become tedious and time-consuming since the canopy makes it challenging for you to find your way between the close-knit trees.
Additional Tips For Planting Under Your Citrus Trees
Avoid Using Too Much Mulch
Adding mulch to your citrus trees provides them with many benefits. But while mulching conserves moisture by reducing evaporation and discouraging weeds, too much of it is not advisable.
Therefore, when using mulch, use a moderate amount of mulching material and ensure that it’s only 3–4 inches (7.62–10.1cm) deep.
Using too much mulch could cause more harm than good because:
- A thick layer of mulch restricts airflow to the roots, which reduces the amount of oxygen available to make plant food.
- Surface roots can grow into the mulch, making the citrus trees more likely to suffer environmental stresses.
- Keeping the mulch material too close to the tree trunks can lead to the trunk rotting or decaying due to moisture.
Go for Shallow-Rooted Companion Plants
For citrus companion planting, you want to keep it to plants with shallow roots, as noted previously. These include shallow-rooted herbs such as thyme, marjoram, and oregano.
For best results, plant these towards the canopy edge so that the plants can access sunlight. Still, you could try plants like impatiens in spots where it gets a little shady.
One notable exception to this rule is the comfrey plant. This plant makes an excellent companion for your citrus trees because although its roots are rather deep, they enable it to mine nutrients from deep down. These nutrients move into the leaves and get deposited into the soil when the leaves eventually die off. The citrus are thus able to take them in.
Be careful not to damage the citrus roots when planting. One way to do this is by placing compost on top and then planting your companion plants on this surface.
Final Thoughts
Growing companion plants alongside your citrus trees is beneficial to your fruit trees because it helps enhance their growth. Your citrus trees receive additional soil nutrients and protection from destructive bugs, and the garden turns into a flagrant orchard.
As for you, you get to harvest healthy, delicious-tasting citrus fruits from your garden every season.
Ultimately, a diverse garden translates to a healthy garden. Once you know which plants go with your citrus trees, you can then go ahead to create a beautiful orchard full of flowering species, edibles, and ornamentals.
