Bio-tone® Citrus Tone – the perfect all-natural food for citrus trees

The secret to Bio-tone® Citrus Tone is its unique blend of organic ingredients. Each one has been carefully chosen so that the formulation adds up to the perfect balance of the 13 essential mineral nutrients, exactly as citrus trees need them. It gives your trees a moderate, non-burning boost of immediate access to nitrogen, and the natural slow-release from the blend of components and the carefully-chosen microbes delivers a steady flow in the long-term too. With regular use you will restore the natural cycles of healthy soil, build strong and diverse microbe populations, and create enhanced soil conditions for the best growth from your trees.

Citrus in pots are handicapped by a lack of access to natural soil minerals. The potting soils needed for pots deliver very little – they are a growing medium, not a source of nutrients. So feeding your plants is absolutely essential. Perhaps you have been using liquid chemical fertilizers. Besides the energy consumed in manufacturing these products, one mistake and you can badly burn both the roots and foliage of your trees. With Bio-tone® Citrus Tone you are taking the natural route, using beneficial soil microbes to break down natural sources of mineral nutrients. These sources don’t burn, and they feed a steady supply to your trees, not a sudden, weakening jolt of growth followed by nothing. Every time you water a balanced diet is delivered, and it shows. Rich green leaves, sturdy stems, prolific flowering and big, top-quality fruit. It all comes together to deliver the result you want, and all in a perfectly natural, 100% organic fashion, using natural cycles evolved over billions of years.

Bio-tone® Citrus Tone is a blend of finely-ground poultry feathers, poultry manure, alfalfa meal and other organic materials. These release some nutrients quickly, but then feed steadily. Potting soils may not have the necessary microbes to break down these materials, so they are added right into the mix. Feathers are an excellent long-term source of nutrients, but they need specific types of bacteria to release them These may not be present in your pots, or in outdoor soils, especially degraded ones. So they are added right in, and get down to work as soon as you water the soil.

Plants in pots are subject to root diseases, and outdoor citrus can also succumb to them. So Bio-tone® Citrus Tone has special, biological-control microbes too, that protect against root diseases, bringing new life to stunted plants and invigorating your trees. New root growth means better nutrient uptake, and protection against disease is the first step.

Using Bio-tone® Citrus Tone

This product is simple to use. It is perfect for all citrus, outdoors in your garden or in pots. Outdoors, feed in late winter, late spring and again in fall. The convenient 5-oz. packet makes it easy to use the correct amount for outdoor trees – just use five packs for every 3 feet tall your tree is. Citrus are shallow rooted, so sprinkle over the area beneath the foliage, avoiding the area near the trunk.

For pot grown trees, feed every 60 days, from late winter to mid-fall.

Follow this table and sprinkle the indicated amount evenly over the soil. a 5 oz pack contains 25 – 30 teaspoons of product. Water well after feeding.

Learn more about Bio-tone® Citrus Tone

Organic Materials

The 100% organic base of Bio-tone® Citrus Tone is a blend of materials that release the exact balance of nutrients for balanced growth in a measured and controlled way.

• Hydrolyzed Feather Meal – this top-grade source of protein provides a long-term supply of material that releases nitrogen and other nutrients when broken down. It does not degrade quickly, so special bacteria are added to the mix, and these have the specific enzyme systems to tackle this product. The feather meal has also been hydrolyzed. This natural process uses water and enzymes to open up the molecular structure, allowing the bacteria to get inside and release those nutrients. This process also leaves the feather meal germ-free, protecting you and your family from all health risks, especially important when growing your trees indoors.
• Pasteurized Poultry Manure – contains all 13 essential mineral nutrients trees need for balanced growth. Its slow breakdown delivers them in in measured doses, never burning leaves or roots. It also contains the mineral calcium, a vital constituent of root tips and leaf buds too. Fully conscious of the health needs of your family indoors, the manure has been carefully pasteurized, to make it completely free of germs.
• Bone Meal – this natural product is the premium source of phosphates for organic growers, who have used it for centuries. This mineral, essential for root growth, is liberate slowly as the finely-ground material decomposes. Again, with the health of you and your family in mind, it has been sterilized with high-temperature steam, and without nasty chemicals that could leave harmful residues.
• Alfalfa Meal – this is a top-rated source of short to medium-term nitrogen, and it perfectly complements the slower release coming from the other ingredients. Combined together they deliver a steady flow of nitrogen, and other nutrients too, throughout the growing season.
• Potassium – this is where Citrus Tone really shines. Citrus trees have a high need for potassium, also called potash. There are high levels in the juice of citrus fruit, and without an abundant supply your fruits will be small and dry. By boosting the levels, you get top-grade juicy fruit, and a bumper harvest. It also stimulates flowering, as well as thickening cell walls, protecting your trees against disease and sucking insects.
• Magnesium –Without magnesium your leaves will be yellow, not green, because this mineral is an essential component of chlorophyll, the photosynthesis molecule that turns light into the energy food plants need. At the heart of every chlorophyll molecule is an atom of magnesium, so its presence in your plant foods is vital. Sulfate of potash magnesia is the natural mineral form used. Called langbeinite, this mineral contains 11% magnesium. As it slowly breaks down, magnesium is always there for your plant. The result is rich green foliage and maximum rates of photosynthesis for optimal growth and development.

Soil Conditioners

• Humates – When organic material decomposes it releases nutrients until just long-lasting end-products remain. But in nature nothing is wasted, and these are vital materials for building healthy soil. Full of natural acids and gums, they bind soil particles together into larger particles. In sandy soil these trap nutrients. In clay soil they improve drainage. The end result is a soil that functions like loam, the ideal soil type for growing plants. Even in pots, the humates in Bio-tone® Citrus Tone reduce compaction and improve drainage, a vital need for citrus, which can never grow well in wet conditions.
• Greensand – this natural material contains glauconite, a unique iron-potassium-silicate type of mica responsible for its natural green color, and its name. With a complex molecular structure, it lasts years in soil, improving drainage by opening spaces between dense particles. This allows both water and air to move more freely, stimulating root growth. Outdoors your soil will drain better, and in pots it will too, as the greensand opens channels that improve water flow. Greensand was created millennia ago at the bottom of long-dead ancient seas. The planet has left it for us to grow better crops today.

Beneficial Bacteria

For the materials in the organic blend of Bio-tone® Citrus Tone to function well, appropriate bacteria with the necessary enzyme systems are needed. This has been taken care of by adding 624 colony forming units of three species of bacteria to every gram of product. CFUs measure the concentration of living bacteria, ready to form active colonies. On contact with damp soil, they begin to multiply rapidly, as only bacteria can, and they immediately start to break down those organic components. They also encourage the development of natural microbes in your soil, restoring the ecological function to its correct levels.

The bacteria in Bio-tone® Citrus Tone are:

Bacillus licheniformis –this bacterium has all the enzyme systems needed to breakdown those tough proteins in poultry feather meal. They release nitrogen and other nutrients in a steady flow, without burning. Feathers break down too slowly to be effective as plant food when they are not present.

Bacillus megaterium – bacteria are not limited to nutrient breakdown, although this little guy knows the secret of turning the nitrogen in the air into soil nitrogen minerals. But its main function in Bio-tone® Citrus Tone is to cover the plant roots in a protective coat that prevents the germination of disease spores. Secondarily, it also works on the organic components in the mix, to keep that essential steady flow coming along.

Bacillus pumilus – another biological control agent, this bacterium protects against important soil-borne diseases caused by the harmful fungi Rhizoctonia and Fusarium. It too effectively tackles the organic materials in the blend, also keeping up that steady flow of nutrients your plants need for healthy, dynamic growth.