I've been working with animals for a very long time. Maybe one of these ideas will work for you: 1. Uncrinkled sheet of heavy aluminum foil - cats hate the sound 2. Upside-down mouse traps under a little newspaper or tea towel is best, but not necessary. They fly into the air & scare the crap out of the cat. UPSIDE-DOWN ONLY for obvious reasons. 3. Carpet tack strips - nasty points aren't nice to step on 4. Ssscat brand spray head goes on canned air & uses infrared sensor to spray air when cat is near - sound alone works, but for stubborn cats, you can point it at them. 5. Set a shallow dish or lids of water on soil surface - cats hate wet feet. Add rubbing alcohol for unpleasant odor and sensation in eyes & nose. 6. Rolled up balls of masking or duct tape - even more annoying to have stuck to them than just double-stick tape. Tape balls stick and follow them around. Only trouble is the cat might pee somewhere else in its panic to remove attacking tape balls. 7. Bamboo skewers or dowels stuck into soil to form a fence, or stuck at all different angles so they're very uncomfortable to squat or walk in. Bag of 100 for $2 in Walmart kitchen isle 8. Scat Mat gives static-like shock - from Foster & Smith or any online pet store, maybe even PetSmart. 9. Infrared-triggered noise maker. Some are sold for this, but one of those cheap infrared doorbells or buzzers from Amazon that little shops use instead of a bell on the door will only cost $5-$10 & is good enough for most cats. Will also alert you to bad behavior so you can squirt kitty if noise doesn't do the trick. Soak some corn starch in Bitter Apple, Bitter Lime, Fooey (best) or other bitter product. Let dry. INSIDE A SEALED BAG, break it back into powder. Put 1/4" corn starch on soil surface & top with thin layer of horrible, bitter powder. When cat disturbs powder, bitterness gets in mouth & nose & (s)he will never go back. Save this as absolute last resort because it is unspeakably horrible. It works, but you can't avoid enjoying a bit of it yourself while making and cleaning it up, and when the cat disturbs it and later tracks it around the house. Every now & then some tiny bit will waft up from somewhere and you'll be gagging and spitting for half an hour. Your cat might also not want to bathe itself when it gets the horrible, bitter crap in its fur. Trust me, every other option is better than this one. For details, more help, or more ideas, email me through the site.

Kristimama, Citrus are nearly carefree in the Bay Area, so there is no reason not to grow as many as you like. Fill up your whole yard with them! The only real problem that most people run into is infestations of sucking insects (particularly scales), vectored by the omnipresent Argentine ants. Other than that, you basically just plant them and let them go. Give them some acidifying fertilizer in the winter, and keep your soil healthy through mulching. That's about all you need to do. Calamondins are small, sour citrus fruits. They are generally used for their juice, much like you would use lemons, etc. (You wouldn't eat them out-of-hand, unless you *really* enjoy tart flavors!) Calamondins are essentially everbearing, meaning that they should carry ripe fruit just about all year long. This is a very nice characteristic. It is very handy to be able to pluck a few fruits for squeezing into water, over a piece of fish, etc., at any time! I haven't been following this forum that closely, so I'm not sure why folks here prefer to put citrus in smaller pots. However, I would say that most participants on this board probably don't live in areas where there may be absolutely zero rain for months and months on end. Keeping potted plants going when it is extremely hot and dry can be burdensome, and using large containers like half-barrels will at least minimize this problem.

Watering will be up to how warm your days are and how much rain you get, kumquat. Check your soil, and if it is starting the dry out, water well. Not deeply, just well enough to soak the top 18 to 24 inches (deep watering citrus has gone by the wayside, it is not necessary and a waste of water.) That might be once a week, twice a week, once every 2 weeks, impossible to say since I don't know how much rain you're getting or how warm your area is. And, your satsuma will naturally drop excess blossoms as well as excess set fruit. If you end up, however, with a lot of fruit set past the ball bearing/marble size, you can thin some if your tree is very tiny, and you fear the branches breaking. You should be fertilizing (actually, you should apply fertilizer before blossom set), and then every 2 to 3 months through about Sept. You should be following your citrus growing recommendations for your area. Check out your local Cooperative Extension office's recommendations for growing citrus in your area. Or, contact your local Master Gardener's group. Patty S. Here is a link that might be useful: University of Florida Cooperative Extension: Growing Dooryard Citrus

I have purchased trees from 3 different nurseries and each have different ways of grafting their trees. The trees from Four Winds Nursery have shorter trunks, but yet have full canopies. Trees from Harris Citrus Nursery have very tall trunks, but they are really thin and top heavy. Grafted trees purchased from Lowes which are supplied from Saxon, Becnel and Sons have trunks that are not too short, but not too tall. lol. The only thing you can do is wait and see how they grow. Each variety of citrus has different growth habits. From what I have read and watched on youtube, you just trim to keep the tree symmetrical as the tree grows. With any tree, as it grows taller, you can trim the bottom branches to get the trunk you desire. I supplement my trees with fish emulsion to encourage growth. I got 18" new of growth on my Eureka lemon tree in 4 months and about the same on my New Zealand Lemonade tree. My other trees didn't grow as much as these two so that tells me that it all depends on the variety of citrus. I am not crazy about my NZL's shape either as it was an entry level tree so I contacted Four Winds Growers inquiring how to prune it so it would be like their typical premium trees. My tree is growing like a V- shape. I requested it to be in video format so other people would be able to benefit from it as well. A positive response from Aaron Dillon, owner, was received before the holidays (Thanksgiving). I hope he will follow through now that the holidays are over. I have a feeling that my options are limited because of the natural growth habits of the tree which is not the fault of Four Winds Growers. It is a relatively new variety growing here in the US too so I think there is much to learn about this variety. I have not seen online a mature tree to use as a model or other young trees to compare my tree with.