Hi, I've always knew that for citrus is better to water a lot but only when the dirth is dry on the top layer. And this is what I usually do. Now, since two years I adopted an automatic watering system that I use during my summer vacation, and it waters a bit twice a day. Each of the two years, when I came back home I found my 2 citrus (lemon and mandarin, both grown from seed) with a considerably higher amount of foliage compared to the growth rate I usually see in other periods when I am home and I give them water "not often but a lot".
So this is my dilemma: what's really better for the tree, a lot of water but infrequently or a few water more often?!

Thanks!!!

Hi Ivannn. In my experience you can water as often as you like as long as you have excellent drainage. As you have seen with your trees, they respond very well to regular watering as long as the roots are not staying wet all the time. When planted in the ground on a slope you rarely have a problem. In containers on the other hand you have to be very careful with your planting medium and watering habits.

I agree with Lazz--we have periods of every day rain during the summer, as long as I have my container citrus in chunky pine bark media they do just fine--when we do not have rain, the plants will do fine for up to a week without water. The real objective is to obtain a moist media with lots of air. If your media is too fine, it will get wet and exclude the air causing the roots to rot.

Skeeter-

What do you mix with your pine bark?
What size bark are you using?

Kyle

Ivannn wrote.........."I've always knew that for citrus is better to water a lot but only when the dirth is dry on the top layer"...........

This apply ONLY with mediums that do not have excellent drainage. CHC and Coarse bark based mediums can be watered 10 times a day without any problems what so ever. - Millet (1,251-)

Ok, thanks to everybody!

Going slightly OT, it seems to my that many among you guys use a media with very very high drainage capability...this brings to a premature loss of the nutrients in the dirth, right?!

I use CHC which absorbs 7 times it weight in water (thus fertilizer solution). Some of the time I soak the entire root system in a 300 PPM fertilizer solution for 1 or 2 minutes, other times I just pour the solution over the top of the container. If I lose some nutrient solution out the bottom I really do not care at all. The advantages of a highly arable medium out weights the loss of some fertilizer. Fertilizer is cheap. - Millet (1,249-)

I use slow release fertilizer--some is released every time it gets water.

Thanks again for your answers!