Philoz, I used Air-Pots last year. I used them only for rooting (which will change this year) but they come in sizes to 120 gallons. One of the nice things about them is they are shipped flat. Therefore, the assembly involves one to wrap the flat sheet and secure it with a "fixing" (in my case its something very similar to what holds the upholstery into your automobile sheet metal.) When it is time to repot/root-prune, you can remove the fixing, and unwrap the container from around your tree in place. This is necessary because of the design of the container, but it comes in handy for other reasons as well. The overall design of the container is suppose to prevent (or at least minimize) many root problems associated with container growth. I found it to be moderately successful. I posted on the use of the pots in this forum. I think I just titled it "Air-Pots". I seem to remember a distributor in Australia. good luck, ~james

Very good points, none of which I even thought of. I certainly don't want a hydrophobic mix and the fact that a wet soil mix keeps roots cooler than a dry mix definitely makes sense, especially since not only are these containers fabric pots, but they get direct sun all day long as well as the reflected heat off the side of my garage. Last year the tomatoes next to my garage grew 8 feet tall (in a 50/50 mix of compost and ProMix BX) which was a first ever for me. Everything is different this year (or so I would think) because I'm using 5-1-1 instead of a soil mix. You've convinced me to water uniformly and will do so effective .....right.....now. Now the next question would be....assuming worst case scenarios...intense summer heat and humidity and very little rain (all of which are usually a given in NJ) HOW MUCH water should I expect to add to each container with each watering and how frequently? Does 1 gallon in a 20 gallon container every other day sound like too much? Or rather than measuring (I tend to over-complicate things like this) should I just stick a garden hose in there and water the surface (under low pressure) until it reaches the lip of the container? The 5-1-1 mix is about 3 inches from the top of each container. Doing it this way will ensure that water drains more uniformly throughout the container (assuming they are all level). Does the fact that I have fabric pots substantially reduce the possibility that I could end up overwatering? Does anyone use any special garden hose nozzle that produces a gentle stream of water under very low pressure?

I start opening about when temps are steadily in the mid 60's or higher for any containers I have in direct sun. It gets much warmer in the containers at those temps. I like to keep my seeds in cups inside of zip lock baggies so I can either just start slicing holes in the zip locks or open them. I would still keep them covered at night though until it's consistently 40 or higher. :)

Personally.....I dont even need to take a plant out of a pot....not just citrus but any plant.......I drill extra drainage holes in my pot in the first place and that has included terracotta(masonery bits/be careful....3mm then 5mm then 7mm) as well as plastic......typically 5 or 6mm holes.....with my citrus i put some onion bag mesh at the bottom to stop mix coming out.(cut to size) All you have to do is lift the pot above your head or tip it on its side carefully and look for signs of roots coming out the holes.....then its time to repot. If you are really slack and go away and they are rootbound...plants will often try to push themselves up and out of the pot as well but the lift and look/tip on its side is all i ever do. if you pick a container that is 3 to 4 inches bigger all around than the rootball....that will eliminate stagnant water sitting in the pot....i killed a lot of citrus using too big a pot! water just sat there going off.Some plastic pots have some big drainage holes on their sides.....they are good for spotting the roots.