Your trees look great! What are they potted in? Perhaps next spring you can move them to a larger pot with the 5-1-1 mix.

Thanks Laura! They are potted in a plastic cup and a yogurt container :) So I don't pot them up now?

Well, it's best to pot when it's warm and a natural time to plant. Doing it when your plant is outside generally is the best option, plus you are potting it when it hasn't grown lemons, that will stress them out. Also to keep humidity up you can use a saucer, fill it with rocks and place your pot over it. Whenever you want you can fill water halfway up the rocks. Then it stays humid for at least a few days. Just a tip. And yes, I would wait until early or mid spring to transplant my citrus trees. Plus your situation isn't 'dire' at all- that's the same size pot they'd be in at a nursery.

As far as transplanting, do whatever you feel best. I've transplanted citrus during every month of the year, probably every week of the year, with no problems. Much better than letting a plant become root bound. The time to transplant is when the tree's root system has grown to the point where it is able to hold the medium when slipped from the container.

ditto to silica's comment!

Silica Silica's got this! Agreed.

I agree with Silica. When it comes to repotting, people put way too much emphasis on the time of year and not enough on the condition of the roots.

I transplanted my two pathetic recues just a few days ago...not entirely bare root, but I did remove as much dirt as I could without hurting the roots. The kumquat is loaded with fruit, so I worried a little....no fruit loss at all, it has shed maybe ten leaves, but only those that were completely discolored already. It seems perfectly happy.

When I transplanted a dwarf orange I had a few years ago in mid fall, it dropped 2 fruits early and dropped a few healthy leaves... stress from transplanting is the culprit, then not giving him warmth and light that I'd get in spring. If it were my plant, I'd transplant in Spring. No need to cause harm.

Yes, you CAN plant whenever you need, but spring is a time that your plant will be able to transition to a new pot easier. Silica is correct about the roots, though. I doubt your plants have become root bound yet, but to be sure I'd take a quick peek. If you also see roots coming out from the bottom of your containers, I'd transplant now and hope for the best.

You may have already planted your tree again, but this is just fair warning from personal experience. :)

I was reading this at another forum and I thought that I would share what I have come to learn)

tapla(Mid-MI z-5b-6a)

But you can repot at any time of the year at the north and south poles, too. No matter how hard you try, you're not going to convince a thinking person that it doesn't matter when you repot. Even if you grew a plant in the perfect temperature and provided the perfect light load all year long, it's natural tendency to grow more robustly in the summer is going to make summer a better time to repot, even in LA. Everyone is free to believe what they wish, but there is no logical basis for the claim that when you repot doesn't matter. It might not matter quite as much in LA as in mid-MI, but it matters; and if there is a span in the growth cycle that provides less stress and faster recovery, what sense in not taking advantage of it?

The grower's goal normally isn't to see how much stress their plants will tolerate, rather, it seems it would be more along the lines of doing what can be done to limit the severity of the effects and the duration of stress. Our job is to recognize stress factors and eliminate them to the greatest degree possible/reasonable so plants can realize as much of their genetic potential as possible. In fact, I just got a newsletter (from FL) cautioning Florida Growers against repotting their tropical trees too late because it's unlikely from here out that roots will have an opportunity to recover before winter.

Al

Interesting discussion... sunshine I hope you don't mind if a fellow canadian asks a related question :). I was going to start a new thread on this today so good timing!

I have 2 cuttings I think I need to repot and was going to tackle today. Roots are finally showing through the bottoms of my little pots- a meyer and a bearss cutting.

Should I repot or continue to wait until spring? Aside from the roots showing through the drain holes just slightly, the cuttings are in a pretty boggy mix of sterile seed starter so I am worried now that root rot could start now that full root development is underway.

On the flip side I am a bit worried that the roots may still be very delicate and so washing the rootball and or repotting into the chunky 511 could damage them or snap them off. What to do???

That all makes perfect sense, but one must judge the benefits/drawbacks in their particular situation. I think Silica mentioned that it would be more beneficial to pot now if the trees were in danger of becoming root bound. I agree. In my case, the stressed and neglected trees (I felt) would be better served by repotting them now with fresh 5-1-1 and oscomote versus leaving them in those pots totally root bound. In sunshine's case though, it may be ok to wait till spring since tree trees are young and not root-bound.

Hobby, I don't know what to tell you. If you are careful with watering, you may be ok till spring. I would not want to bare root a plant now...not sure. As I said, in the case of my rescues, it was necessary.

Thanks Laura, mine definitely aren't root bound yet... it is just tough to manage the watering properly because the pots are so small... extra monitoring work!

Your plants are starving for oxygen in those small ventless cups. Pot up to something with holes.

Panted last fall. My Cuban Shaddock

6b Steve

Thanks so much everyone ! After reading all your comments I wanted to take a look at the roots and here is what I found: The taller plant ( Laura, I should name each one of my trees from now on :) ) was happy and the soil had just the right amount of moisture, the tap root was growing out of the bottom holes. I put some soil at the bottom of the cup and placed the tree back in the same cup, the soil did not fall apart and there was no odor. The tree has not wilted.

sunshine's ideas · More Info

The shorter tree was in the little larger pot, as soon as I gently pulled it out, all the soil fell apart and I could smell the odor from the soil closer to the bottom. The roots were shorter than the depth of the container. I think that tree was in way to much of soil and the moisture was not used by the plant that fast. I planted it back with less soil in the same pot, but after less than an hour the leaves look wilted. Did I make mistake by taking it out?

sunshine's ideas · More Info

Keep it in shade for 2 days and you should do fine.

I hope you didn't use the same soil. Way too fine and lacking in aeration.

Josh

greenman If you look closely at the medium Sunshine' s trees are planted in, you can see literally millions of air spaces throughout the medium. Even the roots at the extreme bottom look to be quite healthy.

Looks like a soggy mess to me, lacking in coarse particulate.

The mix in which the smaller of the two is planted looks even worse, more 'dirt' like.

Josh

Sunshine, if it fell apart, I would have repotted it into 5-1-1. I know Silica is an advocate for MGGS, but I am not as experienced in citrus growing and prefer to use the 5-1-1. Do you have the ingredients? And yes, most of my trees are named. We put the variety on one side, and his/her name on the other ;-)

Laura, I noticed that you spelled the name of the above tree backwards.

My cuban Shaddock's name is PITA, Pain In The As.

lol Silica! I'm a bit slow with jokes...took me a little while to get it ;-). Steve...you always crack my up...that should be the name for my 4th kid!

Hahahaha... poncirusguy, what a name for your tree.

Josh, I potted both trees in the same soil mix in the beginning, but when I checked them today, the texture of the second tree's soil was different. I don't know was it because of too much water or something else.

Laura, I don't have all the ingredients for the 5:1:1 mix. Where can I get garden lime? I like the green vibrant colours of your trees.

Thanks sunshine! The garden lime you should be able to find in any gardening store. This is the one I have...it should be easy to find...

Espoma GL6 Garden Lime Soil Amendment, 6.75-Pound https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0063ZDTI6/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_su5oybK5KH0J4