Lemon in pots anyone?

[Moth1992]

I have a meyer lemon I impulsively bought in spring. It lives in a 4 gallon pot in my balcony. I want to swap it to a 7 gallon grow bag but I dont even know when is a good time for that ( it has finished flowering recently).

I still have no clue what it needs.

Anyone knows if this is lack of fertilizer?



All tips in how to grow one of these in pots would be appreciated!

[Mark_Thompson]

Have you ever checked out Tropical Fruit Forum? They have all kinds of crazy guys growing trees in pots over there

[pepperhead212]

I never grew lemons, but my Kaffir lime trees sometimes get that on lower leaves, usually late in winter when inside, and I don't know if it's just too much growth for the amount of light, or fertilizer. I usually add some iron to the next fertilizer watering. The older plant is 21 years old, so no major problem - usually goes away in spring, when I put it out, and the light gets better, plus a major trimming.

[Moth1992]

Have you ever checked out Tropical Fruit Forum? They have all kinds of crazy guys growing trees in pots over there

Gonna check it out!

[Moth1992]

I never grew lemons, but my Kaffir lime trees sometimes get that on lower leaves, usually late in winter when inside, and I don't know if it's just too much growth for the amount of light, or fertilizer. I usually add some iron to the next fertilizer watering. The older plant is 21 years old, so no major problem - usually goes away in spring, when I put it out, and the light gets better, plus a major trimming.

Mmm im having it in the new growth. Its getting few hours of direct sun every day but i dont know, maybe it wants more.

So trimming in spring. When do you change pots if ever?

[pepperhead212]

I trim them both in fall, to bring inside, and again some before taking outside, then a lot more, once outside, including any bad leaves. Very soon, new growth occurs quickly.

As for new pots, I re-pot them every 3 years - the oldest is up to a 15 gal fabric pot, but I can't go larger than that, so I do a severe root pruning, along with the top trimming, as well, but after a brief pause in growing, new growth comes back quickly.

When I let it get too rootbound, after 3 years, it seemed that the end of the winter that the plants would become prone to getting scale insects, which I watch for underneath the leaves.

I have to re-pot all of my pots this year, as it's been 3 years.

[ddsack]

I have a lemon, a lime and an orange in what are probably around 5-7 gallon pots. I have not re-potted for years, just add a little more top soil as the roots start to show. I have to haul the pots up a flight of stairs when they come back inside in the fall, and any larger pots would be impossible for me to handle, it's a struggle now. I try to remember to fertilize, but it's seldom and irregular. They blossom and set fruit despite my poor treatment of them. I have the scale problem @pepperhead212 refers to, from an infected house plant I once brought home. Even after really thorough cleaning, the scale come back in a few months. One thing I have never tried is dormant oil, thinking of spraying them once a week two times, just before they come back in the house. Along with a final soapy rub and hose rinse. I also try to remember to nip the thorns off the new growth so I don't get scratched.

Some leaves sometimes get the yellow splotches like in the first post. But the trees seem to thrive and set fruit anyway. I am surprised my trees do as well as they do, they are growing in bonsai type conditions with very little nutrition. I prune any branches that start to exceed their allotted window areas in the house, so my plants will never be over a certain manageable height.

[Moth1992]

I trim them both in fall, to bring inside, and again some before taking outside, then a lot more, once outside, including any bad leaves. Very soon, new growth occurs quickly.

As for new pots, I re-pot them every 3 years - the oldest is up to a 15 gal fabric pot, but I can't go larger than that, so I do a severe root pruning, along with the top trimming, as well, but after a brief pause in growing, new growth comes back quickly.

When I let it get too rootbound, after 3 years, it seemed that the end of the winter that the plants would become prone to getting scale insects, which I watch for underneath the leaves.

I have to re-pot all of my pots this year, as it's been 3 years.

This is super useful! Thankyou so much.

Im surprised you have to root prune in a fabric pot? Precisely the reason i want to change it to a grow bag is so it self prunes. But ive only done it with tomatoes, never a perenial.

Mine seems to be setting some fruit. Im terrified to do anything that will upset it!

[pepperhead212]

@Moth1992 Believe me - those fabric pots don't totally self prune! I could tell, with the kaffir lime trees, curry tree, and bay laurel, that after the 3 years, the plants were not growing as well, and the plants will need watering almost daily, even in large pots, since so much space is filled with roots. The worst plant I ever saw being rootbound was rosemary, years ago, that got rootbound in about 1½ years, and it would wilt (I had no idea why) in less than 2 days from watering, but when I finally went to re-pot it, the soil in the pot was solid roots! These get almost the same, and I've found 3 years is the limit - after this, they start showing signs, the curry tree (also a citrus) being the worst. I trim those rootballs down to about a 6" ball, from the 8-10 gal pots, a little larger from the 15 gal (the really old lime tree, with a trunk over 2"!). I just slice most of the roots off with a firm boning knife - these citrus trees have fairly large roots, with few of those hair roots, like I found in the rosemary, which is good!

[Mark_Thompson]

Speaking of root pruning, y’all ever tried these?

11DEDBAC-44AB-43B7-BF5F-8240DDD9E11D.jpeg

[ddsack]

@Mark_Thompson - I've never seen anything like those pots before. Is there a name for them? Are those projections metallic or cloth? Is there a theory behind them, or just for a cool ornamental look?


added later:

Ok, I went looking and found them on Amazon. But the ones they sell don't say anything about liners. I supposed if you never move the pots, and use drip irrigation lines you wouldn't have to worry about dirt washing out all the holes. Interesting!

[Mark_Thompson]

Air pruning I think they call it. Someone on that other forum I mentioned was using massive pots like this for fruit trees. Theoretically the plant doesn’t get root bound like it would in a conventional hard sided pot.

[pepperhead212]

I can't picture trying to slide a plant out of one of those pots, once it gets established roots in those little protrusions in the pots!

Fabric pots also say they "air prune", and the root ball isn't the same as when I grew them in plastic, but it still gets solid, and in need of re-potting in 3 years, at least with my plants.