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Planting Trees In Pots

Trees are not to be repotted or planted in the ground until they have acclimated for 2 weeks.
Trees can arrive in shock due to transport and it can take at least 2 weeks or longer for the tree to recover from shipping.

For trees in zones 9 and above you can plant or keep the trees in a pot.
Planting instructions in the ground are located here: https://lemoncitrustree.com/store/growing-citrus-ground

TREES IN POTS
When transplanting, You can double the size of the pot but don’t plant in pots above 10 gallons.
The larger the pot the faster the tree will grow so if you get a small tree you can plant it in a 10-gallon pot as long as you water according to the pot size.
A pot that is too large can be heavy and hard to manage if you need to take the tree indoors for the winter so do not go beyond the 10-gallon size.  All trees are to be taken indoors in the winter in zones below 9 while they are under our warranty.

Use a soil mix that is lightweight and drains well. Avoid soils that contain wetting agents or fertilizers. Start with a good rich organic soil -rose garden soil mixes formulated for outside garden use will work well or MiracleGrow Palm Cactus/Citrus soil is well draining.

When selecting a container, be sure there are sufficient drainage holes in the pot.
You can drill more holes in a plastic container if you need to.
Be mindful of the pot you choose. Do not plant a tree in a shallow pot, the root system of the tree needs room to grow.
Never plant a tree in a pot with the reservoir attached at the bottom of a pot, this will cause root rot.
Never plant a tree in a pot with a plug, plugging the drainage hole.
Never use cloth planting bags for trees.
Planting a tree in a planter bag can be detrimental to the tree due to watering and shifting soil which causes the bag to warp, and bulge out, into odd distorted shapes because there are no solid sides to the pot preventing it. After a while, the continual watering and shifting soil can loosen the root ball from the soil and cause the tree to fall out, ripping the roots in the process.

Do not place rocks in the bottom of the pot when transplanting or pile decorative rocks on top of the soil after planting. Locate the root crown of the tree and never cover it with soil or mulch. To see a photo of the root crown visit us at: https://lemoncitrustree.com/store/citrus-tree-care-containers
It is completely normal to see fine roots on the top of the soil. DO NOT dig around the root crown removing soil. There are fine roots on the top that you could easily break.

TRANSPLANTING

Add soil to the new pot. Before removing the tree from the old container inspect the top of the soil in the old pot. The soil you can see on top is your soil line.
Never break up the soil line and never add soil above the soil line.
Carefully remove the tree from the pot and set the tree in the new pot on top of the new soil, if the tree's soil line is not an inch below the rim of the pot then remove the tree and add or remove soil.
Never add soil to the top, the soil must always be added from the bottom and the sides.
Once the tree is in the pot add soil to the sides of the pot until the soil is built up to meet the topsoil of the tree.
Over the course of time, you may notice that the tree's soil line has slowly settled down into the pot, this happens after watering over time as some soil will get washed out and an empty space is created between the rim of the pot and the soil line.
You do not want to ignore a large space between the rim and the soil line, this space can be utilized for the root system of the tree so all the space in the pot is being used for the root system. In this event, you would remove the tree add more soil, and then re-pot.

 

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