I purchased a small, healthy looking blood orange tree in a 3 gallon pot about 4 weeks ago and planted it in a larger, probably 15 gallon, terracotta pot with Scotts Moisture Control potting mix. I drilled 4, roughly nickel sized, holes on the bottom sides of the pot in addition to the original whole in the center of the bottom for drainage. I have tried a few different locations and now have it in a spot that enjoys full sun a good 8-10 hrs a day. The darn thing hasn't grown a bit in all this time, so I'm wondering what I did wrong or am missing. Can anyone think of any clues? The only thing I can think of is that is has not been in its ideal location long enough and therefore has not gotten enough regular sun to start producing new growth. I also purchased smaller (1 gallon) Meyer Lemon and Variegated Pink Lemon trees and in the last week the VPL has exploded with new growth and the Meyer has already flowered and produced a half mature lemon with others on the way. (It has not produced leaves however and is starting to yellow so I fertilized it with Citrus-Tone this evening.)
Citrus trees grow in spurts called flushes, then seem to sit idle for a while. Actually, the roots are growing to be able to support the next flush. One other thing-- enlarging the container as much as you did is not recommended---the main reason is that the soil is more likely to stay wet and cause root rot. Also, the soil mix you used is not the best for citrus-- they like a very airy soil mix with chunks of bark, one that drains rapidly and has lots of airspace--so be careful about overwatering. Skeet
Yeah, I was wondering about the size of the container. Thanks for the soil tip. Would you recommend re-potting? Another note: the leaves are all a rich dark green, but are pointing up a bit. It's been that way since I got it. I forget what that might mean...
I think you can probably wait a little while and see if you have any problems. With the type soil you used, you probably need to replace the soil within a year since it will get compacted and hold even more water. You can search this site for some soil recipies-- a lot of the container experts recommend Coconut Husk Chips, but they need to be washed and treated. Some like to use orchid mix or orchid bark with a little peat moss. One way to check the moisture content is to put a stick into the soil all the way to the bottom of the pot. Pull it out to check soil moisture before watering and keep an eye on the bottom of the stick-- make sure it is not staying wet while the top is dry. You should wait until the soil is dry at least 2-3 inches before watering-- at that time the bottom of the stick should be moist but not wet looking. Skeet
Blood Oranges that have been "juiced" to get them up to size young have a tendency to "sit" in a container until you get some new root growth. By the color of the leaves tells me this may be the case for you. I'd rather buy a Blood Orange with a slight yellow cast to the leaves as then I know they have not been fed too much Nitrogen. Then when I take them from a five gallon and place them into a fifteen gallon container I know they will put out some new roots before they will send out the next flush of new growth. It is not out of bounds for a Blood Orange to take the rest of the year and longer just to adjust to the newer environ and larger container. Indoors in the home and indoors in a greenhouse do serve to be a detriment to having too large a container for Citrus upon transplanting but to bump a five gallon plant up to a fifteen is almost standard procedure around here and not such a big deal when the plant is set outdoors in a container. A three gallon sized plant would normally be placed in a seven gallon container next for outdoor growing. The iffy part of the equation are the dwarf forms, much more so than the standard and semi-dwarf Citrus, that have very little root development. Then we have a tough decision to make but our concerns about root system or lack thereof and open volume in the container can be minimized as long as we do not allow the soil around the roots to compact. Several nursery grade potting soils are just fine for most Citrus and most all of them will have some Peat Moss as a constituent. Which is fine for most Citrus plants but for the dwarfs forms that are known to be rather slow to develop a root system, one of the reasons why they are a dwarf in the first place, is that too much Peat Moss when saturated will slough off oxygen that was sticking to their surface and as long as the Peat Moss remains moist, no free oxygen will readily stick to the particle. After a series of wet, oxygen depleted particles that have bound together we get a moisture caused compaction that even when allowed to dry out will not absorb as much oxygen as the Peat Moss once was able to do. With each successive hose watering we in fact liberate more oxygen out of the soil than we retain afterwards when the soil has become dry again. This time around we cannot get ample oxygen to stick in between the bound particles that we could before. This condition is why if we want to have free movement of oxygen in our soils we have to be aware of what particles can and will compact and fine grade Peat Moss is one of them. How we can work around it is to have a soil medium that has constituents with a coarse texture such as the fine grade Orchid bark mixed in by hand into the potting soil that has some Peat Moss in it. Another is to have a potting soil that has some Perlite as a constituent in that the Peat Moss will try to bind to the Perlite when wet but the Perlite does not absorb a lot of water and does not hold it for very long which allows for a faster drying out, desiccation and this aids oxygen in the container to be replenished. Air moving in from the top of the can and moving in a downward direction in the container will find the dry particles to stick to, thus those particles that cannot become super saturated such as the Orchid Bark (ground Fir bark) [not to ever be confused with Orchid compost] and Perlite become our oxygen collectors for us. Then we can almost guarantee our soil medium can replenish much of the lost oxygen that was forced out of the container every time we saturate the soil with a hose watering. Do not use a soil medium with a high percentage of fine grade (ground) Peat Moss for outdoor container grown Citrus! Another trick of the trade is to us use straight potting soil that has Perlite in it in the bottom of the container, place the tree in the container and fill in the sides and rest of the can covering all of the roots with a hand mixed 1/2 potting soil and 1/2 Redwood compost. Then use straight Redwood compost as a top dress for the plant once the soil has had time to settle and it will after we hose water these plants. We would prefer to have a coarse texture on the soil surface rather than have a fine grade texture as then we allow more air volume when grown outdoors to come into the container and move for us rather than be blocked or even repelled right at the soil surface. I would not worry too much about the Blood Orange doing nothing for top growth in the first year in the can. Let the tree adapt and do not apply any additional Nitrogen for the first year while this plant is adapting to its new and roomier container. Let the available nutrients in the new potting soil do that for you instead. I do not give any of our Citrus any additional Nitrogen the first year I have them, even the plants that we brought in from one grower source that can use some Nitrogen right now. The plants that take the longest time to adjust for us are the ones that have been fertilized too much when they were young. Let the roots develop without outside pressure or interference. Keep it natural, do things above board for this plant early on and you will reap the sought rewards and be happier with this Orange later if you do. Jim
