Hi Jeff n Jessa,

Durling's Dwarf Moro Blood Orange is 2+

http://community.webshots.com/photo/550728667/2113673980091292561jIyTux

Four Winds Dwarf Royal Mandarin / Temple Tangor is 2+

http://community.webshots.com/photo/550728667/2752900480091292561WyZNjI

Here is a link to a previous posting of mine which has plenty of picks of my collection, all in pots:

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/citrus/msg0522541325950.html

Please note, try not to reload the pics too many times of Geocites where I initall yposted them will block the pics for a 1 hour period...lol

Hope this helps ya.

VTY
-Mark

Go to my website and you will see my past potted citrus which I should update soon. You'll see aplenty citrus and noncitrus alike. I'll post more here soon of my recent ones.
http://community.webshots.com/user/bencelest

Here's some of my pictures:
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more

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Beautiful trees bencelest!

wow! that's incredible! How old are the trees? Do you have to overwinter them? Jeff

And more:

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[IMG]http://img464.imageshack.us/img464/9583/pict00067mc.jpg[/IMG]

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I started growing citrus on 2001. I did not know anything. I tried to grow them when I was living in the desert and I was not successful. They kept on dying because of the extreme weather and my incompetency. But if I knew what I know now I would have been a success. Everything I knew how to grow citrus I learned it from here. Thanks to those who helped me specially Jenny from PA who started me to learn and take care of my own citrus.

benny,

must admit I am in shock that you have only been growing citrus for a short time... your collection is mind boggling. Highly impressed at how much you've collected.. both tree wise and knowledge wise.

Always look forwards to seeing your pics

Thank you very much Lemon dreams. Really appreciate that. And also from Karyn1 and Jeff and Jessa.
I thought you'd all be bored by my citrus pictures by now. Some of them are my past pictures but most of them are present.
Here's some more:
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Benny I want to come to your house and pick some of that beautiful fruit! lol
Karyn

Oh, thank you so much for a beautiful compliment Karyn.
So, here's for you
from me.

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Awesome! Now i am wondering why I decided to plant in ground.
Karl

Karl:
You did not make a mistake. Your plants will get twice as big and twice as beautiful. In fact I just transferred 2 of my citrus in the ground yesteray since I think they are outgrowing the wine barrel. Here's one of the pictures.
W. Murcott

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That's just what I needed to hear! For my birthday in May I planned to buy a blood orange; my intent was to do some "guerilla" grafting with several varieties.I ended up buying three plants in pots, and I'm not sure whether to put them in the ground or leave them in pots, particularly given our month of triple digit temps. I really don't have room in the ground for three and I was wondering which plant would make the best candidate for putting in the ground (bigesst vs. smallest, healthiest versus weakest; most in need of a change in planting medium or pot size), but was mostly wondering if now was a good time, vs. maybe September.Bencelest; what are your temps these days? What size container did you transplant from? How did you decide?

Nannele:
My friend Joe Real has a 42 (64 but he did not know the others name) different cultivars grafted in his Lisbon lemon. Since we are in the same zone 9 this is what I recommend for guerella graft. For he said that most of his citrus were grafted very easily to this lisbon.
I live in the coast so the tempt don't go to the extreme summer and winter. Right now the tempt is on average middle 80's and lows on the 70's.
You can transplant anytime of the year provided that you don't bother the root system. That is the key.
Citrus does not want big pots for its size so you have to transplant it to a pot in proportion to its size. i.e. if you have a 1 gallon pot transplant it to a 3 gallon then to 5 then 7 then 10 and then 15 depending how vigorous grower your citrus is. It's going to take a few years per transplanting.
You'll have to search for which one is the biggest or smallest or when you buy a citrus it will tell you the height of its max growth at maturity.
Healthy? That depends on how much you put in taking care of its needs- ie fertilizer?

I just got rid of some citrus yesterday because I had 5 growing in one smallish container and the where there once was soil was just a solid root balL!. So i kept the best looking one and cut off the rest :( I still have atleast 6 growing in containers. Mine are all seed grown so no fruit here. I'm starting to think when i repot i'm going to just use wood chips

JoeReal is indeed my inspiration in grafting, and he lives nearby. We are expecting temps of 111 degrees today. I hope he will make a comment about in the ground vs in a pot in inland California areas. With regard to size, I meant at transplanting. Is it better to let a plant outgrow, say half a wine barrel before putting it in the ground, or is it better to put it in the ground when it is one or two years old. And again, would you factor in the extreme temps in making the decision, or whether it was struggling in it's pot. I have a 1 year old moro that was struggling in it's pot after a nice flush of growth right after I got it. The new leaves where quite limp; a few were yellow and dropped. I suspected the medium wasn't draining well, so I took it out and put it in a (temporary pot; self-watering and in mostly potting soil. I read about CHC and got some. and replanted the moro in a mix of that and peat, plus a little potting soil, fertilizer (citrus) and dolomite. I gues I'll leave it that way, but have two more; these are Sanguinella bloods. I haven't fed them in at least a month, as I don't know if I want to encourage growth right now while I'm trying to decide what to do. Any ideas anybody/ Anybody heard from Joe? Just so happens that they are potting up a citrus in a half barrel on "Gardening by the Yard" while I'm sitting here; they make it seem so simple!"Bigger is better" ( the pot?) and ordinary potting soil.

bencelest
You have mild winters there on the coast donÂt you? Do you have to take precautions to protect from freezes?
I have two Owaris in containers that I am using as back up just in case I have one of these unusual winters where the temp drops down in the lower twenties.
I have installed an irrigation system for the 12 trees that are in the ground and I am working on a system to spray water 30" above the graft union, but I am having a problem identifying the proper micro-spray nozzle for this. What I hear most is that it takes 20 gallons per hour to protect.
Anyway the two owaris are spares that I can bring into my heated shop if all fails. At some point they will outgrow the containers but I think that this is a couple of years away.
Again , I think that your trees are awesome.
Karl

Nannele: You have an email.
Karl I wish you have an email so I can corresppond with you. Just email me if you wish.
Benny

Nannele: You have an email.
I did not receive it!

Nanelle:
I sent you another one. See you there.

Bencelest
Gosh, after looking at all the beautiful pictures I'm ready to start growing more citrus. Bencelest, what different type citrus are you growing and what do you recommend for zone 9? I also live in zone 9 but I'm in Texas. I have a Satsuma planted in my frontyard along with 2 apple trees. My wife loves the blood oranges but I haven't been able to find any here.
Thanks Ernie J.

Ernie:
if you are in one 9 almost all the citrus that is available should grow in your area. The most sensitive is the key lime and I have one in my backyard.
I have 38 diffferent citrus growing and I have my favorites. I go by its sweetness and not the size or beauty. I think they are all beautiful in its own way so long as they are healthy.
My favorites are according to the sweetest kind:
Kishu Mandarin
Honey Tangerine and Dancy
Page Mandarin
Satsuma

Oranges
Washington Navel
Caracara
Algerian
Trovita
Midknight

Oroblanco grapefruit
Chandler pomello

I may have skip some just on top of my head.
As you can see mandarins or tangerines are my first choice because they are not affected by temperature for them to become sweet.

Here's a pic of my 5? year old Murraya. It's in full-bloom right now...Toni

Here is a link that might be useful:

Guess what ? I just transferred my Shasta Gold to the ground 2 days ago. Here it is:
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If you look closely there are lots of fruitlets grwing.
Before Spring I thought I want it to grow vegetatively so I removed all the fruits large and small.
Since then, I changed my mind.

Last year here are some of my citrus pictures:
Satsuma

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multiple citrus

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more citrus

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bencelest: How do you do it? What kind of soil do you use? How much water? Do you prune? What do you do to fertalize them?

John

I use fertilizer 20-10-20 when the soil is too alkaline and 15-5-15 when the soil is too acidic to give me an optimum soil pH of 6.5.
To me, it is not what kind of soil you use as long as it is well draining and you give the right dose of fertilizer and you have a good pH of your soil your plant will thrive really good.
So you have to have A good pH meter not the one you buy at the store for $12. They are very inaccurate. A goood pH meter should cost at least $99
I just mix my soil with what I have- sand perlite top soil sphagnum moss garden soil, vermiculite, steer manure Until I think I have good drainage.
I also use long lasting fertilizer that is almost have a ratio of 5-1-3.

I miight add all of my fertilizers have the micronutrients added in them.
Watering-I have no plan. When I see the topof the soil is dry I water very good I soak them. Most o the time I see some citrus wilt before I water then I water them all.
I only prune when the branch touches the ground because snails use those as bridge.

What if i'm not able to get a $99 PH meter?

I also forgot to ask, What do I do if I already have it in to big of pot?

All you can do then is watch out for the telltale signs of high pH or low pH but it maybe too late then since it takes months for the citrus to recover or to show signs. Maybe 6 months. It's that long. If you only have a few plants there is no need to buy that expensive pH meter. To play safe, just use the miracle grow acidic fertilizer rodo/camelia fertilizer and watch your plants grow. Just follow the label how much. I was using this for quiet a whille until someone here recommended a better way to fertilize. Just do experiment of your own. That's fun way of growing citrus.
You see citrus plants only accept nutrients at a certain pH. Above I believe 7.5 there are nutrients that citrus can not absorb no matter how much you feed them. It is as if their mouth were closed tight. Same thing as too low of a pH. In fact those micronutrients can be toxic to the plants. Those micronutrients are needed by the plants for photsynthesis and other things.
Too big of a pot? I did this things before and I transferred my plants again to a smaller pot because my plants were not growing right I had too many problems with them, before I read rickjames input as above- using wick by Mr. Tapla. Read it and you will be convinced.

John, how much is too big a pot? Several sizes up? If you feel the pot is too large, maybe it's best to underpot. I know it's work, but too big a pot and you're going to wait forever for your tree to grow..plus there's a chance you'll overwater and have all sorts of problems..Toni

Too big of a pot is an invitation to root rut big time. Because where the soil that is not reach by the roots the water there stays there. what you got now then is a soggy soil. And that's bad fo your citrus.
But then according to Mr. Tapla, you can use wick to eliminate the water there.
I had not done it and this is new to me. But what can you lose by trying.

Bencelest,
Why do all your pots have PVC pipes coming out of them? Im just getting started with citrus trees since my new house has a dirt lot for a backyard. lots of open space for learning to grow trees.

I did them because Joe Real said he put those PVC around his plants on the root zone for root aeration. He scored th PVC under the ground using a hack saw. He claimed that his plants was 5 times taller than his neighbor planted at the same time. His soil was clay and his citrus planted on the ground.
So I said why not do it in my pots also- maybe I can get some improvements.
I found out there is no difference. My plants grew the same way.
Joe also said later on that that only works on clay soil and plants planted on the ground. But it was too late to remove those pipes.