You will like it here most people are friendly....I only have one neighbor that I do not like...And it is because their dog is always in my yard.(no leash laws)And, One night I let my dog out...I always go out there and watch him...Went back in for a SECOND to get a cigarette...I smoke on my porch...When I came out he was running across the street to the neighbor over there...They were having a wild loud party...He never goes over there but he must have heard the noise and went to investigate..He LOVES people. My front yard is long; by the time I got to the bottom of my yard I saw them (the neighbor across the street) taking MY DOG into their house..I didn't have his leash so I went back to my house to get it....By the time I got back down my LONG lawn he was running back home. When I got him in the house he was shaking and looked like someone took his best friend..THEY HAD STABBED HIM in the shoulder with a steak knife...I did call the Sheriff and filed a complaint...Took him to the Vet and he is okay...The Sherriff wanted to charge them but I did not press charges because they are my neighbors..I would never think to do something like that to their dog or any dog...I just think that is crazy...So I do not talk to them...And my dog never goes out in the front yard anymore. Other then that all my neighbors are nice.. When you get here you could find a Nursery and ask them about citrus.. Another thing I thought of is it can get WINDY here so put your trees in an area where they can be moved easily to shelter them from the wind or are sheltered somewhat from the wind. I think the horses running around keep the fire ants down in my yard..I only have one horse now...Sold 2 recently...Maybe it is their manure in the pasture, not sure exactly why I have no fire ants in my horse pastures..Fire ants are not bad for your yard..just their bites BURN and HURT..I have never had allergic reaction to their bites. I have seen on animal planet that their bites can actually put some people in the hospital. One of my neighbors puts gasoline on her fire ant hills, then lights it...Hummmm I just put the poison on new hills and that works... Ask your husband what color the ground was on the ant hills that should help...I have mostly red clay...Recently I started clearing a semi wild area to turn it into a flower garden...Mature trees and thicket, the ground is light brown in that area. So I think I will find someplace to test the dirt to see what it's composition is. You can find cotton hulls for sale at any Farmer's Co-Op. Some cotton gins will give them to you for free or a small fee (dollars) in the fall. It does take a few years of tilling and adding aeration to make the ground easier for veggies to grow. I have a lot of HUGE oak trees. I also till those leaves into my garden in fall. I always get good yields...I usually just plant 2 or 3 of each veggie...I end up giving veggies away because I get so much yield...I have had no luck with carrots, potatoes, onion, or corn (not sure why) ...Yellow squash, tomatoes, green beans, Zuccinni (spelling) melons, okra, broccoli, peppers, and cabbage have all done VERY well for me. I think nothing tastes better then your own home grown veggies...

Ashley, In addition to the reasons given by others, I would add that ceramic pots have a few other potential drawbacks. First, they are fragile in comparison to plastic pots--one sharp blow inflicted while moving a ceramic pot around on your patio will likely reduce it to shards. Second, they are more expensive. Third, their shapes can be ill-suited to transplanting needs (I've noticed that many ceramic planters intended for annuals have bellies that will never yield up a rootball).Fourth, writing as someone who has a degree and 30 credit hours of graduate coursework in ceramics, I'll add that many of the ceramic pots may be toxic in some small way over time either to the plants or the people who might consume their fruit. This is particularly true of those ceramic pots with colorful glazes, but if people wish to use glazed pottery for growing edible plants or fruit they should be aware that many of the cheaper ceramic pots on the market may well be suspect in this respect even if they have white interiors, as one of the cheapest ways to get a white glaze (if you are ignoring health concerns) is to use lead oxide. More about the kinds of metals used in glazes: high-fire stoneware glazes that produce blue glazes, for example, often contain cobalt, derived from cobalt oxide or cobalt carbonate. Many other high fire glazes make use of other metallic oxides and carbonates that may be fine for decorative purposes, but probably are not a good choice for growing fruit that may be eaten, or may simply be bad for the health of the plants inside them. Some of the metal oxides and carbonates used to produce glazes include various iron-oxides (generally safe), lithium carbonate (and many lithium-bearing minerals), various copper oxides and carbonates, manganese oxide, chrome oxide, nickel oxide, strontium carbonate, tin oxide, tintanium dioxide, and vanadium pentoxide. It gets worse: Colorful low-fire glazes, such as those found in majolica and earthenware (including much cheap pottery probably being currently produced in China, and elsewhere, in earlier times) are also frequently based on lead oxides. If used for decorative purposes, or for serving up a plate of whole fruit, such glazes are effectively harmless, but I would not recommend growing food crops in them. Lead is notorious for leaching out of glazes. Interestingly, when production potters manufacture pottery intended for food use, they either use approved formulations of glazes, or if they use custom glazes they should test their glazed ware to see if it leaches unacceptable levels of harmful substances. The test typically involves exposing pieces of the pottery--like bowls and plates--to an acid solution in an accredited laboratory, since acid accelerates the leaching out of the metals from the glaze. As citrus prefer acid soils, they would in theory be more at risk to this kind of leaching than plants that are grown in neutral or nearly neutral soils. In other words, growing a citrus tree in a glazed ceramic pot is potentially a bad idea.

Thanks, Mike. I hope I'm posting this right. I have no idea if he might be a cutting. I dug around a little at the base and I don't see an obvious graft, but just because I don't recognize it doesn't mean it didn't happen! I've been top dressing every so often with composted manure and plain old compost and a little worm casting tea a couple of times. He dropped his leaves once about a year ago because he was too wet, and that was when I repotted him in the citrus mix. He came back fast after that. In the summer (we're zone 5) he sits on a SW corner of the patio that is sunny all day. I acclimate him to that location, of course. In the winter, he has a west facing window right next to him and a south facing window a few feet away. I haven't been giving him extra light, but maybe I should. I have a container fig that will join him inside this year, so it's probably time to think about more light. Our indoor temps are right around 68, but he's in a window, so probably cooler.

Transplant your trees now . It is the perfect time on the South . Do not plant too deeply . Dig the holes wider rather than deeper . Remove all fruit to allow the roots to recover and re-grow . Do not fertilize until March . Do not mulch . Water every day unless you get rain . Using a hose end sprayer , add a tablespoon of cheap dishwashing soap to the container and spray the heck out of all your trees - getting them nice and soapy . Do not use Dawn dishwashing liquid . Spray top , bottom and undersides of all leaves and trunks . Do not rinse . Re-apply in two weeks if needed . You can safely use soapy solution as often as you want on almost any plant . No reason to use malathion and dipel . You will be eating the fruit from these trees eventually . Try soapy spray and/or ultra fine horticultural oils . Volck oil and Neem oil used to be used at full strength but the ultra fine is now preferred . Good luck !