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.

Those are pretty pricey, and no indication as to cultivar. There are many different "orange tree "cultivars. Plus, folks should know that citrus in this area is under quarantine, so you can't move it out of this general area. I wouldn't waste time with this ebay seller, personally. I'd buy an inspected and treated tree from a known garden center or citrus grower. You'll get a known cultivar, known rootstock, treated, inspected and for less money. We have many great choices in S. California for places to go, to buy great citrus trees. Just my opinion. Patty S.

mksmith, I will take some next time we're at the new house. The pots are: 33 inch circumference, 20 inch tall, that holds one grapefruit tree, 32 years old. Never has flowered, but very healthy. 24 inch, square, 20 inch tall, holds a group of 5 orange trees, appx. 18 years old. 16 inch square, 28 inch tall, holds one lemon tree, appx. 20 yrs old. All of the trees are now 9 - 10 feet tall and growing. These are all from seed, so only the lemon has flowered (luck) and no fruit from any of them, hoping the additional space and light will make them flower, but I've heard that "from seed" is very hit and miss. I don't care, just love the green all year and they look great with less leaf drop than ficus. I try to move them around (at least rotate) and usually move them from indoors to the deck every spring and back in during fall. But from now on these will stay indoors since there are so many windows and tons of light in the new place and when they get taller they won't fit out of a door anyway! I already pruned them up (took out all the lower foliage/branches) already to keep my view at eye level clear and to encourage them to get taller. Root pruning may be impossible at this size....

You'll need to inspect your plants to see what condition of the roots are in. After two years, even if not root bound, the soil medium has broken down (collapsed) and is not providing those roots with something that is ESSENTIAL: oxygen! If you intend to keep your plants in the same large containers indefinitely, you'll need to remove the plants periodically to exchange the potting medium with a coarse, fast draining mix and maybe even do some annual root pruning. Citrus respond very well to long term container culture, but just like any other plant, require a little bit of care (repotting and root pruning) in order to remain healthy.