Where do you live? City and state?

Have you tried 5-1-1?

I'm in Cleveland, OH (44123)

I haven't tried 5-1-1 yet, and only started reading through (3-4hours today since I'm sick) all of Al's posts and have learned a ton.

Thx!

Citrus can be tricky. A lot of trial and error in my experience unless you live in Florida or Calif. Growing up in L.A., we had an ugly looking ghetto lemon tree in the ground that we didn't care for at all, yet it cranked out so many awesome ripe lemons that they would fall, rot and become a nuisance. Now I live in Vegas 200 miles away and struggle with citrus. Granted, the climate's much harsher here, but conventional wisdom has everybody thinking you can easily grow citrus anyplace with warm summers. Not so.

Man, I'd get them into some good 5-1-1 pronto, and onto a consistent nutrient regimen. A well-draining mix will make your Citrus so much easier to maintain.

Josh

Josh that is a beautiful citrus! I came down with the flu two days ago and am just starting to recover ... I'll be on a mission later this week to find the ingredients for some gritty mix. I'd love to find someone local that did mixes and have them build me a few bags - I have quite a few plants that would benefit from a good repotting into something lighter. I'll post when things get done!!

I would recommend 5-1-1 over gritty. You won't have to water quite as much and it will be easier to lift/move.

Thanks, that's my Moro blood orange in full bloom. The smell dominates the back deck where it is now located. Now that you're on the hunt, you're looking for suitable pine or fir bark, 1/2 or less, bark nuggets, bark chunks - not shredded.

Yes, the 5-1-1 is really my "work horse" around the yard. It is lighter, more economical, and I think easier to maintain citrus - plenty of aeration, but you also have that moisture retention for the few days when you might forget to water. Even moisture is very important for the quality of the fruit. After a few years of working with soil-less mixes, then you can consider the Gritty Mix.

Josh

Tervnut, I am in Columbus. I have grown a calamondin for a few years without problem, and added a rangpur lime and lemon 2 years ago. Last year I added a key lime. I was growing them in a mix of compost, sand and peat. In winter they sit in front of my large south facing window. and get watered about weekly. They all did fine for the first 2 years (the calamondin has done pretty well for 4 years) but last summer they all started with leaf yellowing/green veins. Thought it was due to the excessive rainfall we had and gave them extra fertilizer. They recovered a bit, all set fruit, but as winter went on there was a lot of leaf dropping, yellowing and branch die-back, despite regular feeding. Sound familiar? The rangpur lime just didn't quite ripen its crop and dropped nearly all its leaves. The key lime did drop all its leaves, and lost the green in its trunk, to the point that I was sure it was a lost cause.

So I decided to try the gritty mix, with osmocote plus mixed in. I also found a soluble fertilizer that has the trace minerals as well - something the fertilizer I had been using lacked - for foliar application. I sprayed the foliar, gave them all a little epsom salts and chelated iron, then repotted the lime and within 5 days it was putting out all kinds of new leaves! I have not repotted the others yet, because I had only gotten enough calcined clay (turface) for one pot, but they are also putting out new growth including the little key lime that I thought was surely dead.

So it seems that I was not only starving the plants for trace elements but perhaps also smothering them with my soil -- even though the soil seemed nice and loose when I repotted.

Hope my tale helps!