something for all newbies to read!!

Discussion in 'Citrus' started by aesir22, Sep 7, 2008.

  1. aesir22

    aesir22 Active Member

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    Hi all, sorry for yet another post, i am just amazed by something.

    i am a newbie myself, and have trawled through this entire forum and several others gaining what i hope to be a good basic knowledge for growing citrus in pots.

    i just went to water my persian lime. it was in a 12 inch pot. i poured a litre of water in. nothing happened. another litre, nothing happened. another litre and finally a few drops of water started to leak out of the drainage holes in the bottom, and they took their time coming out!

    it seemed a little wrong, so i took the pot outside and took the lime out. the small root ball was sitting on about 4inches of mostly compost with a little bit of perlite.

    when i first got the plant a while back i hadnt thought too much to proper potting mix, so just chucked some perlite in and put the lime in the pot. what i mistake i made!!!

    i gently hosed the rootball to remove some of the bad soil, and made a new potting mix. i found a bag of bark chippings in the garage (never seen them before, must have been used by my stepdad) i threw those into a container, with a couple of handfuls of perlite and some ericaceous potting compost. i downsized to a pot that was 8inches, and put the lime in with new potting mix.

    now i know what free draining means!!!! i poured in a litre of water to establish the soil to the roots, and it drained twenty times faster than it previously had! i then added another litre with a half-strength citrus feed in it.

    this is my message to anyone new to raising citrus - READ THIS FORUM AND LISTEN TO THE ADVICE!! it was only through reading posts of different subject that i realised the potting mix was all wrong. without reading them, i may very well have lost my lime to root rot before i knew what was happening. there is a wealth of knowledge here regarding almost every citrus subject imaginable. i just thank my stars i am obsessed enough now to read a load of posts ;)

    further to this, a question for those more experienced - i have other citrus in the same original mix as the lime - should i go ahead and repot them now in the new mix? they are all showing a lot of new growth, except the lemon, and i dont know if it is safe to wait until spring!

    thanks all, old and new posts alike are teaching me well :)

    dan
     
  2. joclyn

    joclyn Rising Contributor

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    if they are rootbound, yes, repot (even if it's the wrong time of year).
     
  3. aesir22

    aesir22 Active Member

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    it was the soil medium i was more concerned with over the rootbound factor. they were anything but rootbound - pots way way way too big! so i have put them in smaller pots - about half the size in better potting medium. not best time of year to repot, but i feared over winter the roots might rot in the mix they were growing in
     

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