I've been patiently waiting for one of my container citrus that needed repotting to finish with their blossom flushes so that I could finally use the coconut husk chips that I bought a couple of months ago.

I've got a Eureka lemon that now has fruit on it from three different blossom flushes that was beginning to outgrow its pot so I did it first. I used Millet's recipe as closely as I could except for using one and a half parts peat instead of just one to four parts chips. I'm concerned about the media drying out seeing as how my present media does as fast as it does this time of year. About an hour before dark I mixed up the chips, peat, dolomite, minor nutrients and slow release citrus fertilizer, gave it all a good soaking, the carefully washed out all of the old medium that I could from the lemon roots without major root damage. Pretty well got it all out but for the interiormost portion of the rootball which I judged not to be worth the root damage that would be sustained to get it out.

I set the tree in the new pot at the same level it was at in the old one, spread the roots as much as they could be then started packing in the rest of the chips. Used exactly one cubic foot of mixed media. Gave the entire thing a very thorough soaking and will do it again tomorrow. I'll leave it by the potting bench in the dappled shade for a week or so given that it's hitting 90+ every day. By next weekend I should be able to move it into a fuller sun position.

So far, so good.

.....Alan.

Please let us know in about 2 weeks what is the outcome.
I did the same except I can't find any dolomite in my area.

Benny

Alan, I hope you rinsed, soaked, rinsed, soaked & rinsed some more before the last soaking in all that you mentioned. Epsom salt should be added to last soaking or you can use it to water next time.
Keep us posted!

Patty what does Epsom salt do ?
Ive never heard of using it on a plant befor ..Tammy

If you look at all the micronutrients listed & don't see Mg, ...THAT is epsom salts...same as.
CHC should be soaked in epsom salts to release or get rid of the ugly salts (?) in CHC. I forgot what it gets rid of, (ahh, maybe Millet can help me here...it's late & my brain is slowing down), but anyway, it also helps the plant take up nitrogen. In fact, Tammy, put a Tbls of epsom s per gal of water every 2-3 months when you water any plant. It helps take up nutrients...esp nitrogen. It'll never hurt. I been using for years.
Anyone- correct me if I'm wrong about my 'wording' here.

Awesome Patty i will definatly try that ..

PS just ordered the seeds cant wait ill try them here and send you some to try there make a fun deal about growing the DF..

So i can do this to even citrus ? what about Orchids and palms ?i guess you said every so ill try it on everything but my orchids are my pests i do everything wrong and they grow like weeds Tammy

The way I understand it, certain cations (positively charged ions) such as sodium occupy binding sites on the CHC that would or should be occupied by magnesium and calcium. The magnesium sulfate (and calcium nitrate)in the final rinse serves to exchange Mg++ and Ca++ at those binding sites for sodium.

Without this step, magnesium deficiency can develop. I have seen this in my citrus.

Thank you for explaining SB. Ahh yes, 'cation exchange'.
Tammy, Mg (epsom salts)is also very good for watering your orchids. 1 tsp per gal of water (using frequent waterings).

Alan, as this is your first use of a CHC based potting soil, you will notice that the top 1 inch or two of the CHC's will dry rather quickly. However, just below the top surface the remainder of CHC blend will retain it moisture for an extended time. Therefore just because the very top layer appears dry, you do not have to water untill the under layer's moisture is mostly absorbed by the tree's root system. Millet

I did the whole rinse and cation exchange thing as Millet has detailed for us previously. Probably rinsed the chips more than was necessary, but it only takes a minute to fill the tub so I'd fill it up once or twice a day when I passed by doing other things and it would slowly drip out. Millet was kind enough to send me the necessary calcium nitrate. I did not rinse the chips again after I did the cation exchange.

It turns out the lime I was using was not dolomite, but ordinary calcitic lime. Hadn't thought to look at the label that close because all of the lime I've bought for many years now has been dolomite. But as I hadn't rinsed out the calcium nitrate and magnesium sulfate from the cation exhchange as well as the micronutrients I used containing magnesium and my hard well water containing magnesium I'm not much concerned about it. There is a small percentage magnesium contamination in that calcitic lime anyway according to the label. My regular liquid fertilizer regimen uses Epsom salts as well.

So far the Eureka lemon seems to be doing just fine. It's dropped three fruit since repotting, but I'm attributing this to normal post-blossom fruit drop as it had just finished with a blossom flush and has a good load of fruit on. The leaves look good and the remaining fruit do as well.

Yesterday I gave the lemon a thorough examination then decided as it seemed to be doing well I'd repot one of my thorny Key limes that just finished a blossom flush as well. This one I was able to more thoroughly wash out the old media. Some minor small root loss, but it's not possible to entirely avoid that. Did some minor canopy pruning to remove some crossing branches so that ought to balance out.

I don't have quite enough ready chips to do another pot so I filled the laundry tub up only half-full this time (to better allow for the reconstituted chip expansion) and started the rinse process on a new batch.

By this coming weekend if the lemon and lime are still looking good I'll repot another one.

.....Alan.

Thanks Alan.

Benny

I did two more citrus yesterday. A Meiwa kumquat and a Tahiti lime. So far so good. No new growth yet on the Eureka or Key lime, but no further leaf or fruit drop either. This coming weekend I'll fertilize the Eureka for the first time beyond the slow release stuff that I mixed in when I planted it.

Excellent water retention with the CHCs. They've held moisture well enough that I haven't had to water at all as rainfall has supplied what was needed. Of course it is our rainy season now. I'm sure had I repotted several months ago I'd be watering once a week or so as we were still in the drought then.

.....Alan.

Alan, as you probably know all citrus have two different types of growth cycles. A growth sequence for the roots, which is followed by the growth sequence of foliage. As you repotted your lemon and lime, they are now putting on new root growth. When the root growth period is complete, the foliage growth soon starts. Generally there are three periods a year, and possibly more, of foliage growth in citrus. The largest growth flush is usually in early spring (middle of February to approximately the middle of March), followed by a reduced period of foliage growth in June and even a smaller flush in August. Doubtless much variation exists in different areas and different varieties of trees. - Millet

You are right, but there isn't any way to tell anything about the root growth unless you use a transparent pot so I'm waiting on the leaf flush.

The Key lime stopped dropping leaves so I'm reckoning the root/leaf ratio has come to equilibrium and that I'll be seeing a leaf flush, maybe blossoms, before much longer. The Eureka I left most of the old media in the root mass so it didn't drop more than a few bug damaged leaves and I expect to be seeing new leaf growth any time now.

Nearly all of my orchard citrus are putting on new leaves at the moment.

.....Alan.