well almost three years ago i gave my sister a Meyer lemon. i placed it in a large pot, but expected she would eventually plant it into the ground. that has not happened and i am now thinking it is not going to happen anytime soon. so i figure i need to do some root pruning.

i know they say to re-pot every year and gradually go up in size but she's not going to do that, and i got the large pot before i knew any better. but it has been doing good so i am just going to add same fresh soil, perlite and vermiculite.

it seems like pumice would be a good thing to add but i do not have any.

i am interested to see how the roots have grown. did they fell the whole pot or is the bottom part of the soil a dead zone. depending on what i see i may have to change current plan.

i figure now is a good time to re-pot during a not growth and low heat time of year.

The best period for repotting is when the plant is in its full vegetative stage (when temperature are constantly over 13°C).

There probably is an optimum time to repot a tree. However, I have probably repotted trees in every month of the year. I think the most important thing is how carefully, and correctly a tree is repotted, rather then when the tree is repotted. - Millet (764-)

i think it went well. i was surprised that there were not more roots, especially deeper in the container. guess when it is propagated from cuttings there are no tap roots. probably did not really need to do anything. the base of the tree was in the same orientation from the nursery pot, but i have been wanting to upright it, so i did. it is about 35 degree change. with that big of a change one side of the pot shows a lot more roots on the surface

I don't see any connection with a citrus tree being in full vegetative stage, and healing of root cuts. Perhaps I'm missing something. - Millet (762-)

No, I was not telling you anything about "sleeping" trees. I was telling you I don't see any connection. I have a lot of container trees. Most container trees that are grown, are active outside during the summer, and then brought indoors where they are warm and active during the cold winter months. They do not go through a "sleeping" stage (perhaps instead of sleeping, you mean dormant, however citrus never really are dormant). Over the years, I probably have transplanted 100's of citrus trees, in every season of the year. When a tree is transplanted in a careful and correct manner, there should be no problem.what time of year it is transplanted. At least I have never encountered a problem, perhaps you have. Anyway that is my humble opinion. The best to you and your trees. - Millet (762-)

Ivannn, all of my trees are grown year around in a large warm greenhouse. However, to answer your question, ----- if I had a citrus tree in a "cold nursery just to protect it from wind snow and frost", then no I would not transplant the tree. - Millet (762-)

I can see the point Ivannn is trying tp make -- I guess Millet didn't want to play mind-reader that day.

FWIW, I've also heard the "ideal" time is right before root growth is expected. If we were to examine a typical growth cycles, I believe it goes roots first, then veg flush. How many times per year that happens is dependent on the growing conditions (one part is "warmth" described below). So yeah, just after a growth flush (early in the year) is supposed to be the ideal time, since root growth is next.

However, as Millet and others have shared, I too have done complete soil changes to bare root through nearly every month in the year.

I suspect the benefits between of a repot during the ideal vs non-ideal times is not all that great.