I own a Dwarf Washington Navel plant that I bought on a whim. After reading through pages and pages of this forum I think I bought a plant that has seen some tough times with the damage being brutishly pruned off.

Anyways, I am in the market for another citrus, a dwarf lemon or lime, for an indoor container and will be stumbling around various looking for a two or three year old.

I respectfully asked the forum for advice on how to scout for citrus talent at the local nursery.

Do you have a checklist? Any tips or tricks in picking the best plant out of a group?

thanks

pick the one with the darkest foliage and most roots in the container (You have to remove the plant carefully out of the container )

The plant will normally show you how healthy it is. Unfortunately, care is often minimal in garden centres and they are treated the same way as other plants. In my local nursery, the citrus are stocked together on a table under an enormous heating machine that blows hot, dry air on them all day.

Look for plants with dark, dense foliage. Check thoroughly for any signs of stress and disease, and for any little pests lurking around. Don't be afraid to inspect the roots. For the most part they will probably be ok, but checking to make sure won't do any harm! For the sake of aesthetics, avoid plants that look like they have physical contact damage - leaves with rough, cut edges etc where people have dropped things on them or walked into them.

Having the care right before buying is also important. Make sure you have the correct potting mix, fertilizer etc. Again with my local nursery, the pots are so small (to induce flowering and fruiting, I'm sure) that there is almost no soil left in the pot, only roots, so having the correct size pot to slip it into is a good idea. Do some research on whichever citrus type you decide to buy.

I see you said it is for indoor cultivation, which is fine, and it will probably do ok if you meet all of the environmental conditions it requires, but it really would benefit from spending at least a month or two outdoors in the warmer weather.

Excellent responses, thanks Bernhard and aesir22.

I am all geared up for adoption day. The pot is at the ready. The fertilizer is waiting and willing. The south facing window is on reserve. I even special ordered some coconut husk chips and a root heating pad is warming up.

I feel comfortable making decisions on dark green and healthy foliage, and watching out for pests but how do you identify a healthy root system?

With all other things considered equal should you select a plant with:
more blooms vs less blooms
more formed fruit vs less?

Roots that are healthy should be cream coloured and solid. Watch out for any brown mushy ones that smell foul!

As for fruit and flowers, just whatever you prefer. I personally go for ones with more blooms, as I like to watch the fruit form from the beginning. On a different note, though, some people like the ornamental look of lots of fruit, or want a high harvest of fruit quickly. Don't worry too much about what is right or wrong, just pick a healthy one that you think looks nice. I have some beautiful ones, and some weirdly shaped ones that I love anyway

Look for a good graft union if the tree is grafted.

futura ... Do you have a source for a citrus purchase? I've seen Dinters along the Island Hwy in Cowichan Bay stock citrus in years past, but haven't been around in a while. They did seen very healthy but I don't recall where they originated or if they where from a few different growers.

Cheers, Barrie.

Well the pickings were slim but I found a key lime. It looked all healthy and whatnot at the garden centre but check out the roots. Yikes

I was going to wait until some CHC arrived in the post next week before I repotted but when I saw this circling root action I repotted it right away in 4 part orchid 1 part peat moss.

I hope this works out.

Gave it a dose of epson salt, mixed some slow release into the mix, used a submersion method to get it all wet and ran 4 gallons of 150ppm solution of 24-8-16 through it.

Now the pot is wrapped in a seed tray warmer sitting on a pebble tray all in a South facing window.

Will this plant live?

It looks like it will be perfectly fine. You often find roots that constricted at garden centres - they let them grow like that because it can induce flowering and fruiting, making the trees more appealing to buy.

You did the right thing submerging. I have bought plants like that and done the same - submerge, repot, keep warm, and the only problem I ever had was with a meyer lemon, but that is a fussy thing anyway. Dropped over half its leaves when I got it home in August and only just gone through a flush of growth these last few weeks.

Here is a picture of the final pot up of the Key Lime. I am quite pleased with how it turned out so I thought I would share.

I wanted to heat the roots and wrapping the warming mat around the pot and taping it is place was not visually appealing nor was it able to keep a soil temp higher than 21C (70F).

My solution was to buy a slightly larger pot, put the seed warming mat up against the side as I lowered the second pot with plant right in there.

(With a masonry bit I drilled through the larger pot near the top just large enough to run the plug of the warming mat out to an outlet.)

Now the whole thing sits on a pebble tray with the soil temp now getting to around 26C (80F). I have also recorded an increase in humidity levels as the heating mat now has a 'chimney' to pull moisture by convection up from the pebble tray to the plant.

Futura, what a great idea. Thanks for posting it, your suggestion should be very helpful to many of our members. - Millet (1447)

OK 2 Questions ...

a warming mat ? what is that

and 150ppm solution of 24-8-16 through it.

im lost Please explain id love to learn more your plant looks awesome im always buying plants i feel sorry for at the local nurserys and trying to save them. Tammy