First do everything you can to learn what variety it is and on what rootstock it is grafted; those things will go a long way to helping you to deal with soooo many issues.
Your soil pH is excellent for lemons; plant the tree at the same level it is planted now; water it in well, but do not fertilize for about a month. The lack of nutrients will encourage the roots to grow looking for food; after the roots grow, the leaves and branches will grow and they need food. Fertilize with a good balanced citrus food 3 times per year; four or 5 if your soil is quite sandy. Ideally you should clear the ground under the tree to the drip line (limit of the canopy); citrus are not good competitors for food and water. Here is an excellent link to how to plant a tree.

Here is a link that might be useful: How to Plant a Tree

I just planted it. This is how it looks. I am going to put one of those screens/cloth things around it and then cover that with a thing layer of dirt to prevent weeds.

I found it it is a Meyer Lemon Tree that was planted 1/13/09. I don't know what is what stockroot it is on.

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Hello Key!

First off Congrats. It is a very nice looking tree.

Let me just ask a quick question. Did you plant it on a mound and dig a trench aroun the outer edges of that mound so your tree will drain well while at teh same time get a good drink?

It looks like the soil around it is flat leaving room from puddling of water around the trunk. Just something for you to consider, but I am only sharing with you what I have been reading here.

John or Rhizo would be the experts on correct planting of these trees. Maybe they will chime in while it is early for you raise teh tree higher if need be.

Good luck with it. It's a cutie!

Mike

I didn't fill in all the sides yet because I want to put a weed fabric around it so I don't have to go weed all the time. Then I will build up the dirt around it. I am on this phase of planting it. (I had to go to a Basketball game)

Tomorrow morning, I am going to get the fabric and build around the tree so I have something like this:

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Key,

Besides the excellent information of planting trees, which I printed out by the way, and thanks, I thought I would also give you an excert from a reading that my father used to plant his trees in Puerto Rico geared towards 'Citrus Trees'.

Good luck!

"Unlike many types of nursery container grown plants, citrus trees will take a long time to root past the potting medium and into your ground soil. To help them spread their roots faster and improve initial new growth rates, remove the exterior of the potting soil just as you are ready to slip the tree in its installation hole. Don�t take all of it off, that would be harmful � just the outer half inch or so to allow the roots to be surrounded with your ground soil. This is very simple to do by washing it off with the hose immediately before sinking your young citrus tree in its new real soil home."

"You want to cut a 4 ft. circle out of your lawn as the start of your planting hole. Discard the grassy top layer and dig your hole half again wider than each citrus tree�s root ball. When planting citrus you will want to �plant it high�, meaning you want the top of the finished planting surface to be crowned 1 inch higher than the lawn. This creates your surface run-off of water, and will be a great assistance to your tree in wet weather."

"You won�t need to do a lot of amending with good soil, so don�t worry about adding compost and peat unless your soil is not good quality for drainage. With your tree set in the planting hole, fill around it half way to the top and thoroughly saturate the back fill soil. This helps it to settle around the roots of your new citrus tree�s ball. Finish filling the hole and tamp your loose soil into place lightly. Cover the roots with no more than 1 inch of ground soil to seal the potting soil from direct air contact. Soilless medium used in production nurseries is design to air dry too rapidly for home growing, blocking the air with a layer of soil stops you from having rapid drying problems."

Mike