Citrus: Resist the urge to prune in late summer

The window for pruning here in Adelaide has more or less shut, as fat as citrus goes. I'll tell you why.

Pruning stimulates new growth and that growth is green and soft. At the end of summer the citrus leaf miner comes out and destroys those new leaves. As it happens you'll just be pruning all that deformed shit out next spring.

So my advice is that here in Adelaide you should just let it run. Its good to have a lot of leaf through winter. Citrus are tropical and need all the photosynthesis they can get when the soils get cold, the days short and they're trying to ripen their fruit.

Then, here on the plains in Adelaide, prune them hard in October. If it's a strong tree you'll be rewarded with an explosion of new green and a bunch of flowers.