Being that small with that small of pots with no visible graft makes me think they are rooted cuttings. If so they should grow fairly fast since they are not on a dwarfing rootstock. On their own roots they are more prone to root rot but I have heard many people say they have trees on their own roots that have lived for many many years. Not something I would buy but for the price it sounds like a real score. Congratulations.

yes, i bet they are rooted cuttings too.
I felt slightly gypped when i noticed this, because the add said that they were all dwarf, and w/o the rootstock, they wont have that tendancy to grow dwarfed. Oh well, nice healthly trees.
Why do you say they are more prone to root rot? is it because trifoliate orange (or another popular rootstock) is more resistance to root rot? i knew rootstock can increase temperature tolerance and disease resistance, but how can it make it resist rot?

I can tell the meyer is not gonna be my happy camper. He (i guess these trees are all now officialy personified) insists on putting out some stubborn, juvenile thorns. Aint gonna happen on my watch :)
ANdrew

This is just great Andrew.

I love the pictures and experience you shared.

You can avoid any rot and root issues with a good well draining coarse mix Andrew since I yet to loose one from a cutting and many are growing very robustly.
You can be guarenteed fruit and blooms on those babies that small by summer if they are growing very happily.

You are going to have a great time with them since you will be getting them use to your care at that size.

Andrew: I hope you have all the tools needed to treat them well. In fact, I know you do:-) Welcome back.

Mike

Mike

Welcome back, Sir Andrew of the Lemon!

I'd wondered where you'd been....I'm glad there weren't any family emergencies!

I'm real happy that you got your trees without any problem. They do look good.

Josh

Thanks for the welcomes back you 2, my erstwhile citrus friends.
No family emergencies (aside from my brothers mysterious (to my parents) black eye.
As my grandfather (oldest one in family) says: I've lived to long to die.
Mike, i am searching for nice sized perlite, but i cannot find any! all i can find is the powerdery stuff >.>
They are in the soil they came in, which looks like thick, heavy, standered pot soil, no good.
I dont have the supplies to make a course mix, but i think i will put them in some well draining container soil until i can aquire perlite.

Andrew: If you can not find the ingredients you need to make the gritty or 5.1.1 mix, you could always amend a bagged one you are planning on using to hold you over briefly until you do.
Yup, I actually said that. Many still find a way to grow in amended mixes bagged mixes.

I would sift most of the peat fraction out of any bagged mix until you have mostly bark left over.
Do 5 parts left over bark, one part of that sifted out peat, and one part perlite.
The smaller perlite will work well if you just strain the dust out with a sifter/spaggetti collander.

It would be better than any mix right out of the bag. In fact, you WILL need a better mix if you want those small cuttings to thrive, epsecially on those roots.

Let us know what you do. When you get some time, you should really look into investing some time into finding any of the ingredients you need to make the mix you use to be much more efficient and durable.

Perlite you can practically buy at any box store or nursery. Try and give them the best start as possible into anything better than what you described. You might want to watch they don't over dry out in those black pots since the hot sun this time of year can practicllay burn them in pots black, that big. Can you pot them into colored ones, or even better, clay?

Over watering and under watering can be very tricky in containers, black that size.

It is great to see you back buddy!

I love those little plants.

Mike

i will try, i think i have some olive-ish green.
Ahah! i didnt think of box stores, there is this new store called the Container Store that opened a block away from my house. I'll check there. What kind of bark is it, do you think? Maybe i can buy a bag of just that.
Soil, and root issues are my weak spot. I am pretty good at watering though, that was the extent of my five year citrus run with my grandma. I am a little worried about my orange's new growth, i don't think its gonna make it, its almost clear.
Lol, being on the internet during school is fun. I am allowed to bring my laptop to school to take notes (which i do, then sell copies, which i have approval from all my teachers to do). I will sit in the back, and bring an internet jack, which i will plug into the wall, which my teachers dont mind, they walk by every once in a while to make sure im not doing anything wrong. I am in study hall right now.

The orange has great leaves, i am really suprised. ANd on close examination of the key lime, it has great branching, it is going to make a great tree.

Andrewofhelemon:

I would be surprised if they advertised dwarf citrus and sent you three rooted cutting trees. Sometimes the bud union or graft line is a little hard to see.

The lime looks a little like it has "winter chlorosis". Treat with 1/2 to 1 tablespoon Epsom Salts in a gallon of water. If you have hard (alkaline) water, acidify with a two teaspoons vinegar.

If it is an original West Indian lime, a.k.a. Key or Mexican Lime, it will have thorns even on mature (fruiting) wood. The thornless variety is much preferred for an indoor/outdoor container tree since you don't get stuck every time you carry it in or out. But I believe some of the thorny ones may be a couple of degrees more cold hardy.

It's nice to see your luck change for the better.

the reason why i am quick to believe that the lime is a rooted cutting is it might have 2 suckers, but i cannot be sure, since i cannot find the graft line.
I will take some more pics later though

Sigh, the fate of my little lime was bugging me, so i shoot it out of pot, sure enough, there looks like a small bark abnormality, which the 2 little shoots are under. Even if they arent suckers, and this isnt a grafted tree, i removed both of those, they werent aesthetically pleasing, the main branch has real woody bark (it looks like they took a long, old branch, and cut several pieces to root out of it, the top of it is missing) it isnt all green, both of the small twigs were green. they gone now