Hi everyone,
So, I'm new to this board... found it from Gardenweb and have posted a couple questions on the container board.

I just bought a 2-3 year owari satsuma dwarf I want to plant in the ground... but we have heavy clay soils here in the East Bay (Northern California). It's made worse by the fact that we spent much of last 2 years doing construction so the soil got even more compacted with heavy grading equipment and the builder was moving our soils around from site to site.

The place I want to plant is near the perimeter of my foundation, in an L shaped corner of the house that faces west and south. It's near the lawn, but because it's set back into the corner, there's a triangle shaped planting area, about 5' x 4' with about 6' wide on the front of the angle. (Pythagoras theorem anyone? LOL)

About 6 months ago, when we put in the lawn, we had the beds tilled once with organic material to about 8" down.

Last weekend, when I went out to weed the bed and get it ready, I realized it's still full of huge chunks of hard clay (the size of softballs), so I mixed in some more organic soil amendment to about 6". (I used a mix from the nursery that contains fir bark and forest humus fortified with 15% chicken manure, worm castings, bat guano, and kelp meal.)

I realize that you never want to just dig a hole and then amend just the hole, but I thought I saw somewhere that for difficult soils you can till the whole bed.

My questions:
1) Is the 8" that we initially tilled the entire bed sufficiently deep for the roots to go out and find themselves? (I told my husband the analogy of kids that never want to leave home. LOL) Or should I go a little deeper in the area where we're planting. My fear is that there may be hardpan below that 8".

2) The bed looks like it could still do for more organic material to improve the drainage situation. Water pools on top in a couple places when I watered it to test. Would you add more organic material, or leave be? (Again, I'm talking about the entire corner of soil, not just the hole where I'm putting the tree into.)

3) How far from the foundation of the house do I have to plant? (Or really how close to it can I plant?) I'd like to nest the tree as far back into that corner as I can so as not to cover a window when the tree is full ground.

4) How much do I 'tease' the roots out of the pot when planting in the ground?

5) Any other tips from seasoned in-ground planters? Perlite? Fertilizer? Any special magic grow dance to bring favor from the citrus gods?

Anything I'm missing?

THANKS!!!!

This sounds like a Four Winds Growers nursery tree. One favorable point is the fact that it is a dwarf tree. Therefore, there is a very good chance that the root stock is Flying Dragon. Flying Dragon, and Trifoliate root stocks in general, are good rootstocks for clay soils, and good for wet soils. Roots can exert enough force to break rocks into, so I don't think the clay soil will be all that much of a drawback. The main caution is the drainage. Another consideration, dwarf trifoliate root stocks do poor in high pH soils, therefore I would not plant the tree near the foundation of the house. If it was my tree I would dig the proper size hole for the tree, fill it with water to determine the soil drainage. If the drainage is poor you can always purchase some large decorative timbers and make a 4 X 4 raised bed to put the tree on. - Millet

A couple of thoughts . . .
1) Can you raise the bed? We have a family friend that killed every citrus he grew because of the hardpan. He then raised the bed with cinder blocks leaving gaps for drainage and put decent soil in the raised bed. He hasn't killed a tree since.
2) As far as planting next to the house, we have a detail that we use to keep roots out from our public improvements that should work for your foundation. It consists of a root barrier fabric installed to a depth below the rootzone. We have problems with roots liking our nice moist sewer and water systems. I put a link below, but one word of caution is digging against your foundation, you would likely undercut the structural integrety of the house. I would install the fabric several feet away from the foundation to be on the safe side.

http://www.dauben.us/Phillip/BookL.pdf

Phillip

Where is the cheapest source of such root-pruning geofabric?

OMG I never even gave any consideration to the tree harming my foundation, and as far as i know there's no sewer or plumbing in ground near that corner of the house. LOL I was more concerned that the foundation would harm the tree or prevent it from developing well.

What WOULD be the minimum distance from a foundation, if I want it there. I see people in my neighborhood all the time having little clementine and mandarin trees and meyer lemons pushed into the corner of a building and close to the foundation... so I never thought this would be a problem. Hmmmm..

And, yes, it is a four winds dwarf, so that's encouraging about the rootstock.

And yes, I could theoretically mound the soil in that area up, border it with some rocks or something like that, to give more drainage. How high would I need to make that mound? I was already planning to mound it a little so it could sink back to grade, per their instructions.

If I DO mound it, what soil to I use, then? Obviously, it's not a container soil, right?

And can someone give me an idea how deep and how far the mature roots will want to go?

I know, I know. Enough questions.

Thanks guys, you're so helpful here!

don't think the roots will cause all that much of a problem to your foundation. Many people place citrus next to walls when they want to espalier their tree. The house wall would cause more disruption to the tree's branches. You could use 6x6 timber to make a 2-ft. high raised bed if need be. An actual raided bed with support framing would be better then a mound. If the drainage is not bad, you would not need to make a raised bed. A "true dwarf" Four Winds satsuma should only get 8-9 feet tall at maturity. Millet

We had pummelos destroy foundations in the Philippines. Those were not grafted though, and mostly grown from seedlings. They grow to more than 50 ft high.