Citrus-tone 4 Pound Bag
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Growing citrus trees is a lot of fun, as more and more gardeners are discovering. Using your own citrus fruit for drinks and baking feels great, and the trees are handsome too, especially when covered in flowers or fruit. If you live in zone 9 you can grow them right in your garden, but for everyone else, growing citrus is pots is easy, and with a little care you can enjoy your own citrus fruit for months of the year. Lemons, limes, oranges, or more exotic varieties – whatever you grow needs regular feeding to give its best. For big fruit and heavy crops citrus need plenty of mineral nutrients. One of the major benefits of growing your own is being able to avoid chemical fertilizers, so you want a top-quality 100% organic food source for your trees.
No matter if you grow them in the ground or in pots, Bio-tone® Citrus Tone is the perfect choice. This all-natural fertilizer and soil enhancer contains all 13 mineral nutrients needed by your citrus trees. Most importantly, these are provided in the precise and unique balance needed by these trees to give their best. Citrus have special mineral needs, especially for high potassium (potash), to build rich, sweet juice. Citrus Tone has boosted the levels of natural potassium to give you just that – the natural way.
Bio-tone® Citrus Tone is a balanced blend of natural ingredients and microbes that feeds your trees in a natural, ecologically-sound way. It supplies both short-term and long-term minerals, feeding your trees and feeding your soil too. With regular use over time you will build your soil, and even in pots you will activate more natural cycles that reduce the need to re-pot, while encouraging flowering and fruit development. With natural-source magnesium for rich green leaves, and that potassium boost for juicy fruit, you are making the right choice when you use Bio-tone® Citrus Tone for your citrus trees – in pots or in the ground.
Even if you think your plants are doing ‘OK’, Bio-tone® Citrus Tone will change your mind. When you see how much better they grow you will be amazed. For the same impact on your trees and shrubs, use Bio-tone® Tree Tone, and for all acid-loving plants, rely on Bio-tone® Holly Tone. When planting new trees and shrubs, use Bio-tone® Starter Plus for the ideal start in life. Your plants and your soil will thank you.
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.
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.
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.
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.