I just got myself a Dwarf Navel Orange tree and am quite excited about the prospects of it bearing fruit (in a few years). I am quite the neophyte when it comes to anything gardening, but was fortunate to stumble onto this forum. So far I have been taking in as much as possible. I was going to just transplant the tree, which is in pretty bad shape with just some potting soil. Luckily, I read more and discovered that wouldn't be such a great idea! Instead, I got some fir birch bark and some coir instead. I plan to mix a 10-2-1 (bat guano-GF gave it to me) with some .1-0-1 (liquid swaweed) to get a 5-1-4 ratio that everyone seem to recommend. Do you guys think that's ok? Also, I made the medium using 3 parts fir bark 1 part coir. Do you guys think that's acceptable as well?

So onto my main question..

Here is a picture of the tree. As you can see, it's not in that great of a condition although I hope to make it eventually thrive.



The question I have involves the many trunks:



From the pictures I've seen, most trees just have 1 main trunk, but as you can see, there really isn't 1 defined trunk. The thickest one (1st from left) is about 2/3 the hight of the 2nd, which is the tallest. The 2 others are pretty short. Should I prune any of these so that just 1 gets most of the nutrients? If so, when should I do it? Which ones do you guys recommending me removing?

While I have everyone's attention, how often should I water this tree? Wait until the medium is dry to the touch? How often should I feed it? Every 2 weeks?

Thanks in advance!

Welcome! We'll be glad to help. Citrus trees are rewarding even if grown indoors in a pot

Your tree seem to look like a seedling tree to me. The thorns are some of the clues, but I could be wrong. It is unusual for me to see a navel with thorns, especially that I haven't really seen thorns from those many Navel trees that I have and also given away.

But I have seen several citruses that are multi-trunk. The most common are satsumas. Depends actually on how high the graft line is and the aftercare that it received before you bought it. The way you have multi-trunk, as it is, it would be hard to convert that into a single trunked tree without sacrificing a lot of existing growth. I would recommend for you to let it stay that way, if indeed that is dwarf navel. I have a navel orange on my rental property that has 4 main trunks, and it is behaving normally. I did not plant that navel, it came with the house when we bought it.

Rule of thumb stated by other experts is to water the tree when the top 2 inches of your media is dry.

If your plant receives more sunlight and it is warmer, you can apply more fertilizer. The best recommended fertilizer schedule is every time you water. If you have stock solutions prepared, then you can prepare quickly every time you water.

If your potted plant is by the southern window and receives a lot of sunlight during the day, you can go as high as 300 ppm Nitrogen dissolved in water, and for every 300 ppm N, you need to add 75 ppm Mg, in the form of Epsom salt, add 60 ppm P, and also 180 ppm K. You can also add other trace elements as those from STEM formulations, but your total N dissolved in water should not exceed 300 ppm. If your plant is shaded, like half a day sunlight only, use proportionately, go down to 150 ppm N formulation.

To simplify things, others would recommend timed or slow-released fertilizers like Osmocote and others that dissolve proportionately according to amount of water used and temperature. Try to stay as close to the the 5-1-3 ratio of various slow release fertilizers, and select those with micronutrients added or minors. The 5-1-4 ratio that you are using would be close enough, especially that you have Bat guano mixed in your potted media.

As to the sauce pan that I see under your pot, you need to elevate your pot and you should have an air gap between your pot and the saucer. I can understand that you need to use saucer to catch the excess water that has drained down, but you need to keep the roots from soaking in that water, so you need to raise the bottom of your pot. There are special contraption that you can buy from Home Depot which can raise the pot from the saucer, or simply use pebbles or marbles, anything that will prevent stagnant water in the bottom of your pot. Citruses can easily die of root rot if you have that stagnant water soaking the bottom part of your pot.

I can't see any graft point and I'm not sure that I can see any thorns, so this could well be a rooted cutting.
If so, then the description 'dwarf navel' is wrong because it is only the rootstock that makes a citrus dwarf.
Did you notice (when you were re-potting) whether there was a change somewhere along the stem which would indicate where the variety was grafted to the rootstock? If this is now at or below the compost level then you have planted too low and the whole thing should be raised.
If there is no graft point and it is a rooted cutting, then I would also advise raising the plant, or removing some of the growing medium, so the first roots are just at soil level. If the stem of a navel orange is kept damp you are likely to have problems - that is one of the reasons that special rootstocks are used.
If you leave all the stems, then you will end up with a low, bushy shrub. If you want something more tree like, then you can prune away the lower branches.

I will answer as to what I would do if it was my tree. I would wait until the tree is at least a year old, and then prune the tree so that it would grow as a standard tree. However, there is nothing wrong with letting the tree grow as a shrub. If and when you prune the tree, you could root the cuttings, and have three additional trees. - Millet

Thanks for everyone's thorough responses. I am really new at this, so you'll have to be patient with me as I am unfamiliar with some of the terms.

Citrange- I am not sure how to look for a graft point. Does this picture help? I have a feeling I might have planted it a little too low. I digged an inch around the trunk and noticed that it is one big trunk instead of the aforementioned 4. Do you guys think I should just repot it? Will I traumatize the poor plant even more? I think what happened was that I did initially plant it high enough, but saw some exposed roots and just covered it up. By the time I was done, I had added an inch or so to the height.



I do see some thorns, so maybe this is a dwarf tree after all?



Millet- I think I will take your advice and let it mature and grow some legs. How old do you think my plant is? I'm guessing it's very young. I really don't have a visual idea of how old a typical 1-year plant would look like.

Joe Real - On fertilizing... I noticed that my Bat Guano nitrogen is 10%, but 9% of that is insoluble. I did some quick researching and found out that if it's insoluble, it's slow releasing. Should I supplement with some more fast-acting soluble nitrogen? Also, for future reference, is it ok to mix in some of the bat guano and my liquid seewed food (for the K) to the medium before planting? I was afraid of doing this initially of fears of burning the roots. So actually, the pictured plant right now has no fertilizer. I was planning to add some food the next time I water.

Thanks again for all your help!

As a little treat, here is a picture of a nice cathedral from my apt. I took it while taking the pics of the tree just now. Enjoy Kudos to anyone who knows the building

The power of the www is truly amazing.
It took me about 5 minutes image searching to come up with
St. Louis, MO.
Correct?

I agree it is a rooted cutting. There are a few people on Ebay selling this stuff for any number of names. Most are rooted Cals & are not oranges at all. Can I ask where you got this plant ?

Thanks for the great picture. Most certainly, some of mankind's greatest achievements in architecture is in his churches. In all of my travels, seeing the Churches of Rome was stunning, some of architecture's greatest achievements . Also, in Paris the Sacre-Coeur Church is also a favorite. - Millet