Hi Nancy! Welcome! Glad you decided to join in. We all love our citrus trees here. Show us your trees. We love to see them. Where are you from? Where do you grow them; in ground, in containers, indoor, outdoor, grow room, windowsills or greenhouse? There are a lot of citrus enthusiasts from the far north here as well as many from more traditional citrus growing areas and from all around the world. Sounds like you will fit right in with your rapidly growing collection. We hope you will share your growing experiences with us as we all learn from each other.

Cory

Welcome. We can always use more friends here to help us learn from your experiences.

Hi Nancy, welcome! Would you consider putting your garden zone into your name? That is always helpful info.

Hi, Cory

I live in Central Alabama zone 8A. All my citrus are in containers. I live close to Lake Martin with red clay and rocks with limited space in the yard and you need an auger to dig the ground .:) I had all my citrus on the front porch, the sun is scorching so I moved them to a small back deck that is in partial shade. I will post some pictures and soon as I can figure it out. I am using foliage pro and vinegar every week my CRF is Dynamite. Glad to meet you.

Nancy

Hi John, Hi Hobby. I am in Alabama Zone 8A

Will try to post some pictures soon

Thank you all for a warm welcome.

Hi Nancy and welcome. My addiction only became serious about 6 months ago. Before that I grew a few trees. Including an almost 40 year old calamondin. I now have about 20 varieties and a total of about 30 trees.

I saw the pictures of your 40 year old calamondin. Very impressive Vlad. If i had the space I would have lots of citrus varieties. I was a member of the American rose society and I had 250 rose bushes back in 2005 I divorced and the rose bushes went with the house( I still grow roses, I only have 8 bushes now at my new little place. I look forward to learning all about citrus with everyone. So glad I am not a lurker anymore.

Wow. 250!!!! I tried growing roses but could not deal with the constant battle with fungus and Japanese beetles an finally gave up.

A challenge for sure Vlad. If you have time look at Helpmefindroses.com type in Nancy's Alabama rose garden my pictures are posted there.

Welcome, Nancy! 250 rose bushes? Wow!

Hi, Dave yes I know 250 bushes was crazy.....

Welcome Nancy! More addicts to add to the club....excellent! That garden looks incredible! I love roses, but like you, have very limited space and that is devoted to growing things we can eat and the citrus. I don't even know how many I have now...I'm afraid to count! I know I have more on order but have not broken the news to my kids...lol! We are very happy you have decided to join us!

Nancy...can you do me a favor? After you post the pics of your citrus...can you post a pic of some Spanish moss for me? I grew up in South Florida and did my undergraduate studies at UF...I miss the big oaks with moss so much up here!!!

HI, Laura I will post my citrus pictures possibly tomorrow it is storming today. I would buy more citrus if I knew where to put them for winter. I am in Alabama not sure about the moss. I am going to post pictures of the Mulch company where I purchased my bark. I looked for bark at the stores with no luck. So I went to the Much company 5 miles from my house. 15.00 a truck load..Since I did not have a truck these sweet men shoveled 5 gallon buckets up for me to haul in the back of my toyota!! I made 4 trips. They have it in different stages of decomposition. Will post you guys pictures as soon as I can.

Nancy

Don't you have the moss that hangs from the trees there? Perhaps you are too far north in Alabama. Well, the citrus pics will do ;-)

I don't have any but I sure will look

Nice looking trees Nancy. They look like they are doing well. The Meyer will probably adjust to being outside and a different light level soon.

Cory

Hope so Cory. Dropped leaves. I took off two lemons and left 2

Nancy, your trees look great! That Meyer will perk up in no time. Are those the pots you mentioned in you other post? They are beautiful!

Thank you Laura! Got to get more pots!

Nice size trees. Does the calamondin have any blooms or fruit? Your rose pictures are beautiful! I'm still floored by 250 bushes. Something tells me 9 citrus trees won't be enough real soon. ;)

Nancy your trees look exactly like some I just got from Lowes. Same exact tags anyway. Yours look very good and healthy.

Dave, yes Calamondin has few fruit and is blooming constantly and smells great. Your right I will buy more trees, thinking I might use my office building for wintering citrus)))

Hi, Dee yes I got those at Lowes. I have the one Meyer that looks bad from a nursery called Petals from the Past they sell citrus here and they have orange trees planted in ground too. Meyer is in a tree form, it had severe Leaf miner damage they don't spray for pest I don't think. Anyway tree dropped all its old leaves I have removed some fruit and leaves sprouted. I am thinking to leave just one might improve its looks.

I've been pinching off all the fruit and my Calamondin keeps blooming. I know it's much too young to really produce fruit but I pulled off about 2 dozen little green oranges already and it keeps putting out more lol

Same here

Nancy did you leave your trees in the sandy soil they came in? I've put a few in the 5-1-1 and left the rest. I'm not sure if I'm going to switch them all. Maybe I'll do an experiment and keep half in the original mix and the other half in the 5-1-1.

Be careful with that! Will you bring them in for winter? I did that with a tree I bought in Jan and it almost died.

My first Meyer I got from the nursery was in a 5 gallon nursery pot, just came straight out of their green house the roots were coming out the bottom of the pot. It was root bound. I cleaned off the soil it was potted in(mostly bark) and I was successful with it in 511 mix. The Cocktail tree did great too. Then I did kill one Pink lemonade it was small with out many roots . I tried to remove the soil from around the roots, washed it with the hose. Potted it in 511 mix and it never recovered it died after 3 weeks in the shade . After that fiasco, I decided to try something different with the Calamondin and limequat. I remove the sandy soil off the top around the feeder roots and bottom half up to the root ball, I then then potted in the 511 mix, they seem to be doing good. I am getting more of these foam pots this weekend and plan on trying to pot up on Sunday the key lime and the other varigated lemon. Its not that easy, my trees from lowes were under a sunscreen, I did'nt know any better took them home and put in the sun and they had burned leaves. One of my trees still wiltes at the top everyday!!

Try it and see may work out ok if you don't water it too much this winter.

Nancy, I do the same thing...remove the loose soil up top, then remove as much as I can from the root ball without doing tons of damage. I just did this with two new ones. They were planted in a very coarse mix - much like 5-1-1, so what was left there does not worry me much. However, the tree of mine that suffered was in very dense soil. It is not finally doing well, but it too two repotting sessions - one with a major root cleanse and pruning because parts were rotting.

I don't think it is good to have two different potting mediums in the same pot, especially the finer stuff around the roots that will remain denser and wet longer and possibly cause rot. The potting medium will not dry out evenly. Around the roots you need the airy spaces of the 511. I bare-rooted 9 large plants this week and all are doing well, not a bit of wilting. I used the hose to get off the old medium. I pre-soaked the bark overnight. It takes bark a while to absorb water so you need to soak it overnight. You don't want to let bark completely dry out as it is hard to get it to absorb water once it is completely dry. When you water, the water will run right through the pot without the bark absorbing enough of it. It is like when a high sphagnum mix dries completely and pulls away from the sides of the pot it is almost impossible to get the mix wet enough for the plant's roots to absorb water from it. It just shows more with those lite mixes than the bark mix, but it is the same thing. I watered my repotted trees very well after the repot so there were no air pockets. The force of the water draining through the pot will carr the potting medium to fill in any air pockets. Make sure you have many holes in the bottom of your pot so that the water flows through quickly. When potting up work the 511 mix from the sides of the pot and push it towards the center. If you have a potting stick that can help you get all the medium around the roots so there are no air pockets....or use your fingers and work the medium from the sides toward the center to fill in those air pockets. I mist the leaves every few hours the first day or so if I see any wilting. It is good to pick a cloudy, slightly cooler day to repot, and keep the roots moist as you work. If sunny and hot, work in the shade. After the repot, keep the plant in a shady spot and gradually move it to more light over a few days. I used to be afraid to bare-root the trees too, but they really do much better when you do it. If you are going from 5-1-1 to new 5-1-1 and the older medium is still good, you can up-pot to a larger pot, especially if it is late in the growing season. Otherwise, the complete bare-rooting is much better in the long run. The plants usually take off in the fresh medium if you do the repot when the plant is in active growth. Don't repot when plants are not actively growing unless the growing medium is so poor that the roots are starting to decay.

Cory

Thank you Cory, I will try it again. I have plenty 511 mix. How much CFR would you use in a 5 gal bucket of 511 mix??

Beautiful roses Nancy! I ran out of CRF for this re-potting so I forget. I will just scratch some in the top when I get some more. I just use what the instructions say.

Gotcha. Walmart has marked down osmocote plus to 7$ grabbed a bottle last week

Hi Jinny thanks for the compliment glad to be apart if this citrus loving group. Look foward to talking to you. Nancy