First foray into the world of citrus growing

16 years ago

A friend and I went to Crowley's in Sarasota for the first time today (oh my, that's a story in itself!!). I came home with a Eureka lemon and a key lime - both called "patio" trees, I also picked up a tapioca. I'm looking forward to not paying $1.00 for the fruit at the grocery!

Questions:

What does "patio" mean when referring to a tree? Is it a true dwarf or is it kept trimmed to be small?

If kept in a pot, what size?

If planted in the ground, how much space?

If my lawn irrigation runs 1 to 2 times per week, is that too much water for the trees?

Thanks for any help,

Terri

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Comments (3)

cindeea
16 years ago
Good luck Terry! I am venturing into citrus this year too. I bought a Pink Variegated Lemon this spring and started some key lime seeds. The lil key lime seedlings are growing quite fast. They were from some of the best tasting key limes that I got at the farmers market. I am hoping my Lemon will be fruit ready next year...hope hope. Let us know how your citrus does for you!
gcmastiffs
16 years ago
Congrats Terri! Citrus are very rewarding to grow. Are your trees grafted or seedlings? Grafted "Patio" trees should have a scar/lump/irregularity where the rootstock and scion are joined. You could call Crowley's and ask what rootstock they are on, to be sure they are on dwarfing stock.

Keeping them in containers will slow down growth. I have at least 10 Citrus in pots on my patio, and all have fruit on them. Grafted citrus can produce at only a foot tall! Citrus are not notmally pruned, but of course you can trim out of control branches.

Pot them up when they are rootbound - when they dry out/wilt in the heat, in spite of being watered. Go up only 1-2 pot sizes at a time. If you plants are in 3 gallon, go up only to 5 or 7 gallon next time you pot up. They do better when the roots are somewhat crowded. Eventually you can use half whiskey barrels, which they can stay in indefinitely. Use lots of pine bark, cactus mix, or other chunky organics when changing soil. Citrus hate to be overwatered and need a well-draining mix.

Limes and Lemons are usually sensitive to cold, especially when small. Bring them in if it gets below 40. If you plant in the ground, they will need protection.

They will bloom in spring, and you will LOVE the perfume of citrus flowers! Key Limes can produce pretty much all year.

Watch for nutritional deficiencies, insects and fungal diseases. Leafminers make the new growth flushes deformed and ugly. Check your trees for tags that say they have been treated with Imidacloprid. If so, they are safe from leafminers for a year.

Citrus are addicting! I have nearly 50 varieties(G).
Now you need a sweet orange, and a Persian Lime (my favorite). The Persian Lime is seedless, juicy, utterly delicious!

Lisa
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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.
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ladywingr
Original Author
16 years ago
Cindee - Thank you for the well wishes!

Lisa - Thank you for the advice. I ended up putting them in the ground yesterday & today, we'll see what happens! I will save the info you gave in case I decide to add more. (wink) They do have the graft nodes, so should be good on size. I gave them enough room for standard size "just in case". They are tagged for treatment that just occurred a couple weeks ago - thank you for explaining what that meant, I was clueless.

The lime was flowering when I picked it up, that's why it came home with me :) The flowers didn't make the trip, but hopefully, I will have more soon. The lemon has two fruit almost full size, and about a dozen small ones. I hope they survive the planting, if not, I know there should be more next year.

Next is to make sure the water they will be getting is the correct amount and the drainage is good. I did raise them a bit above grade to help it out a bit. The areas I planted them in will eventually be garden area, so the whole area will be raised eventually.

Thanks again! Terri

First foray into the world of citrus growing

Comments (3)

cindeea

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First foray into the world of citrus growing

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cindeea

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