Hello everyone!

What a search I have had to finally find you. First let me say that I am in Newport Beach, CA, zone 9. I am thrilled to find a group that has experience but is still learning and making every effort to have their citrus grow and thrive. I can surely use the help.

I recently purchased two 15 gallon Meyer Lemons trees that I planned to plant in outside containers. These two trees were replacing the two former trees that I planted two years ago in the same containers. Those trees went to join the heavenly citrus choir about 5 months ago (within a few months of each other). I had planted them in regular growing mix, and I think there was a problem with aeration and drainage. It is a little difficult when you first start growing citrus to know what to do about watering. Some sites say they need more water due to their rainforest background - some say a bit drier. Some say full sun, some say some shade. I know the tree that was in the more dappled sunlight for most of the day with afternoon sun did better for me, but that may have been a fluke.

After I purchased the trees, I had bought two bags of organic acid soil mix. Ready to plant, I thought I would just check again to see if there was anything else I could do to ensure their health. Of course this is when I ran into Millet's method on the UBC forums. Everything I thought I knew went into a tailspin. I read every post. Cleaned out my pots and removed the rock layer on the bottom which Millet did not seem to like. I ordered the CHC from St Louis, both 1/2" and !/4". I ordered the best Canadian peat I could find. I soaked the CHC overnight in water, drained, then added more water with Epsom salts and calcium.

I went to a farm supply and purchased the Palm Plus fertilizer, 13-5-8 along with a bag of trace minerals. This is the closest fertilizer I could find to his recommended formula. Mixed the two sizes of CHC 2 buckets of each with 1 bucket of peat and added the fertilizer. Very gently washed off about 1 1/2 inches of the original soil all around (it was a very muddy mixture) and planted.

My questions are: Does it matter how compacted the CHC chips are? Should I have had them more loosely inserted or pushed down? We kind of compressed them, but I may have been wrong. Bencelest mentions using warm water. Should I use warm water at first to stimulate the roots? I put a thermometer in and the reading was 68*F. Someone had mentioned christmas lights around the base. Does heat help stimulate assimilation?

The trees do not look great yet. One has leaves that are a bit curved down, but no real suffering is showing. It has been difficult to find larger Meyer lemons in CA this year for some reason, especially larger ones. These were not the most beautiful trees I have seen but were my only choice at the time and not too bad. I wanted to get them in the pots before the temperature started to rise. I am thinking they are just adjusting to a new environment.

Welcome to the Citrus Growers Forum, we are glad to have you as a member. No it does not matter if you did or did not push the medium down. Over time normal watering will tend to compact any growing medium. Now that the weather has warmed up, you can just water your trees with your regular hose water. When you water your trees, water them well, then wait until the top three or so inches dries down before watering again. Citrus are quite hardy trees, that really don't need over loving care. Some growers love their tree to death. Most any growth medium that supplies the BIG 3 REQUIREMENTS: (1) good water holding capacity, (2) good root zone aeration, and (3) good drainage, is a medium tthat can be used to grow quality container trees. Again welcome to the forum. - Millet

Thanks Millet,

Great, that is a relief. Did I do everything else correctly? Will that fertilizer be OK or do I need to supplement it with another or change altogether? For future feeding, I know you said to put the epsom salt in warm water to dissolve, then cool, then water as a drench. I would like to know about granulated fertilizer. If I just spread it on the top, will it eventually sink down far enough?

Millet, I am curious to know what inspired you to test other growing mediums. At first I saw that you had added a type of lava rock, am I correct? Now it seems as though you are using different materials than the CHC. You mentioned the cost and accessibility. Were those determining factors or is there something you are seeking that the CHC does not provide? It is interesting - there is another site of orchid growers that adds charcoal to their CHC mix, and while the gentleman said he did not know what it could add, his wife told him the plants just "did better" with the charcoal. Is this what you found with the small lava rock?

KingsCreek, not every medium turns out to be successful. The addition of the scoria developed a problem by interfering with the available iron, thus causing a iron deficiency. Adding additional iron with each watering did not seem to satisfy the tree, so I chalked that medium up to a failure. Presently I have many citrus trees growing in CHC/peat, and approximately 10 trees growing in a 50:50 percent blend of Cedar Mulch and peat. Both mediums satisfy what I call the BIG 3. CHC/peat has stood the test of time, as I first started to use this medium 10 or so years ago. The cedar mulch blended with peat is a rather new blend , but so far has worked equally well, and at a much lower cost, and a much easier availability. Laaz, has tried Miracle Grow Soil (although there is actually no actual soil in the product) and says he has been getting good results with it. I have tried it on smaller containers of various plants, and so far so good. I have heard of commercial growers adding charcoal to their potting soils, but I have never tried it, so I cannot comment on its use. Your fertilizer should be OK as long as it also supplies trace minerals. As you live in Zone 9 why don't you put one of your Meyer Lemon trees in the ground? The best to you and your trees. - Millet

Millet, when you made up your cedar/peat mixture, did you add more peat (50%) because the cedar does not retain water as well as the CHC?