Someone once told me though that if I use pots too big for my citrus, I can be certain that I will get no flower or fruit production for years, until the roots finally fill the container? Do you believe that? No, I don't. It's hooey! ;o) We measure our own age in years - chronologically. WE also tend to measure the age of a plant chronologically, but the life stages of a plant depend on ontogenetic aging. Roughly, that is how fast cells divide and the faster cells divide the faster the plant moves from embryonic stage to adulthood (sexually mature so it can flower/fruit). Anything that reduces cellular division and associated ontogenetic aging, INCREASES the length of time it takes the plant to become sexually mature. SO, since growing your plant tight inhibits growth and cell divisions, it also slows ontogenetic aging and delays the onset of flowers/fruit. If you want fast growth, highly aerated soils and very large provide it - even when planting very small plants in large pots. It's virtually impossible to over-pot in soils that hold no perched water, but easy to over-pot in heavy soils. The problem with that is, when root congestion gets to the point where the soil and root mass can be lifted from the container, growth is being negatively affected. Since you need to plant in smaller containers and use smaller volumes of soil when using heavy soils to guard against over-potting, roots become congested and growth negatively affected much faster than if you used a greater volume of fast soil in a larger pot. It really is difficult to make a case for growing in heavy soils, unless you make it from the perspective of perceived grower convenience. Even then, you should be willing to admit that there is a sacrifice in potential vitality and other potential issues that come with that perceived convenience. Al

I don't have your climate but I do have a dwarf Meyer lemon which has lived with me for over a decade and which comes in every winter. Citrus are not winter hardy in the UK. It is in a terracotta pot with a soil based mix (John Innes n03.) It is indoors from mid November to mid-March in a greenhouse attached to the house. We can have very gloomy weather in winter with about 7 - 8 hours daylight in mid winter and often little actual sunshine. The tree can take temps down to just above freezing if it has to and I think it is probably not a good idea to keep citrus too warm in winter. They should just be ticking over. It gets scale indoors but I remove this with babywipes and outdoors in the summer it doesn't happen . In summer it lives on a balcony but we don't get the heat you do. I give it a summer citrus feed when I remember.

Hello, Citrus can be a little difficult but as long as you do a few things you should be fine. I would simply lift the tree out of the pot and see if the roots are rootbound. If you notice roots coming out the bottom of the pot then it needs to be repotted. Citrus require a feast draining mixture that isn't going to hold water. They can suffer from root rot fairly fast. Several people here use Al's gritty m ix or a variation of it. Judt don't use any potting soil, even if it says that it is good for citrus. I tried something similiar. I used it for a dwarf moro blood orange and a dwarf keylime. A few weeks ago I noticed that my blood orange was losing leaves, and the stems were turning black. I almost lost it, but the second I changed the soil to a bark mix, it recovered and then some! I would use a black plastic container. The heat will not hurt the tree and it actually will help dry the soil out. Citrus are heavy feeders. I would check the Lowe's were you bought the tree at. If they sell citrus, then they should have citrus fertilizer. I managed ti get my hands on bag and that is what I use with a combination of Foliage Pro and a also a teaspoon of white vinegar per gallon of water. The vinegar helps to keep the ph in the acidic range which the citrus require. If you can't find a citrus fertilizer look for something high in Nitrogen. i also use a product similiar to Super Thrive. Some people here don't think it helps any but it helped my keylime tremedously. When it comes to the cold temps, I would be very carefull with any temps that go below 32. I won't risk it myself but some people say that they can handle 30. I keep my citrus indoors by then so I don't know if it would hurt or not. As long as you can keep it in your sun room with temps above 30 you should be fine. If they temps get much cooler, the tree may go dormant. Not dropping leaves or fruit, but not really growing. That should help you a little and I am sure there will be more people that can help you. I wish I could go to my Lowe's and buy citrus trees like that! Andrew

I use the term "cult status" advisedly, because that is exactly what has grown up around that particular mix, for reasons I frankly do not fathom. I'm not sure why it bothers you. It may be a bit hyperbolic - but its not an unwarranted observation. The name calling on the Container forum over True Gritty is just ridiculous. The in-fighting even gets mentioned on other forums, not other gardenweb forums, but totally separate gardening forums. People don't post on there about alternative mixes because they don't like getting beat up over the One True Gritty mix. There ARE other alternatives to both that and the 5:1:1. Cornell has its suggestions for container mixes that don't really resemble either one. Somehow I don't think Cornell is being run by a society of idiots. Other mixes DO work - and can work well. Heck, even many bagged mixes can work well for the short to medium term - by the time they're depleted you should be doing a repot anyway. I don't appreciate being told that I'm planting in "pudding", "junk", or "crap", which is what all non-Tapla recipes eventually end up labeled as - especially given that I haven't had problems with sickly plants or problem container mediums, unless I bought them that way. And then fixed them. WITHOUT the use of Turface. You know there is a lot of work being done with sapwood - whole tree - mediums. They're actually getting good results using whole pine tree mulch as a significant component in container mixes. It just requires a slight modification in fertilizing practices. Even hardwood sapwood can be ok as part of a potting medium - as long as it has been sufficiently composted first. There's more than one way to skin a cat - or to make a potting mix. To quote a paper I read recently: "Ultimately, the right potting mix for ... containers ... is one the grower learns how to manage." My unwillingness to "manage" True Gritty mix doesn't make the mix useless or inferior in any substantive way - but it also doesn't make me "ignorant", "lazy", "uninformed", or "too stubborn to change". All of those epithets are routinely applied to folks who can't or won't toe the One True Gritty line. Josh, "the balance of moisture retentive to moisture reducing ingredients" is NOT "off" in my gritty-ish mix. I was SPECIFICALLY aiming for a more water retentive mix. Tapla has specifically and repeatedly stated that True Gritty can and should be modified to be more water retentive in situations that call for it. Being "too moisture retentive" isn't even the issue anyway. The problem is that it is still too heavy and I don't like the way the top dries out - again a common complaint with True Gritty, not just my gritty-ish mix. And this is almost exactly a Tapla-suggested alternative Gritty mix anyway. And - despite having more moisture retentive components - it STILL drains far too freely. For my purposes, anyway. HA! Found the link where Tapla talks about a...