I have a spot selected for an orange tree to be planted in ground at the end of next February. Should I do anything now to prepare the area so that the tree will establish as quickly as possible? Right now I just have the whole area covered in leaves/organic matter.

Chose a site that provides good sun, and an area with good drainage. Correctly planting a citrus tree is extremely simple, Dig a hole the same size as the tree's root ball, no larger. Set the tree at the same depth that the tree grew in the container. Fill the hole ONLY with the dirt that was removed from the hole. Make a water ring around the tree to hold the irrigation water. Do not add any amendments, such as peat poss, compost or other organic matter. Stake the tree against movement by the wind. (DO NOT dig a large hole thinking you are helping the tree establish) - Millet (1,227-)

You may want to consider buying your tree now. Currently in Houston nurseries they are having a sale of 70% off. You may want to take a look and see what you can find

Does it really matter when one plants citrus?

I think it depends a lot on the soil in which the containerized tree was grown, and the soil into which you plan to plant it. If they're similar, Millet's method will work quite well, and obviously works well for him. In central Florida, where the soil is most often almost pure sand, or on rarer occasions (including some areas on my college campus) nearly pure clay, and using containerized trees grown in a highly organic mix, we plant by a different method, known as "mudding in."

We start out by digging a hole substantially wider and deeper than the original pot volume. After the plant in the pot is thoroughly watered, we remove it from the container, and with the hose and the fingers, we wash/pick away most of the potting media, to make the plant nearly bare-root. We spread out the roots as much as possible -- if they're tightly coiled (pot bound), we may clip some off, but try to save whatever we can spread into a natural pattern. Be very careful not to let the roots dry out. We then "hang" the plant over the planting hole, maybe an inch higher than it was in the original pot, holding it there in one hand. The hose goes into the planting hole, which is then filled with water. We then sprinkle native soil (agreed -- no organic additives or any other additives in the hole) into the pool, slowly filling it in with soil, and working it around the root system of the plant. Some people use the shovel handle for that, but I use fingers of my free hand, always. When finished, the plant will be sitting an inch or so higher than it originally was in its pot, so the top root is visible above ground. The water and poking will have filled in the native soil around the root system, giving intimate contact. The reason we set the plant higher is to lesson the chances of phytophthora infection. We almost never stake a young citrus tree. If the budded tree is tall enough to worry about it blowing about in the wind, we just cut the top off, usually around knee-high or a bit higher. Under our conditions (and I would emphasize that -- your mileage may vary), such a tree will outgrow trees planted by any other method.

Thanks for the replies. I am north of Houston in Montgomery county, where we have quite a bit more sand (and better drainage) in our soil than the typical black gumbo of Houston. The plan is to wait until late February, when threat of frost is over, to plant the tree. If I planted now, would it have time for roots to establish before winter? Would you recommend waiting or going ahead and planting now?

I think that now would be a good time to at least buy a tree. One can get a tree for $10. If you do not plant it now you can at least take care of it during the winter in the pot. That is what the nursery well do and then in the spring when people get in the mood to plant the prices well be back to normal.

You will most likely get sour orange or one of the hybrids for a rootstock with the plant grown in the Valley, not the best for the Houston area. Best is flying dragon or trifoliate orange. Look for a tree from TreeSearch, grown in Houston on trifoliate rootstock. Paying more for the best rootstock is well worth more than $10 when the sour orange tree freezes just when your tree comes into production. You live in the northern Houston burbs, even more important to get trifoliate rootstock.

Thanks for the responses. I already have the tree....'Republic of Texas' orange grafted to trifoliate grown from seeds gathered from trees in the woods near my house. I was planning to hold out for planting until early spring, so I could just put the pot in the garage for cold snaps rather than blankets, etc. outside .....but I will plant it now and give it a shot to develop roots quickly.

I just have this very unscientific feeling that this will be the coldest gulf coast winter in the recent past...I guess its from our weird weather pattern this year of a very mild spring and very hot dry summer.

My sister told me today that this is suppose to be an extra cold winter. I like cool weather but not cold, anything that can kill citrus is too cold, but close to danger temps, I personally like.