Karen, your citrus are beautiful. Keep doing whatever you're doing..Toni

Thanks Toni but what can be done about my Kaffir and small variegated lemon? They just keep growing sideways!
Karyn

Karyn, I notice a couple of my dwarf varities do the same..what about staking? I'm thinking about doing this because like you I don't want them growing sideways. If I had more room I'd train them to grow as an escapalier..sp is incorrect..But I don't have the room, and this is best done when grown in the ground..Toni

I'm not sure how I would even stake them. I was considering cutting off most of the branches but I'm afraid they'd just sprout more sideways growth. Maybe they'll become more vertical as they get bigger. I'm not that concerned about the Kaffir because I use that primarily for cooking and am always pinching off leaves.

Espaliered trees are beautiful but you definitely need them in the ground against a fence or wall in order to train them.

I hoping that none of my plants get knocked around over the next couple days. We are predicted to be getting the remains of Ernesto tomorrow with some strong winds and rain. We sorely need the rain but could do without the wind. I tried to move most of the plants that were likely to be blown around.
Karyn

Hi Karyn,

I have 3 Kaffir limes and a Variegated Lemon. Oddly, I have 1 Kaffir in ground and 1 in a container both growing upright. The 1 Kaffir Lime I have espaliered is growing sideways. Frustrating.

The Var. Lemon grows everywhere as it it pretty leggy.

I think the plants can sense your frustration and are mocking you, much like mine are mocking me. I can hear my squat kaffir laughing at me even now.

Little do they know I am going to use those leggy braches to graft another variety back toward the espalier...

Ha!

Citrusboy aka Marc

Marc, why is your Kaffir growing sideways? Can you straigthen it up by staking?

Well, if I wasn't so lazy I could have. I was going to do it, but I took a couple of business trips. By the time I got around to attaching to the espalier or stake, the shoots had grown 18 inches. (3 of them) Probably wouldn't had grown so fast except I pinched all off the flowers off in May/June.

It's OK. It's all part of my master plan... (Insert evil laugh here)

Citrusboy aka Marc

karyn,

Your trees look great. Wish I could help you about the sideways growth, but most of my trees seem to end up growing that way, so I certainly canÂt recommend anything from personal experience. Many of the branches do start out growing straight up, but as they get older and longer, they eventually spread out. It might be a function of young plants with thinner branches and might even be exacerbated by growing them in pots. I have noticed that as the plants get older they have more shoots up top and the flat look gradually gets more rounded out by the growth up top. Personally, I donÂt mind and am just happy that the trees seem to be healthy.

narcnh

All my plants, including the citrus have had a sudden growth spurt over the past couple weeks. Everything is blooming and growing. I'm so upset because I know we'll be getting cold here in another month. Those two sideways citrus are even wider. They keep putting out horizontal branches. All the other citrus are growing normally. My Kaffir is only about 10" tall but it must be 4' in diameter and the small variegated lemon isn't far behind! The branches are still fairly flexible so I'm going to tie them up when it's time to come in. If I didn't they'd be taking up way too much space. Hopefully by being tied up all winter they'll have changed the direction of their growth next season.
Karyn

Karyn:
{{gwi:618005}}
Right at the center is a calamondin grown from seed Joe Real gave me. I had the same problem as you, where all of the leaves are growing sideways. Finally I had an idea. I tied all of the branches to a stick all pointing upwards. Overtime all these branches tied to the stick grew more branches around the stick. It is not visible but if you look closely it is over 2 feet tall.

Thanks Bencelest, I'm going to try that when they go in the greenhouse this year. I need to conserve space anyway and hopefully the direction of their growth will change. Your calamondin looks like a perfect shape now. How long did it take before your tree was able to maintain the vertical growth without being tied up?
Karyn

Karyn:
The stick is still there and every thing is still tied up to the stick. I think it will be there permanently. I don't know. For one thing the base trunk (the one that is attached to the roots)is still very small and the rest of the branches won't be ablle to stand alone.
Don't cut any of the branches growing sidways. I did that to one of my orange trees ( I cut all the ranches growing sideways) and it never recover. I learned the hard way.