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In ground satsuma - no new growth

14 years ago

About a year ago, I received an in ground satsuma from Briteleaf. At the same time, I also received a dwarf Meyer lemon and a dwarf Persian Lime for containers from them as well. The Meyer and lime in containers are doing great and it looks like I may even have a couple buds.

The satsuma has not grown much at all in comparison. It has some leaf miner damage but no new growth. I have a lemon tree and an orange tree in the ground near them. They all get fertilized on the same schedule. All of them are putting out new growth and buds except my poor satsuma. It's green and doesn't seem sick except that it's not growing. It was completely covered during our cold weather spells and I don't think it suffered any damage.

Is a satsuma a very slow grower or should I dig it up and check the roots. If I do dig it up, then what? Should I try to put it in a different spot. It gets the same sun as the other two in ground trees.

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Comments (2)

softmentor
14 years ago
make sure you don't have an air pocket in the hole you planted in. Also, if you back filled the hole with anything other than native soil, you may have some souring of the fill or rot in the roots.
check for air holes by taking the garden hose and "drilling" down into the soil about 2 or 3 inches out from the original root ball.
Then be sure the little holes you "dug" with the hose fill back up with soil by working the hose around in the surrounding soil. This will also help mix up the back fill so that you will reduce any problem with
finally, using your heal, pack the soil outside your water worked soil so that it presses in toward the tree, giving it a good firm fill.
IF this was the problem, you should see the tree start up with some new growth and vigor in 2 to 4 weeks.
good luck
tcanora
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks for the reply. I was careful when I planted the tree to fill the hole with water before setting the tree as per the instructions. When I "drilled down" with the hose there was two spots that seemed "hollow" once I got through the surface. I moved the hose with the water running down in there to get the soil to move around.

The weird thing is that when I tamped down the soil to make sure it was packed well with no air pockets, the water seemed to pool at the surface. After a few minutes it would no longer pool when I stepped on it. Is it possible that there is something constricting water drainage a foot or two below the surface? If so, what might it be?

I will sit tight for a couple weeks and may check for air pockets again and see what happens.

Thanks again for your help.

Tammy
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