Hello every one! I recently purchased 2 Lemon trees (Meyer), I think I have an obsession with lemon trees, I love them so much and since we've moved to London was so hard to find one... But here we are, my dream came true today so I ended up spending $60 for this 2 wonderful trees... they are about 25" tall and loaded with flowers and small fruits. I plan to repot them using a mix of 3 parts bark chips, 1 part perlite and 1 part peat moss. I don't know if this is the good time for re-potting ... also I've got a fertilizer for them the acidic ever green one which is 20-7-10 and it's granular so I just plan to spread a little bit on the soil on top.... I would need help with: -Is this the right time to repot? -Is the fertilizer the right one? -Is my soil mix appropriate? -What ISD Treatment means on the label and how important is that? I will attach a picture with my trees... Thak you Armin
I would repot when the trees are showing signs of active growth. The mix you described sounds reasonable; similar mixes have been mentioned in these forums in the past. Is this (SMARTCOTE Evergreen & Shrub Food 20-7-10) the fertilizer you have? I don't think it contains any micronutrients which are important for the health of citrus trees. The ISD Treatment tag indicates the tree has been treated with the insecticide Imidacloprid. I thought Dr. Malcolm Manners provided a detailed explanation in a recent discussion in GardenWeb's Citrus forum but I can't find it.
Thank you so much Junglekeeper. I will repot just one of them as only one has new growths. I wasn't able to find any specific citrus fertilizer in London, ON... I'll look around but if you have any suggestions will be highly appreciated. Like the name, brand or whatever clue to point me where to get it.... Imidacloprid is not quite something I would use on a lemon tree or any other edible plant... I know people do that ad is widely used to kill insects... but still, for me that is not safe to humans and kids... Maybe there are some other safe options for lemon trees... I would like to know what other people uses... so little info on lemons....
The 30-10-10 water soluble fertilizer from the same company contains micronutrients. It seems to be widely available and is the one I use. I believe the ISD treatment is applied at source by the grower (in Florida if I'm correct) to eradicate pests prior to exporting the trees. Insecticidal soap has been my choice for dealing with pests. Horticultural oil is an alternative.
Yes, it's the Smartcote one... I'm going back to change it.... So the 30-10-10 goes well? I use the soap which is great... so I'm gonna do it for lemons as well... Thanks Armin
As an alternative, Miracle-Gro All-Purpose Water Soluble 24-8-16 also contains the necessary micronutrients.
The discussion containing Dr. Manners' comments on ISD Treatment surfaced again. Here is the thread in an external forum in which Dr. Manners said: