Many people have large, old citrus trees that don’t produce a lot of fruit and in any case are too tall for the fruit to be picked anyway.
Well, you can prune old citrus now. The best times to do it are either in April or in late August to early September. You can prune the tree quite severely, perhaps to a height of about 1.5m high (i.e. 4-5 ft.). Ideally you should prune back to no less than 4 branches and all cuts need to be clean and horizontal to the ground. Clean your saw (or secateurs?) before and after each cut in a bucket of water with Dettol or household bleach added.
Do not prune in hot months as the trunk may get sunburnt. Do not prune in the dead of winter either.
After pruning you will lose one year of fruit but after that you will have an excellent new fruit tree.
Tidy up your old orange, lemon or lime tree now.
Hooroo!
