Hi, i have just taken delivery of a new lemon tree, its close on 7 foot tall, the diamiter of the trunk, about 8 inch , i have no idea how old it is though, it got a bt bashed in delivery the lorry drivers decided to squash it in a lorry too small against the roof of the lorry snapping new growth,

and they gave it a good watering.....

Its in a giant plastic pot, at a guess 30 gallon (it has 30 moulded into it and its not 30 litre, more like 30 inch diamiter and about 30 inch high, seems to have a bark mix compost with some stones occasionaly, no perlite in the pot (should i repot with some perlite in there?)

Im in the uk so its not that hot (about 20C / 69F (about..)), dropping to sometimes 14C at night, this week, but i am going to try leaving it outside for now, i keep my small citrus plants in the house this will come in later in the year as it seems ok out there for now

With the ones in the house i wait for them to dry out before watering, then soak them till it pours out of the pot, using a citrus fertiliser from `the citrus center`, occasionaly spray misting the leaves with the fertiliser with a trace level of epsom salts added, should i use the same fertiliser in this size tree?

With this one being outside, will the rain (if it rains) cause a lot of problems with root rot, should i cover the pot with something like a tarpaulin tied tight to the trunk and over the edges of the pot to prevent the pot getting soaked if it rains?

If this is going to be a problem would i be better with a giant wooden latice pot to give more ventillation to the roots at the sides and accross the bottom, to make it dry out quicker?

Hello,
guess everything seems to be okay... Let the tree enjoy sun and even rain...
Rains won't harm the root's .... if the drainage isn't in order. But if drainage is good, nothing will happen...

Well, no. I use plastic buckets as contrainer here in Germany and got no problems, but I porovide a very good drainage... that's the game.

It seems fine so far, but as the roots are tight to the pot i am repotting it to a larger pot, trying to find a wood bolt together `versailles pot` that is large enough as it is easier to bolt pot arround the roots without lifting the tree

it is growing well, and the lemons are getting bigger, i added some slow release citrus fertiliser to the top 3 inch of compost and and fed it with liquid citrus feed, it was very dry due to the very dry weather, then it rained for 4 days, but did not get that wet as the leaves kept the rain away

The pot had many holes in the bottom edge , but we have had a lot of rain so in case it was soaking it, i cut some more holes to drain the pot, it seems to be fine with the rain and drys quickly