hello everyone, i have read you can keep most citrus in large containers and it will stop the tree from growing more than 8-10 feet tall. well i would like to do this but i was wondering if the tree would continue to produce fruit once it is rootbound? i know this is a stupid question but im just not sure. thanks for any help guys! -beau
We have not looked to know if you asked the same question in the Citrus Growers Forum or not but here goes anyway. It is not the solely the box or the container that restricts the eventual size of the tree, the type of tree itself can determine how tall it will grow to become. Maintaining 8-10 foot tall trees of most any kind of Citrus can be done as long as they are principally grafted or budded onto a dwarfing rootstock. Keeping certain standard plants down to 10 feet tall can be done also, depending on which form of Citrus it is as well but for some forms it entails a little more hands on work. Yes, a tree can produce fruit once it becomes root bound but the frequency of other problems the tree may face later such as insect activity, leaf desiccation and leaf drop, premature petal fall when in bloom goes way up if the roots are overly bound and have become too entwined or are too entangled. Depending on which form of Citrus you want to have and also depending on which form you want such as a dwarf Lemon or a semi-dwarf Mandarin, then the choice of a container once the tree has achieved the size and height you want can make a very big difference as to how you can maintain the trees health. Some people balk at putting five gallon sized plants into a fifteen gallon sized pot feeling that we will give the tree too much water for the amount of volume the root system has compared to the open volume of the container. Well, many of the dwarf form Citrus do not have an extensive root system anyway in most cases as too much time was geared to having top growth at the expense of root system development. It can be argued that some of the five gallon containers are too large for the amount of roots some of the dwarf form trees have with 2-4 feet of top growth. The argument that we will apply too much water for so much free space can also be used for some of the five gallon plants I've seen being sold almost everywhere. It can be a jolt to see that nice looking, shiny green leafed Mexican Lime with flowers and fruit on the tree, lift it out of the container and then see what little there is of a root system. We know then what we cannot do for this tree for fertilizer applications. We have to be rather careful about any Nitrogen application until we get some root development or we risk having some real problems later when sparse root systems do not hold up well in freezing weather, no matter what their proposed cold tolerance is. For long term growing of the Citrus in a large container, below is a product that I am liking more and more. Amaroo Tree Boxes The one very nice feature of this tree box is that it can be moved around and about a whole lot easier than if the same tree was planted into a wooden box. One thing I really like is the two molded, pedestal feet on each of the side panels which gives the tree some lift off the ground enabling natural air pruning to the roots. For growing Citrus in large container boxes the air pruning helps remedy or lesson some of the root bound concerns. This link gives an idea as to the amount of gallon sizes some of the boxes are, referring to when we want to bump up that fifteen gallon sized Navel Orange into the next size such as the 24" box. Product Specification You have some options as to where you want to grow these trees on for the long term outdoors, whether placed on the ground or on a concrete pad. These boxes are not for everybody as Citrus do better grown in the ground but we can grow a variety of Citrus in containers and when we do not want to plant the trees and later dig them up to move them, we have a more immediate, easier to deal with solution with these and the wooden tree boxes. Jim
