Hi Amanda. I am glad you figured out the root rot problem. Your other trees look great! I did not know you could buy hibiscus roots instead of whole plants.

Thanks everyone. I am hoping that it can recover. I have it in the shade right now.

Vlad- I ordered a hardy midnight red from Michigan bulb over the winter and it came as a giant root. It took maybe 3 weeks for it to break its dormancy and just exploded into the bush it is now. It has been very interesting growing it!

Amanda, wow! I am so intrigued by all that you have to do for a container citrus! I dig a hole in the yard, mix the soil I take out with some amendment, tap the tree out of it's pot, plonk into the hole with as little handling of the roots as I can manage, replace the soil and water well! Is washing the roots and removing the old soil just for container plantings? Should I be doing that as well? It's a bit late for me, as I plan to limit my citrus to maybe two more plants...wait, why are you laughing? :)

That's tough Amanda, I am glad you figured it out and I am hopeful it will start to recover soon! The rest of your tree's look great! I had been extra paranoid about that happening when I bare rooted my plants and I am sure I obsessively washed them longer than needed, lol only one tree had a problem area of roots where I couldn't get all the soil out without removing half the roots. Fingers crossed it isn't going to kill the tree.

I would crinch to handle a tree and wash all the soil off. If the tree is sick and need to know if the roots are sick would be the only reason for me to do that.

Susanne, if you plan on switching a tree from a soil mix to something else you have to wash off all of the old material or else it will cause problems. I saw from your other post you plan on doing a 5-1-1 (which is what I use) if you leave soil in the roots what happened to Amanda's tree will happen to yours. The soil retains moisture for far longer than the 5-1-1 and will cause rot where its touching. I have found that a strong sprayer on a hose is all I am needing to get 98% of the soil off of my trees without any other intervention. Then a bucket of water to swish in gets the rest. The first tree is the scariest/hardest, but after you've done a few its nbd anymore. I've done 17 tree's now and I can't imagine doing it any other way.

that is interesting. One of the trees will already coming bare rooted. I definitely will think about it

Amanda!! I remember that Hibiscus!! Wow look at that. Just so you know, when you got it I thought it was still dormant and it can be one of the last plants to come out from dormancy from what I see. Here it is the end of June, and mines just popped out 2 weeks ago! Every one thought it dead, but I knew better. It takes very warm nights and sunny days to get it going. Don't be fooled next spring if it does not pop up by June, ok. I will take a special pic of mine just for you. That plant is very hard to find, since I have not seen any like mine sold like it for the past two years. The leaves are so pretty even without the flowers and boy are the flowers HUGE like discs..You are going to love it.

By the way, great lesson for all of us to learn and know. Thank you for sharing with us. I also see that your baby trees are responding very very well! I can't believe, yes I can actually, at how fast they are growing in your mix. A job well done and I remember when you first started here. Here have come a very long way. A pat off the back for you!!

Mike))

Mike- thank you! That is great advice about next year, because I am going to be waiting for it to pop back up! I can't wait until I can see it bloom. The trick will be keeping my daughters from picking all the flowers haha! And I agree, the leaves are so pretty. They are a dark purple and just beautiful. I love this plant!

susanne- I would definitely wash the roots all the way clean. I posted this so that others would see the damage of not getting all of the old mix off of the roots. Hopefully someone can learn from my mistake, I know I have sure learned my lesson. Better to break a root or two then leave original mix in the center.

Sammers- you have seventeen trees now?! Wow girl! Thats amazing! I thought I was cool over here with my 6 haha! You are going to have so many flowers and so much fruit! I hope that they are ok and that your back is healing. I know how badly it can be to be out of business. Hopefully things are going better now!

With the 5-1-1 it sounds like more watering and more feeding because the fertilizer is washed out??

Not really. The 511 protects the roots more in the winter when the tree is inside. I water them when the mix feels dry but that depends on the temperature and sun available. When I started growing citrus and while they did great outside in MG cactus and citrus, once inside my trees declined rapidly. The soil is terrible at drying out and drains slowly. A bigger tree could probably handle that but I have small trees that need better conditions.

Amanda I know! I went citrus insane this year from 2 to 17, well 16 1/4 really as the 17th one is a small rooted cutting with only one leaf that came tangled with my new ponderosa. Hopefully it will help ease the pain if I lose a few due to my back being out, i'm starting to feel better but still not able to bend down yet. I looks like i'm coming to the end of the trees freaking out though as they are loosing less and less leaves daily now.

Tomorrow I will have 15 trees but might add two more before the year is over. Oh my, and winter is coming for sure.

Amanda, this is great info and pics. Thanks for sharing. I am still getting to learn about citrus, but for most of my other plants, if it is not doing well, I will pull it out of the pot (carefully) to inspect.

I just repotted several citrus, and a few definitely had some stubborn areas to wash clean. Perhaps I should have tried harder. Now I wonder if I should go ahead and redo them, it's only been a few days.

Amanda - good tip . I make it a point to bareroot any RBF citrus prior to repotting in 511 . last year I bought 2 big ones and didn't as I was afraid it was too big to bareroot and lo behold both had root rot late summer and I eventually did repot.

just got a big 6ft Meyer lemon -one can't have enuf of those :) . going to bareroot n repot this weekend .

Btw the hibiscus that u have is hibiscus moscheutos. it v hardy n dies down to its base like peony . I have those inground .

here's what the rootball of my meyer looked like after washing. It was just so many fine roots. And the top surface was a solid mass of fine roots. I used a solid jet of water, and a bucket swirl.

I will probably pull it out and wash it more. Any thoughts on how to root prune??

Sammers, good to hear the trees may be recovering fast!

Amanda, I had a Meyer that needed major surgery like yours and had very bad root rot. It is very happy now. Yours will be fine also!

I checked on it first thing this morning and it is looking much better! The leaves are a darker green and the yellowing has stopped progressing. Fingers crossed that it will stay in the path to recovery! I'm sorry I haven't been on much this month but between my insane amount of gardening, getting ready for nursing clinicals, and keeping the kids happy I have been very busy!

thank you everyone for helping me along and wishing my plant well!

My roses have been blooming like crazy!

beautiful pic . is that a double delight ? herez the lemon tree I need to repot n a few of my rose pics

I love roses! And what a beautiful lemon tree! Yes, I have three double delight roses. I Like to call them fire and ice roses.