Hello y'all! I am new to this sight & have read a lot of great information about meyer lemon trees & maybe I have overlooked what I need to know but I can use your help. I don't know anything I mean (absolutely nothing) about lemon trees & I received one in May as a gift. I live in Texas in zone 8A. It was bought from a nursery & I do not have a clue if it is a dwarf or regular size tree. It just had a tag on it.."Meyer Lemon Tree". It also has 3 small painted areas on the tree. The lower one yellow, the middle one green, & the upper one blue. Maybe that was something for the nursery to use, I'm not sure. I repotted it using the bagged Miracle Grow Cactus, Citrus soil but when I took it out of the pot that it was originally in, the soil (which seemed like mostly sand to me) fell apart on one side & exposed the roots on the whole side of the plant. The bottom of the plant had roots sticking out at the bottom so I pieced the soil back as good as I could & put it in my pot & put soil around it. I did not trim any roots off of it. The roots did not seem to me that they filled the pot, there were just a few at the bottom & none were wrapping around the pot. A few tiny roots were at the top part but they were very tiny & thin.The lady at the nursery, as I was told, said the tree needed repotting. I repotted it in a container that was only about 1 - 2 inches larger in height & about 4 inches in width. I filled the remaining pot with soil & put a Tablespoon of slow release Oscopote fertilizer granuales in the top 2 to 3 inches of the soil. Then I watered it thoroughly. The bag of soil said to keep it in the shade for about 4 days then move it in the sun. I just potted this yesterday (6/21/08). My questions are: 1. Did I already kill my lemon tree before I even get it growing because the soil around the roots came apart or was this supposed to happen? 2. Did I repot it correctly & if not can I repot it again without killing it? 3. I read where someone mention a 4 inch rule about repotting but couldn't find anything about it in the citrus forum. What is that? 4. Do I need to keep it in the shade for 4 days like the bag said? The tree itself is about 3 ft. tall & came in a pot that was 1ft wide & 1ft. deep. It looks like a stick with about 20 - 30 leaves only on the top fourth of the tree. The leaves look healthy so far. Any suggestions is helpful. Sorry I don't have any pictures at this time but if you need to see it I will try to upload some. Any help or advice would be GREATLY appreciated.
I have all the color blobs on the trunks of the small ones i bought as `agricultural` citrus trees, they are all about 3 to 4 foot high and like a tall stick with a bit at the top, they all had a plant passport blue label round the trunk, on the label it had the info that says what rootstock and what variety it is on the rootstock, on my grapefruit it says, pomelo, citrusparadisi, rio-red ivia 289 , type the ivia 289 and citrus in on the net and you find out things about the rootstock aparently it is citrustrifoliata rootstock for the number code i have, the label is an EEC requirement , so maybe not on over there, but i would think something similar would be there the 4 inch rule is that you should never go more than 4 inch bigger on pot size when repotting, if the pot is too big the roots can rot as the pot will not dry out, they like to be very dry, like dust dry for the top 2 inch or so before watering, then leave it again to dry out, if the pots too big, the middle will never dry out at all and the air cant get through , they like air to be able to get through to stop the roots rotting When i repotted all mine i have tried allsorts of ways, the best i used a loam based compost for repotting small plants , available here in uk as `no2 jhon innes` and i add 50% perlite , the perlite is the important bit it lets the air through and makes the pot dry out quicker, i also leave all the roots showing on the surface of the soil, not sticking out, but just so they can be seen so they dry quicker and air can get at them, ive now started adding 20% horticultural grit/30% perlite you need a 5-1-3 ratio in the fertiliser or things will get out of balance,its best to get a citrus fertiliser to prevent the leaves changing colour and falling off, do a search about fertilisers on here and theres loads of posts about the need for the fertiliser to be correct, sometimes adding trace fertilisers to treat deficiancys before they get out of hand
StarLoc, Millet was the first to introduce CHC and Peat for soil mixes to be used in container citrus growing, this finding alone has made container citrus growing more suggestful for common people wishing to grow citrus. CHC can be a bit costly, but in the long run it's much cheaper,
StarLoc, thank you for the great information. I looked all over the bucket that the tree came in & on the tree itself but couldn't find any info about the tree. Just a tag that said Meyer Lemon Tree. There was no other information on the tag itself. It might have came off when the people picked it up. They have had it since May & I only received it this week-end. Should I have added perlite to my miracle grow bagged soil? I did use the right fertilizer thank goodness & thanks for that information. Also when I repotted them I put the roots in the bottom of the pot. Their is only about 2 inches left at the bottom of the pot below the roots. Like I stated above, I didn't buy a pot larger in heigth, just width. Do I need to redo this? I covered it with soil just like it was covered from the nursery. Should I have put the roots further up at the top & left the tree higher up in the pot? Also another question. Do I need to treat or spray the tree with anything to prevent diseases, bugs etc. before they get it or just wait & see? Thank you so very much for the info.
Sorry, I mispelled Osmocote & I'm sure I mispelled others as well. I did use the one that has trace minerals.
Actually the 4 inch rule does not mean that you should never go more than 4 inch bigger on pot size when repotting. The 4 inch rule was devised by Dr. Carl Whitcomb of the University of Oklahoma. The 4 inch rule ONLY applies if you are growing your trees in an Air Root Pruning Container. If your interested in further reading about the 4-inch rule click on this web site. http://www.rootmaker.com/docs/4inchRuleWeb.pdf Starloc is "correct" in stating that in citrus container culture it is good policy to let the top couple of inches to dry out before re-watering. However, because a properly planted container citrus tree has 20 percent of it roots in the top 2-3 inches of the growth medium, it would be greatly detrimental to let this area become dry as dust. When the top 2-3 inches feels to be relatively dry (but not completely) then generally it is time to water. - Millet
WOW Millet! That is great information & tells me that I need to repot my repotting...I had probably figured that I was going to have to do this so at lunch today I went & bought some pine bark nuggets & peat moss. I already have sand at the house since we just finished a rock seat wall. We don't have any coconut husks here or I would have gone that direction with the soil so I will have to use the 4 parts pine bark, 1 part peat & 1 part sand. I have read alot of what you have written & do respect your opinion. I hope I can keep this alive but I still need to know if I should spray horticulture spray on my lemon tree to prevent anything from eating it or just wait until it happens. Those leaf footed bugs are already eating my tomato plants so I am just waiting until it will find my lemon tree. Thanks for all of your help & info.
