Growing Citrus Trees in Containers! 🍋🌿// Garden Answer

Hey guys, how's it going? Today's video is a care guide on how to grow citrus fruit in containers. And this applies to any citrus fruit in a container, whether or not you live in a mild enough climate to keep it out year round or whether you're keeping it inside year round or if you're like me, I live in a climate that's too cold to keep it out during the winter so it comes in for the winter months and then it lives outside from late spring through usually early fall. So I've outlined this guide into eight different points. We're going to be talking about how to choose the best type of container, what type of soil to use, how to plant them, what kind of light to keep them in, what temperature is best and how to transition them from inside to outside in spring and fall. Also about watering, fertilizing and pollination and harvest. But first I do want to mention that citrus trees that you're planting in containers will naturally not grow as big as they would in the ground. And that's a good thing because for those of us who are moving our citrus inside and outside and around throughout the year, we want them to stay a manageable size. I don't want something that gets so big that I can no longer move it anymore. So when we plant anything, whether it's a citrus tree or any other plant in a container, we're just restricting where the roots can grow. It can't spread out like it would normally in the ground so they'll just stay a little bit smaller. But you can find citrus trees that have been grafted onto dwarf rootstock which means that rootstock will keep the plant portion of the tree smaller but it won't restrict the size of the fruit. The fruit will still get the normal size. Today I'm planting this Meyer lemon tree in this container. This is not a dwarf. It's an actual tree that wants to grow about 13 to 15 feet tall and wide which in the world of trees it's pretty small but for a container that's massive. And you know if I were to keep bumping up the container size to where it had a ton of root room for the roots to grow and I had the ability to take it inside and outside at that size, it might reach that size but it's just not possible in our area because I can't get that big of a plant through our doors and I won't probably bump up that much more in container size. I might do one or two sizes more but they do really well with restricted root room for quite a number of years. So let's talk about point number one and that's about choosing your container and you can pretty much choose any container that suits your style so long as it has good drainage. So if you notice that your pot only has one tiny little drain hole in the bottom, you might think about drilling a few more and I'll talk about it in the watering section but citrus trees can be a little bit picky about water and soil drainage and root aeration are key to success with your citrus trees. If you have to move your citrus from inside to outside, plastic or something lightweight is really nice. It also helps retain a little bit of moisture which I find helpful when your plant's outside because they're just subject to more elements. They're subject to wind. We have very dry heat here. I am using terracotta because that's my style. I like this look of container and I know that it's porous so it's going to be passing oxygen in and out through the sides of the container and I know it's going to dry out a little bit quicker but if you know that and you know to give your citrus extra water then you're okay. Also choose a container that's a little bit taller than it is wide because it'll help keep your citrus tree more balanced as it grows. It'll have more of an anchor system as opposed to if you chose a big wide shallow container. As that plant grows, it's just going to have a harder time staying upright. And one last thing is if you buy your citrus tree in a black plastic nursery pot, you want to get it repotted out of that as quickly as possible especially if you're keeping it outside in a sunny spot because that black plastic will absorb heat and can cook the roots during the hot part of summer. Point number two is soil. You can go a couple different routes with this. I've tried both of them many times with success. It depends on what container you're using, what kind of material it is. If you go with terracotta that tends to dry out quicker, I like to use a SPOMA potting mix because it does help hold on to a little bit more moisture so it doesn't dry out completely really fast. And citrus, while they like to stay on the dry side, they don't want to dry out completely between waterings. If you go with something like plastic that tends to retain more moisture, you can use something like the SPOMA cactus mix which helps facilitate a little bit more drainage. And I find that the combination for both of those types of pots with those types of soil works really well. Point number three is on planting and this is pretty basic so I'm going to show you how I do it. So first I'm going to add some potting soil to the container. So I added just enough potting soil to where I think I can still accommodate the root ball of my lemon tree, but before I plant it I want to add in my slow release fertilizer incorporating it into the soil. And I'm adding some Citrus Tone which is a fertilizer geared towards citrus trees. It has the right balance of nutrients and I'm just following the instructions on the label. So it says when you're planting a brand new container to incorporate about two cups of the fertilizer into one cubic foot of soil. I only used about half of a cubic foot of soil so I'm only going to mix in about a cup. So now I'm just going to mix the fertilizer in all the way to the bottom of the container. Fertilizer's all mixed in so now I'm going to push some of the soil along the sides of the container here and kind of create a well in the center. I'm kind of looking at the size of the root ball and I'm going to try to create a well that's approximately the same size as the root ball. It'll make planting a lot easier. So one thing you do want to look out for if you're planting a grafted citrus tree that's been grafted onto dwarf rootstock, you want to look for that graft union on the trunk and you want to make sure, and it looks like a bump or a scar along the trunk of the plant, they're pretty easy to identify, you just want to make sure that that stays up above the soil level. So what I'm going to do is pop the lemon tree out of the container and I'm going to try to center the trunk as close to center as I can in this container. So I'm actually going to remove a little bit of the soil on this side because that'll help me center it in the container a little bit better. And then I'm going to take the soil that I pushed up along the sides of the container and I'm going to tamp it in around the root ball and it's really at this point I might add a little bit of extra soil. We just want to make it kind of, we don't want to bury it any deeper than it was buried in this pot here, but I want to make sure that there's soil tamped in really well around the whole root ball so there's no air pockets. You also want to leave a good inch or two lip along the top of the soil from the top of the pot. That way it makes watering a lot easier. A little bit more soil. The fourth point is lighting and they like a lot of sunshine, like a minimum of 8-12 hours per day. And it'll be a little bit different based on whether you're keeping them inside or outside. So for those of you who are keeping them inside, it's best if you can put them in the brightest window you have. So like a south facing window where they can get sun for the better part of a day is really ideal. You do need to remember to rotate them on occasion so that all sides of the plant are receiving the same amount of light to keep them the happiest. In the wintertime, like when I bring mine in for the winter, supplemental lighting is also very helpful because the sun isn't as intense. A lot of times we don't have windows that will supply enough light for the plant. So if you have a smaller citrus tree like this, you could do something like, we installed recently a bamboo LED grow light garden in our master bedroom actually where I winter plants over and that would accommodate a citrus tree this size and maybe even a little bit bigger. But there are other options available for larger plants like you can get drop pendant lighting. I think one is called aspect lighting and it's a drop pendant light that you can put above like a single plant that's really large that will provide it with that light that it needs. If you are keeping your citrus outside though, like in the summertime, I find that morning sun is really good for my citrus and then filtered light throughout the afternoon. Just because we have such dry, intense heat through the summer, it tends to scorch their leaves if they stay out in too much. So I find having a really strong block of morning light and then that filtered sunshine is really great. If you live in a more mild climate though, that gets more humidity and has cloud cover and maybe some rain coming down, which is really not typical of our summers here, you might be able to keep them in a more full sun location throughout the whole day. So it's just something that you may have to adjust based on where you're keeping it and what your climate's like. And point number five kind of goes hand in hand with lighting. I want to talk about temperature and then how to transition your plant from inside to outside in the spring or fall in terms of temperature and light. So typically, most of your citrus trees can handle temps down to 32 degrees. I do not like to chance it like that. Usually my indicator when the temp reaches about 40 degrees outside, that's when I know I have a little window to get all of my tender plants inside and that way I'm not running around in a panic trying to get everything in because it's a good idea to have time to clean your plants before you bring them in, inspect them for insects, give them a good shower with a hose, wash their leaves off, maybe repot if you need to. So I like to have that little window. And also getting down close to freezing, that can cause some damage as well. So usually 40 degrees is kind of my cutoff and then I start bringing them inside. You do want to acclimate them slowly though. So if you can move them from your sunny location to a spot that's maybe not quite as sunny, maybe something that emulates inside conditions a little bit more like a covered patio for maybe a week so that when you move it inside it's not totally shocked, that's a really good idea. Same thing goes in the spring when the temperatures have warmed up enough. If you can put it outside for a week, 10 days underneath a covered patio where it gets filtered light and then slowly move it like a foot or two the consecutive days after that first week until it reaches its full sun location, you'll deal with a lot less shock because they tend to shock when you move them. I mean you might have bought a citrus plant at a store, your garden center, you get it home and it just drops a bunch of leaves. That's kind of typical of citrus trees but if you can acclimate them slowly you'll get a lot less of that and you won't get scorched. Because if you put your citrus tree from inside where it's much more protected right out into full sun, you're going to have some burned leaves. And it's a total pain, I'm not going to lie, to have to transition plants and acclimate them. It's like hardening off seedlings. It's something you have to remember to do. If you have it in a heavy pot, it's harder to do. So it's a good idea when you get it from inside your house, you bring it outside, put it on a caster that has wheels so that it's easy for you to move it from one location to the next, moving it out into more light so you're not having to physically pick up your container every single time to move it. And that makes the process a lot more pleasant. Point number six is watering and this can probably be one of the more frustrating things because citrus are more picky, like I said earlier. They don't like to dry out completely, but they do like to stay on the dry side. They don't like overly wet soil because they can root rot really quickly, but they do need consistent moisture for fruit development. So it's one of those things that's so hard to tell exactly how much water to give or when to give it because it's so dependent on so many different factors like what size your plant is, what type of pot you use, what type of soil you use, what kind of weather is it subject to. Is it getting rain or is it totally dry or is it getting wind and getting dried out too quick. So the best thing to do, the best thing I can tell you to do is just monitor the soil moisture. And you can do that easily with a really cheap moisture meter that you can buy at the garden center. You can also use a wooden skewer or a wood chopstick. It's a really easy thing to do. You just stick it down in the soil, let it sit for just a second, pull it back up and you can see how much water has absorbed into that wood skewer. If the soil seems dry and the soil just kind of like dusts right off of that skewer, it's probably time to water. Typically I wait for the top inch or so of soil to dry out and then I know to water it. When you do go into water, you want to make sure to give enough to water and saturate the whole root zone of the plant. If any collects in a saucer underneath, if you have it on a saucer, you do want to make sure to pour that out because you don't want it sitting and wicking up extra moisture. And the seventh point is fertilizing, which is really important because when you have containerized plants of any kind, the only nutrients they're getting is what you give to them. And when you have something that you want to both bloom and fruit, you need to make sure that they're getting enough nutrients. So I use a fertilizer that's specific to citrus plants because it's formulated for their specific needs and I just follow the instructions on the bag. Typically though, as a general guideline, you want to give them a dose of fertilizer about January, February, right before they start to bloom and that'll help them bloom better. And then you can give them another dose in like May, June, right after they're done blooming and that'll help give them more energy to produce their fruit. And then if you're bringing them inside, giving them a fall dose of fertilizer is also really good. If you are keeping them outside though, it's maybe a good idea to skip the fall application because you don't want them putting on extra foliar growth right before a cold winter because that tender growth is really susceptible to frost damage. If you live in a tropical mild climate though where that doesn't happen, you can go ahead and give the fall dose. Now that is just for the slow release granulated fertilizer that I used today. So I mixed it into the container today. The next fertilizer it'll get is in the fall when I bring it in. There is liquid fertilizer you can use as well, which is a little bit more of a quick shot of nutrients. So you have to give it more often, like every two to four weeks typically. With the slow release, it's just two to three applications a year and it's really easy. All you do is take the diameter of the pot and for every four inches of diameter, you use one teaspoon of fertilizer. So with an 18 inch pot, I think you use four and a half teaspoons. I think my math is right on that. Anyway, it's super easy. You just sprinkle it around the edge of the pot and water it in. And so I find that to be a nice slow feed to the plant and then I don't have to be remembering to fertilize it all the time. Point number eight is about pollination and harvest. So most citrus trees are self-fruitful or self-pollinating, meaning you only need one variety of tree in order to get fruit. You know, a lot of fruit trees like apple trees and pear trees and things like that, you need two varieties in order for them to cross pollinate in order for them to bear fruit. There's only a handful of varieties of citrus that require that. So just check the tag. This Meyer lemon is a self-fruitful tree, so I only need the one, even though I do have a lime and another pink lemonade lemonade here on our property. So even if that wasn't the case, I would have enough for this to bear fruit. So with most citrus trees, they start to bloom in early to mid spring and then they start setting their fruit, which this one has lemons all over it. And they'll sit and they'll size up throughout the course of the summer. And then you start harvesting usually late fall and winter. And the best way to determine ripeness is to taste test. The rind will tell you nothing as to whether or not it's sweet enough or it's ready. And the best way to store your fruit is just to leave them on the tree and use them as you need them. And that is my guide on how to take care of citrus in containers. I've done it for many, many years with really, really great success. Now I did not touch on insects. I haven't dealt with a lot of insect pests. I find that if you can put them out in the summertime, you deal with a lot less insects because they have really good airflow outside. They're getting the light they need, so they're not stressed. So the least stressed you can keep your plant, the less susceptible they are to getting attacked by any kind of insect. I will say that I have had a lemon tree get spider mites before and mealybugs. I treat the spider mites with some derivative of neem, so some neem-based spray. And that usually takes care of them. I'm usually with container plants pretty quick to find any problems starting. And I think that's key to really keep your eye on all of your plants. And that way, if you notice a problem starting, you can take care of it right away before it becomes a full-blown issue. And mealybugs are super easy as well. You just take a Q-tip dipped in rubbing alcohol and just wipe them off. And that's something you don't want to have take hold either. So just keep your eye on your plants so that nothing becomes a super huge problem. So anyway guys, I hope this video was helpful. I'm excited to see how this lemon does throughout this season, and I hope I get lots of really great fruit off of it this year. And we will be updating you on it as we go. So thanks so much for watching this video, and we will see you in the next one. Bye.