First check your soil PH, check with your local county extension agent for varieties and root stock.

I second that....

Also, make sure too that the soil you plant them in is fast draining, yet can evenly hold moisture..

I wish I could plant in-ground.

Good luck..

Mike:-)

Check your water too. Our city lies about the water, It is
alkaline and they say it is neutral.

If I were starting over, I would use more sour orange rootstock. Trifolite is too hard to grow with alkaline water.

Many of these "garden soils" have a lot of mushroom media or rice hulls or bark which will rot away, leaving an bed half as thick as you started with.

The lime should be near the house on the south or east side
and will require covering even then.

Use organic fert after the tree is in the ground.
You can also use very dilute soluble chemical fert then.
Very dilute= about a tenth the rate of container instructions.

Or use chemical fert after the tree begins to grow.

Fertilize again in May/June. And not again till next year. This will let your tree go dormant in the fall and survive an early winter freeze.

Larry

Hopefully, that gumbo clay drains reasonably well. If not, your citrus will feel the effects, even planted into 6 inches of 'garden soil'. I usually recommend that plenty of organic matter be mixed into the clay layer, as well as the top soil, so that the planting bed is something of a homogenized medium. If not, an artificial layering often occurs, causing the super fine particles of the top layer to settle on top of the clay, creating a nearly impervious barrier preventing water drainage. Follow my thoughts?

Also, soil that is starkly layered can result in the roots remaining in those top few inches, rather than getting down a bit deeper to do some anchoring. I've seen supposedly well established trees topple over because of this.

Do you know the composition of this garden soil? If it's a bagged product, the general contents will be labeled. If it's a bulk top soil, we can assume that it is largely mineral in content and not vegetable (peat, compost, etc.) Let me know and I can help with adjustments, if needed.

The holes for the plants should be dug only as deep as the root ball will require to sit a bit above grade, but as wide as you want....3Xs the width of the root ball or more. Do not put any kind of soil amendments in the hole as back fill. That's a general rule, not just for citrus. Your planting bed should be amended enough, right? Even when planting hole-by-hole (not in a bed) we don't add amendments.

It's not recommended that fertilizer be added upon planting, as a general rule. The reasoning behind that is that you want your plant to concentrate on making new ROOTS rather than creating a bunch of new leaves. Root development into the surrounding soil system is essential to your new trees. They won't be able to do both things as the same time. New foliage will begin to grow once the plant has reached a good balance. An organic, low nitrogen product will pose less of a problem, though.

If this site stays soggy for long periods of time, adding 6 inches of soil on top won't solve the problem. Hopefully, your site isn't like that. eeeek!

Thank you all for your input. Thankfully, the yard is graded and will drain just fine. I checked before they added the soil! It took a few hours after a torrential rain, but it DID drain.

Rhizo, do you think I should dig the hole and then work some of the gumbo in with the garden soil? It's a bulk soil/compost mix.

Hi Gina,

I don't know where in Texas you live, but I am in San Antonio and you can find an organic product at Gardenville called Rocket Fuel that is high in powdered rock phosphate and other ingredients for the plants. If you put plenty in the hole up close to the plant it will really stimulate root growth and overall growth too. I use it with everything I plant with great success.

Roger

Using phosphate (phosphorus) to stimulate root growth is fast going out of acceptance. Using a 'high powered' phosphorus product is really and truly not necessary. As a matter of fact, phosphorus excesses have become a problem in many parts of the country. Don't add more unless a soil test has indicated that your soil really needs it.

Gina, I would scratch some of the good stuff into the clay, for sure.

Does this site drain well, in spite of being clayish? The most important factor in the success of any plant is understanding the limitation and/or benefits of the specific planting site. And working WITH it.

Thanks rizo, good to know. I have heard from others in this area who also have gotten great results with this product. After reading your input I got curious to look a bit further and found that phosphorus availability is low in extremely acid or alkaline soil. Maybe the reason it has worked so well here is that we have very alkaline soil.

Roger

Yes, 'extremely' would be the key term. It's still plenty available at around 9.5. The calcium problem is still important to think about. Calcium is uber important for normal, healthy plant growth and development.

Texas Gulf Coast clays (Everything S.E. of the Balcones Fault) generally have sufficient phosphorus. Any more added can be problematical. I've seen soil reports where phosphorus was in such excess that they were told to stop adding what they have been and that something was organic mulch and fert. Phosphorus has this problem of tying up too many nutrients due to the extremely low solubilities of phosphates.
Before organics they told us to use high P chemical fert, results -- the same.

People with deep sandy soil, or farmed out East Coast soils, and container gardeners have no idea how hard we have to try to keep the Phosphorus and pH down.

I've read the information on Fruit Trees On Steroids at the link. It seems interesting, though I've never tried the method.

Terran

Here is a link that might be useful: Fruit Trees On 'Steroids'

Tomato growers may have a ligitimate excuse to do this but on the Texas coast fruit tree growers are ill advised to use such rock gimmicks below the tree. First our soils have enough. Second a year or two down the road when the root system grows out and down it does not work to get nutrients into the root zone. This is just arm waving.
You will see me asking for organic meal fertilizer and good mulches but when you get into most of the other organic stuff it usually is wishful thinking.

You need to think about the method. Surface broadcasting. And in time the earthworms and benificial fungi will work all you broadcast into the root zone. Too many folks want to throw a bunch of stuff into the hole that doesnt need to be there and will work against them. Just dont kill the good guys. They're working for you.

There are a lot of organic frauds out there making lots of $ by scaring you into thinking that all chemicals are bad.
Remember, aflatoxin is all natural too.
This year we are surrounded by HLB. Somebody is going to have a false claim of an organic cure for that and I bet I know which radio show it will be on.

tantanman is SOOOOO right about worms (and other soil critters) doing lots of hard work for us. Since you should avoid filling the hole with soil improvements, topdressing is an excellent method of slowly introducing good things to the soil system over a period of time.

Gina
Giving the trees plenty of space hasn't been mentioned, but it is important. The minimum of 15 feet apart for dwarf trees that grow to about 8 feet, versus the 12 foot standard size tree would need more space.

Cannot forget, and I know this darn well from my sad experience, and like Rizo says, do not dig a hole deeper than what your root ball is -- and this also means that you don't dig a hole deeper than the root ball and then fill the base of the hole with some amendment. There are several reasons for this, and one of those reasons that comes to my mind is the fact that your tree will sink -- trust me. In fact, consider the grade of the soil in the area and you may find it beneficial to increase the grade. If you can't help yourself from adding amendments to the base of the hole (mentioning above), then for sure increase the grade around the tree! Plan with the idea that you do not want water gravitating toward the trunks from irrigation or downpours.

AND, the roots attached to the trunk should be showing above ground.

AND, find out what you are going to do about the kind of insects and various diseases that will visit your trees.

The University of Florida has a great deal of good information.