Citrus are delicious and nutritious fruits known for their unique flavours and wide range of applications.
This short course will teach you everything you need to know about growing citrus trees. A fantastic option for the commercial grower, home gardeners, horticulturist, small businessperson or enthusiastic amateur.
Course Content
This course has five lessons. Each lesson has a corresponding online self-assessment test.
LESSON 1 INTRODUCTION: SCOPE, NATURE, BOTANY AND TAXONOMY
- Citrus today
- Harvesting
- A brief history
- Botany of citrus
- Appearance
- Reproduction and variability
- Flowering and pollination
- Fruit development
- Number and classification of species
- Species of citrus
- Close relatives
- Microcitrus
- Eremocitrus
- Fortunell
- Poncirus
- Lesson 1 additional reading
- Review what you have been learning
LESSON 2 CITRUS CULTIVATION
- Planting citrus trees
- What affects success?
- Temperature
- Frosts and cold winds
- Choose the right type
- Shade
- Tree size
- Root damage
- Container growing
- Soil
- Colloids
- Preparing the soil for planting
- Does your soil need gypsum?
- Planting technique
- Feeding
- Fertiliser applications
- Drainage
- Irrigation
- Measuring water availability to plants
- Irrigation
- Scheduling irrigation
- Important elements
- Period of watering
- Cyclic watering
- Pulse watering
- Water extraction by roots
- Types of irrigation
- Common citrus fruit problems
- Nutrient deficiencies
- Pests of citrus
- Diseases and viruses of citrus
- Planting lemon trees
- Planting technique
- Caring for lemon trees
- Pruning citrus
- Pruning a standard shape
- Renovating an old tree
- Pruning to improve fruit quality
- Pruning to improve tree health
- Review what you have been learning
LESSON 3 CITRUS PROPAGATION
- Propagation options
- Grafting (budding)
- Budding techniques
- Dwarf trees and double grafts
- Growing from cuttings
- Growing from seed
- Review what you have been learning
LESSON 4 CITRUS CULTIVARS
- Deciding what to grow
- Lemon tree selection
- Cumquats
- Unusual citrus
- Citrus fruit ripening chart
- Lesson 4 additional reading
- Review what you have been learning
LESSON 5 USING CITRUS
- Nutritional value of citrus
- How to extract citrus oils
- Freezing citrus
- Drying citrus
- Making use of excess lemons
- Making fresh lemonade
- Recipes
- Making jams/marmalade
- Marmalade
- Beetroot and orange chutney
- Citrus syrup cake
- Classic orange fennel and onion salad
- Easy salad dressing
- Easy pasta side dish
- Fruit butter/ fruit curd
- Lemon tart
- Lemon dipping sauce - Asian style
- Lettuce cups with chicken and citrus
- Lime chutney
- Marinade for chicken
- Marinade for steak
- Orange salad
- Orange couscous
- Salsa topping for salmon or trout
- Review what you have been learning
- Final assessment
How do our short courses work?
As you progress through each lesson; you will be provided with a range of ways you can expand your learning. By choosing what tasks you do and don't undertake; you can expand in areas that interest you most, and skip areas of less interest.
At the end of each lesson, you will be given a short interactive test to undertake, which will provide an indication of how your learning is progressing. Upon completing the very last lesson, you will be offered a more thorough automated test or examination. This final assessment can be undertaken at any time of day or night; and any day of the week; and if you achieve an overall pass; you will be able to obtain a "certificate of completion".
