In between my property's north fence (south-facing) and west fence (east-facing) in my backyard is a dark, dark little corner covered by fences on the back-end and a large maple and neighbors' huge trees' canopies overhead. It gets a blast of morning sun for about 2-2.5 hours in the morning but then quickly goes into bright but definite shade. It's the wall where I keep many of my succulents in my ultra-hot weather area and debatable if it's enough sun for many of those, never mind full-sun trees.

In that corner lived a citrus tree of some sort planted by the previous owner, I presume. I'm guessing you can't tell what type from the leaves but I am pretty certain it's a citrus tree. :) I'm going to guess lemon, based on absolutely nothing at all. I'd prefer it to be a lime.

ANYWAY...

Couldn't have picked a darker, less appropriate spot if he/she tried.

I've been eyeing that entire planting row/bed for the last 3 months, waiting for the day I would get the bark and plastic weed block sheet thingie up (which I hate, by the way) and till in some goodies to get some of my things in-ground.

Today was that day. My guy dug up the few plants that were there (aka home to the snails and then what became their burial ground when I pelleted in my yard). All of the previously planted plants go tossed in the lawn garbage bin.

And then I kept staring at the bin thinking about the small, good-for-nothing citrus thinking, "Hmm, I don't actually have any citrus trees right now..." and finally decided to pull it back out.

Here is what got pulled out of the ground with ease and tossed:

What looks like a small "root ball" is actually the most ghastly self-entanglement of roots I've seen to date, like roots that had grown into one another instead of out to the soil. Tiny, hair-like roots were everywhere, all tangled up and just bits of what felt like gritty sand in between (this is why one doesn't wear gloves).

The top was relatively okay though nothing to write home about. Given the webbing and the crap my neighbor's tree drops on it, it was gross but easily cleaned off.

The real issue was that this tree wasn't doing diddly squat in that dark corner and I have other plants who want that mildly sunny then shady corner.

The leaves are decent enough, other than the bits that the tree next door drops onto it and all the nasty webbing my resident spiders put everywhere that I hose off endlessly but it's back within a day or two.

When I was done with it, this is what was left, LOL.

I left some of the itty bitty roots on because I got a little spooked but otherwise, I chopped off or down everything until I saw white. It's possible I may have overdone it, but it was this or the garbage bin. At least I gave it a chance, right?

For the soil, since my pomegranate did so wonderfully in gritty mix, I planned to go with that except of course I had no lava rocks left. Considered just pebbles and perlite but then decided I'd go with what I do have--tons of perlite and Pro-Mix HP.

So the plant got potted into a 3-gallon with some Osmocote and appears okay so far. I pruned off the tops but as usual, I can't tell which branches should go or stay. If anyone has any advice, I'd welcome it!

There's a pair of branches there where you can see they are all but stuck together. I couldn't really get to the tip of either and for whatever reason, I took off the thicker one. Should I cut off more, or cut it flush to the stem/trunk?

And this -- I don't really know my trees and not sure what that is. It doesn't feel recent and I'm guessing it's not really doing anything harmful to the trees but wanted to make sure. Is that just scarring, or...something more serious that I can treat?

Now it's just sitting on the patio in the shade, where I figure I will let it be for a week or so since I did do quite a number on the roots.

Any advice you have for a potted up citrus tree, I'd love to read. I've actually grown quite a few trouble-free citrus trees that have given me loads of key limes, lemons and oranges--but they all came with the houses, not planted by me. And they were all established and completely huge by the time I got them so...if there is something to be improved upon, I'd be happy to implement it.

Edited to add: that cute little branch shown in the last photo has since been snipped off. :)