Hi, I went to lunch today with a friend and went to a nursery and bought what we call down here in Mexico, Persian Lemon , and a Valencia Orange tree.

My question is the trees are in a black two galon(aprox) plastic nursery bagie, I think the roots are very packed in there. How should I procede to plant them in the ground? just remove the plastic bag and set them in the ground, o should I do something to the root ball?.

aprecciate any help

Ramon

Hi Ramon,

I have a bit more experience with figs, but I'm sure it's the same with citrus. I always fluff the rootball out a bit before planting to help re-direct the roots outward. If the rootball is very tight, you may even need to score it a little to loose it up some. I wouldn't worry too much about hurting the outer layer of roots, they'll regenerate.

If you break some of the roots, cut the break very neatly, and most importantly, trim your canopy proportionately. You will have to take out some leaves and branches to balance out the shock that the plant will undergo during the transplanting process.

thank you very much I was afraid to hurt the tree by touching the root ball I had some bad luck with cirtus before.

Thanks again

When you plant bare root trees, or when you transplant containerized trees, you must remember the rule......"A ROOT GROWS AS A BULLET GOES"......
In other words, a root will always continue to grow in the direction that it is placed in the ground or in a container UNTIL it comes into contact with some type of restriction. A restriction such as the container's side wall or the container bottom. In the case of planting a tree in the ground the root will continue to grow in the direction that you planted it, until the root comes into contact with a restriction such a rocks, soil hardpan, foundations and etc. Gene's suggestion of fluffing out the roots is excellent. Be careful to place the tree's roots in all directions so the root system can spread out to take advantage of the entire area available to it. - Millet

as it turned out the roots where not so tight as I was taking the trees out what apears to be a Main root unrolled from the botom of the container, The orange tree had some roots exposed on the top of the container I planted it a bit deeper as to cover the roots Is this correct?? when should I fertilize? the trees have flowers and small fruit on the should I let it be?? The weather as been cool yesterday and today and probably for the next week, the new leafs do not appear to have suffer I hope the cool weather is good to give the tree time to establish.

Ramon