Good job, Laura

Thanks John! They're like my other kids...I love to watch them grow!

Laura, as I've said in the past, my key lime is PROLIFIC! Once that tree gets to flowering age, watch out! It never stops producing fruit! Your trees look great.

Evan

Beautiful trees Laura. I hope they do well for you.

Good looking trees, Laura. My grand daddy key lime (almost 40 years old) blossomed in the spring and now has tiny fruitlets.

Those are insane! I really love the Santa Theresa. Is it just me or do the leaves looks incredibly huge? Something is working well over there!

My thornless key looks so similar to yours and it has recently done the most growing I have ever seen- very pleased with it these days! Sounds like same for you too. I bet you will see flowers soon mine has many clusters now. So anxious to get a fruit.

Can you get a pic of that tree Vladimir? 40 plus is just wow.

Wow amazing, you must be doing something right to have had it this long I think it looks great! You don't have to explain your wind issues to me it's one of my biggest threats here. I am also still correcting some of my past mistakes with my trees too, I am actually looking forward to a few older ones totally changing out their leaves so I can have more of the lush green like Laura with the new growth.

With your coming enhancements I am sure it really start booming.

Thanks guys! Evan, I hope you are right about that...I like key lime pie ;-). Vladimir, wow...40 years! If I remember correctly, you grew it from seed, right? That is amazing you've kept it around so long. I have no doubt that with your new care regimen, it will do even better - although it looks good. And Hobby, yes, the Santa Teresa has HUGE leaves! I think in my yard the leaves of my citrus grow a little larger anyways to compensate for slightly lower light levels, but in spite of that, it has the largest leaves of all my trees. It is a beautiful tree. I can't wait for it to blossom! I do wish that gigantic key lime would bloom. If it gets much taller, I will need to chop it just to fit it in my house....

Hobby, how are your limequat and Meyer doing? My friend's were almost welded together...lol...I did manage to extract them both with good roots, but the limequat took the bigger hit. I am worried about them.

Great work on your trees, Laura ! It has to feel pretty good to get those guys potted up! Your Santa Teresa looks fantastic, and so green. I have a couple that are on order from Four Winds..They will ship them as soon as the heatwave dies down..I waited months for them to get back in stock, so, it is one of my most anticipated citrus at the moment... :)

Vladimir, I am amazed by your lovely key lime. It seems to have faired quite well after all of these years despite a bit of neglect.. Great job!!

Jinny, you will like the Santa Teresa! I have two on order - also on hold. I don't mind. What else did you order?

Laura, along with the two Santa Teresa, I also ordered a Genoa Lemon, Sanguinelli Blood, Sudachi and a Trovita Sweet Orange.. This is my first time getting citrus that are this large at premium size. I can't wait to see them. I ordered from Four Winds this spring, but, the largest size they had in stock at the time were choice size..They were still very lovely trees..

Ha...I have a sudachi on order from them as well. You ordered TWO Santa Teresas? I am curious about the blood oranges. I have read that they need the California climate to ripen and turn "bloody". What have you read about it? I do not have any of those. The only oranges I have are a Cara Cara (is that a blood?) and a navel...both quite small, but growing. I really want a chinotto sour orange from them, but those are still out of stock.

Laura I think it's the other way around, that bloods need some cold temps to get dark. Here is a link.
http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/1805892/what-makes-the-tarocco-blood-orange-turn-color

Not that I am in any way trying to encourage you to get more trees lol!

Here is the Meyer and limequat, doing pretty well! Yes their root balls were surprisingly welded together even though the limequat is so much smaller so I ended up just tearing them apart as the careful unwinding wasn't going too well and I was worried about the roots drying out. They both seem to be fine after being in the shade for a full week.

Also I just got an email from one of vendors notifying me that they have big bush thorny key limes back in stock... What to do what to do.... It's calling for me!!

GET IT!! go for it!

A Cara Cara is considered a red navel orange, not a blood orange, just FYI.

Evan

Laura- that Santa Teresa is fabulous. am looking for one as well . maybe next year. this year couldn't find any Canadian vendor.

Hobby- beautiful Meyer. usually I pot in 6 gallon pails but after reading some research papers on how citrus roots r shallow n spreading am going to look into broader pots like ur Meyer

Dev, that is interesting that you mention how citrus like shallow roots. When I repotted, I noticed that although the roots were totally wound around the outside edges, most of them did not reach all the way down. As I transplanted them, I wondered about this. I guess shallower pots are better than tall deep ones??

Thanks dev but I think the pic is deceiving, the pot is no wider than my regular 5 gallons, it is just a 2.5 gallon.

I know the whole citrus taproot thing isn't true but I would imagine that as the trees get big the roots will almost fill the pot. No? The tall pots still make sense for me for space conservation in my grow room.

I noticed the same thing Laura as repotted but I assumed that was because the old mix was boggy so the roots didn't want to go down. I thought with the 511 they may be more inclined to spread out a bit.

The roots on my New Zealand lemonade tree were wrapping and growing out the bottom of my deep 7 gallon container.

That's interesting Steve. How long has it been in there? Hobby, the bottom of my pot was also a it boggy - even with gritty. It still had sent some roots down there, just not as many.

The new container

My tree went from a 4x4 x 8 inch pot to the white/black pot 13 months ago and was transplanted to the 35 gallon blue about a week ago It should fill the blue container by next February 28 when I will transplant it outside to it's permanent in ground position. The glass and wood have been secured and ready to build the structure to protect it while its roots get established. It should do very well outside.

Hi Steve. I notice that the blue container has no drain holes. Is that because it has no bottom?

It has about 300 holes in its bottom. I will be adding more holes this Wednesday around the lower 1 foot of perimeter.

6b Steve Cincinnati, OH