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tamtrible

When/how to transplant my lychee seedling, and mango seedling

tamtrible
10 years ago

So. I live in Arizona (the Phoenix area). I have a little lychee seedling that I planted last fall or so (from a grocery store fruit), in a ~6" pot. (Yes, I know, may never give me fruit, unknown quality, and so on; I'm broke, and can't afford real plants)

I was going to put it in the actual ground, but I'm not sure 1. when I should do so, 2. if I should move it directly from the little pot to the ground, or put it in a larger pot first (I have several sizes), and 3. if there's any special procedure I should use.

The ground I'll be putting it in is pretty much typical Arizona dirt (hard, alkaline, probably clay-y, not much organic matter). Do I just dig a big hole to loosen the dirt, but then put the same dirt back in? Do I need to mix in some potting soil or proto-compost or something (I don't really have viable compost yet), and if so how much? (keeping in mind that I'm kinda poor, so I'd like to not buy anything unless I *really* need to).

Also, it's going into kind of a small patch of ground, that the plant will need to remain more or less contained to, at least up to person-height (for navigation), should I plant it near the center or up against the wall? Any other advice?

The mango seedling (also from some time last year, and also from a grocery-store fruit) is a tad bigger, and in one of those ~1/2 gallon or so pots, like you get larger plants in from a nursery. It is either going into a giant pot (like you sometimes get trees in, ~17" tall, 15" across) or into the ground, but the pot would be much easier.

The spot in the ground it might go is a corner currently occupied by some sort of vaguely palm-like landscape plant (I don't like it much, and am willing to kill it, but it will probably be a pain in the tush to dig it up without trampling the rest of my tiny garden too badly). So, I'd only like to do that if 1. the mango is likely to live long enough to become a proper tree, and 2. the mango will do a lot better in-ground than it will in a very large pot.

Also, the same when/how questions apply, though if it's going into the pot, the soil prep will probably be "dump cheap potting soil into the pot until full, add seedling".

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