Hello,

I have an eight year old lemon tree that grew in a large clay pot. During flowering time it is so full of fragrant blossoms that I can barely see a leaf. Citrus trees produce more blossoms than it can grow into mature fruit. The problem is that the tree drops most of the tiny lemons, it cannot support that much fruit growing in a pot and I get just a few lemons, this year just only two.

I was talking with my gardener trying to find a way to replant the tree on the ground without killing the roots and also saving the pot.

I am looking for suggestions from someone with experience on how can this be successfully done.

Cheers,

We did it once. I had a Kinnow mandarin that my hubby kept hitting with his truck so we decided to move it across the driveway. We prepared by digging the hole and then dug up the tree. Unfortunately, our soil is river bottom so when we lifted the tree out of the hole, all the dirt fell away. We planted it, crossed our fingers - the tree never flinched.

It doesn't appear there is a lot of dirt left in its current pot so it needs a repot anyway. Fall is the perfect time. I suggest you find a new spot, dig a hole and lay the pot down by the hole and ease the tree out and slide it into the hole. Be careful not to plant it deeper than it is now. Water and keep it watered. Don't fertilize until it re-establishes itself. In Miami, your soil is probably alkaline so you will have to use soil acidifiers to keep it happy. You can mix some into the planting hole before you put the tree in.

If your tree has been in the same pot for 8 years, or only been potted up (as opposed to being repotted, which includes bare-rooting, root pruning, and a change of soil) It will definitely need better care than removing the soil/root mass from the pot and dropping it in a planting hole. It will need bare-rooting and correction of all problem roots before being planted out.

The existing soil/root mass will look much like a tangled ball of yarn, with plenty of encircling/ girdling/ crossing roots, as well as roots growing straight up, down, or back toward the center of the root mass. All the aforementioned should be corrected lest your tree ends up looking like these after a few years:


Your tree probably looks something like this ^^^ currently


This tree ^^^ 'strangled' by encircling/girdling roots.

Al

Hi Al,

Thanks for the tip, it is not as easy as I thought. My problem will be what roots should be cut, some must be critical and should be left alone or should I remove them both, thinner and thicker roots.

Regards,

Horacio

Vignale355f said: Hi Al,

Thanks for the tip, it is not as easy as I thought. My problem will be what roots should be cut, some must be critical ...<Snip>

Actually, I think it's very easy. You don't express any emotional attachment to this plant ("it was my late mother's, grown from a seed that her grandmother filched from the first class cabin kitchen waste on her steerage class voyage from the old world..."). As such, and as lemons are not incredibly rare, I would follow the advice given by Tapla, with an exception. Recalling a study done (maybe at University of Washington?) they demonstrated that severely pot-bound plants being planted out did better with a fairly harsh VERTICAL trimming of roots, perhaps 20% distance from outer edge. That is, pull the plant from the pot and use a pruning saw (or some such) to slice vertically then replant.
One thing that I don't agree with (another respondent): I don't think you'll need to do anything to (mostly pointlessly) try to change the Ph of the soil.

I grow citrus in the ground and in pots. The photos tapla provided are not photos of citrus tree roots. Citrus roots are fibery and dense. When you get it out of the pot, a gentle shake might dislodge most of the soil. I borrowed this photo from the internet - this is an extreme example of what the roots of a potted citrus look like. Your tree is small, I doubt it has this many roots.

https://www.google.com/search?...

Citrus like a soil pH of 6 -7. Read the article below:

https://fairchildgarden.org/sc....

Without acidifier, iron and citrus specific nutrients, your tree will develop a permanent case of chlorosis.

Hello Lucy,

What's the proportion of an acidifier, iron, etc and what kind of acidifier, any particular brands?
It would be easier for me if I can buy a ready mixed product.

Regards,

The problem is you can't change the pH of your soil, it will be an ongoing effort to keep the soil pH down - you will be using acidifier yearly. You can get a good start by mixing elemental sulfur into the planting hole.

Start by testing the pH of your soil: you will need litmus paper and distilled water. Dig down several inches and take a sample of soil. Put it in a jar (remove sticks, rocks, etc.) and fill with distilled water to just cover the soil. Put the lid on and shake it every few minutes for 30 minutes or so. Drain the soil through a coffee filter and test the liquid with the litmus paper.

It takes about 1 lb. of sulfur to lower the pH 1 point. Also, the sulfur won't have an immediate affect so don't be tempted to add more (too much is just as bad as too little). After the initial plant, you will have to add acidifier (and citrus) food at least yearly, maybe more often.

It may be easier to transplant your lemon tree to a larger pot. Around here, that would be a half wine barrel. Have you ever checked the soil in the pot on a sunny day to see how warm it is? You may be losing your fruit because the soil stays too hot or gets too dry. The fix is a larger pot and/or an insulated pot. You can insulate a large pot by putting a layer of bubble wrap insulation on the inside of the pot before you fill it with soil. Or by using heavy light colored pots.

How many gallons is the current pot? How often do you fertilize and at what strength? What are you using? How do you determine when to water? These are probably questions I should have asked at the beginning.

To answer your questions,

The pot is filled up to 16" high, width varies from 18" at the top of the soil level, 24" in the middle and 14" at the bottom. Frightfully sorry but I have no idea how to calculate how many gallons of soil are in the pot. I use professional grade. Harrell's fertilizer slow release fertilizer granules for all tropical plants 16-6-11.

This year we had an unusual amount of rain and I depended on it for watering.

Measuring the pot I found two more lemons one green, still in the plant, and this yellow one which has a funny mark.

The pot sounds big enough. Is the soil to the top? My biggest citrus pot is 10 gallons but i use all available space - the soil level is within an inch of the rim.

My suggestion is to leave it in the pot but repot. Use citrus appropriate soil and invest in some citrus specific fertilizer. The soil should be moisture retentive but fast draining. I use regular potting soil but add about 1/3 volume course perlite.

The right fertilizer is important as citrus have very specific nutrient needs. If you repot this fall, don't fertilize until you see spring growth. Then use the fertilizer at half strength every other month until active growth ceases next fall.

Your tree looks really good so it may be its just missing some key nutrients to set and hold fruit. That hole is worrisome. Cut it open and see what's in there.