Here's a Key Lime in a 2 gallon pot standing 56" (4' 8") tall. It's healthy but seems leggy. Any recommendations for a new container ... 5 gallon maybe? Should I pinch out any tip growth at the top to induce bushiness?

Cheers, Barrie.

Hi Barrie. I would top it back to about 2 ft. That will force it to bud out nicely. You can repot it to any size container as long as you pay attention to your soil. Most all of my potted citrus are in 7+ gallon pots (yes even small seedlings) But they are only watered when they really need it. From my experience Key limes on their own roots are very sensitive to overwatering.

Laaz,

I have 4 young grafted trees, when do you recomend cutting them back to promote branching? they are 12-16" from the graft line (graft line is about 12" up from soil level)

I want to do it sooner than later, but also whatever is in the best interest of the tree

Betty if you have 12 inches above the graft you can do it at any time. It just depends on how you want your tree to grow. If you let them go like Barrie's they will get top heavy & start to lean or flop right over once new growth starts again on the top.

Also if you keep your trees in the shade they become "leggy" as they tend to reach for the sun. I can show you an example of one of my frying dragons planted next to my palm tree, the bottom bushed out, but one sprout shot up to the height of the palm & then started to branch again. Guess it thinks its a palm tree @ about 7 ft...

How much should I cut off fom the top? I rather do it now, while its not fruiting, flowering.. cause once it does, I'd have a very hard time doing so

Cut it to a point where you want it to branch. Make sure you keep it trimmed there for a while. Most times another sprout will come back out at the top, keep them all trimmed off until you get the desired branching you want.

ok, thanks for getting back to me so quickly. I have 4 various trees that I really want to start branching good.

Going to give it a couple weeks as I just got them, dont want them to stress out any more than I have to. once they get used to life here and I can get them used to the sun... I'll cut the top off and get them branching. Gives me time to decide how I want them to look

I'll top this Key Lime and pot it up to a five gallon. I've heard lots from you and Millet about loose soil composion for citrus, and I'll continue that with the re-potting.

CHeers, Barrie.