I'm a citrus "newbie" myself, but I would repot them. Can you use the dirt in your garden somewhere? I use the gritty mix (search for it and you'll find the ingredients). It's quite inexpensive and very effective. I buy the stuff at a local farm supply store.

Gritty is very labor intensive and produces a lot of waste. I use it and like it but it is a high effort mix.

Where do you live? Can you post some photos? If they were mine, I would leave them alone for now, tend them carefully, meaning not too much or too little water and (In the Northern hemisphere) I would repot them about September into a new mix and/or slightly larger pots. Re-potting now means double transplant shock; and the only real problem with the mix you have is that it tends to hold too much water; and OVER TIME it will compact and limit drainage. The key here is over time!

Thank you for the feedback. I'm out of town so can't post pictures at the moment. I live in Southern California, close to the beach. Here's a dumb question: how often should I water. I know it depends on the container (half wine barrels made of resin) but is there a way to best tell when to water? I've heard when the top inch of soil is dry but if I dig down a bit it seems to still be moist I don't want to over water. Thanks again!

Half wine barrels!!?? Pretty big for new trees, unless they are like 3 years or more. Probably once a week would be sufficient until Summer, then likely more; but only trial and error will teach you. If you watch them, you will be able to see if they begin to wilt, meaning they need water.

I'd plant them in the ground, then you don't have to mess with soil. Done.

Evan

Thanks John. They're not really half wine barrels. They're resin whiskey barrel planters about 20" diameter, 15" high. I'm starting to get discouraged, feeling like I should start all over. Any thoughts? Should they be in a smaller container? I feel like I did my research beforehand but obviously not enough! Everything I read just said potting soil mix. On the other hand, I've usually let things be with veggies and other plants and it tends to work itself out if I care for them.

Half wine barrels are way too big as John is saying. I'd say even for 3 year old dwarf trees.

If they are not dwarfs let us know how big they are.

And never water just because the soil is dry for an inch or two. Use a wooden stick to see how far down the moisture is.

Unfortunately I agree that your pots are probably too big. Don't worry, I've done the same thing before with a couple of satsuma trees, so don't feel bad. When the pots are too big, the soil stays wet for too long and the roots will not be happy. With citrus I err on the small side for pots. Miracle-Gro is usually low quality but I don't have any experience with the organic variety. If it was me, I'd keep the MG and amend it with a lot of perlite and pine bark fines rather than waste more money starting over completely. I hear good things about 511 or gritty mix but I use similarly amended potting soil and my trees are very happy. In Southern California your mix will dry out way faster than in my location so you should be fine using what you have for now.

Whether or not you should repot immediately would depend on how long the soil stays wet after a good thorough watering. I'm leaning towards johnmerr's recommendation to leave them alone for now. I always err on the side of underwatering when it comes to citrus. You can test the moisture of the soil using a wood/bamboo skewer or chopstick. Push it down as far as you can to gauge the soil moisture throughout the whole depth of the pot. If the bottom half of the skewer is wet, you know not to water.

When you get home, water them and then monitor how long it stays wet using the skewer method and let us know how long it takes to dry out.

Awesome. Thanks guys. Honestly I have no idea how old the trees are, I bought them at Costco. I'll post pics when I get back as well as do the water test as recommended.

They are beauties. Just watch the water/moisture; and when they start to produce new growth, give them fertilizer. Also check them periodically for pests; and give them a wash with the hose every week or so, when you think about it; same with rotation, rotate them a 1/4 turn every couple of weeks, or when you think about it; it will keep them more balanced. Oh, and the pots are not too big at all; just about right, I would say.

Hello John..I too agree your pot size is perfect..In fact, it will encourage it to grow pretty much bigger..

You have set your pot directly on the ground which is great..The ground will act as a wick, even better if you set some bark underneath it or moss...Instead of too much moisture being held up in your pot, the perched water, it will come down and be tricked to leave the pot leaving you with less chances of over watering, and add to that long sunny days!

I would not worry about the mix not drying out properly, but I would worry about salt deposits unless you plan on copiously watering your tree quite often..Salt deposits is a silent killer in fine particle mixes, and you can alleviate that my properly watering or using a very porous mix in place of what you have)

NO need to re pot or amend it, no need for perlite at this time, but if you plan on over wintering it inside for weeks on end, then I would consider a new type of mix)

John, are those your permanent spots for those trees all summer?

You can always mix in some perlite at the top; won't hurt anything. I would not repot them now, until maybe September; no need for double transplant shock; and the roots need time to grow. Given the size of the trees and size of the pots, don't be surprised if you don't see new growth for maybe 5 or 6 weeks.

If your tree doesn't need watering after a week the soil is too dense, the pot is too big or both.

i still feel it's too big. Unless your in the desert with no humidity and extreme sun and heat.

So Cal, even near the beach, is still a desert climate. It is hot with little humidity and extreme sun and heat in the summer. So I think he may be OK.

Remember, right now it's still spring, and the air temps are moderate, but in a month they will go up a lot and by mid-summer it will be HOT and very little humidity.

I don't think they are too big for the size of your trees. I've seen those pots before, they aren't real half barrels, more like about half the soil volume of a real half barrel. Those are closer to a 7-10 gallon pot.

If you are careful of watering you should be OK this year. But you should probably re-pot into a 5-1-1 mix within two years. Imo.

However, I want to ask a question that I think has not been asked or answered so far. Johnny S. why are you not planting those in the ground?

You live in a great climate for citrus and your soil looks OK. Truly they will do much better and be way easier for you to care for in the ground. Many here keep citrus in pots because their winter weather is so severe they need to bring them inside during winter. But it's not ideal and citrus in pots have difficulties that they don't have in the ground in an ideal climate. Which you live in. So why not plant them in the ground in your nice looking yard?

7-10 gallons? Yeah that's a lot different than a half barrel

I like that idea! Thanks.

Quick additional question. When we got these, they came in a pretty heavy sand mix. When wet it's rock hard clay. I broke that up to free the roots when I planted. Is that the right thing to do? Could I have damaged them? I basically didn't think it was smart to put a clump of clay in the pot.

That was a good thing to do. You're right, it would have not been good to leave them like that. Some here basically bare-root their transplant trees, as in washing all the old soil off. I'm not that brave though and usually do what you did, just loosen and free up the old roots before transplanting. You may see some leaf drop afterwards for a few weeks while the roots recover.

I would say those are more like 20 gallon pots. I took my trees out of 15 gallon pots and put them in those same barrels which are larger that the 15 gallon pots my trees were in this year. I want to say if my memory is correct the ones I bought at Costco were 22-24 inches across by 16- 18 inches deep.

Johnny, if you could, if you mulch a nice circle around the pots please show me the finished product..I think it would look so nice and neat..I landscape and love the clean appearance it brings to any area...........

Those look great. I would consider amending the soil like somebody said above and put them in ground, might save on water. I would also do a reversed system of planting due to water in socal and plant them in a low point creating a large donut a couple of feet outside the drip line so they can really soak when you water. Miracle grow is a good soil, I don't care what others say but it often has a lot of fertilizer in it already. You can always pee at the edge of the rootball with anything in the spring for a nitrogen fix :) some crazy germans found out pee is one of the best fertilizers out there for greening up stuff. We do it a lot on young citrus to get increased growth.