Well, if you wait till spring you might repot the meyer to the compost. Where are you located? I probably would repot now and take the fruits off.

Southwestern Ontario. The tree is from record buck farms. I can provide pictures if it will be helpful.

Duncan, I am in Windsor. Where exactly are you. ? I repotted all my trees . The soil from record buck farms is very heavy and stays wet and if I left my trees there they would have died . in fact on the week end i repotted nearly 10 trees .They are doing well. I use 5-1-1 for some and promix BX ( got at Rona) for some.

Maggy

Hey Maggy,

Nice to have a data point there. I'm in Waterloo. The soil does indeed seem too heavy, especially given that I'm used to working with incredibly fast draining primarily inorganic bonsai mixes. When you repotted to 5-1-1, did you let the soil rest for a while in order to let the lime do its work on creating the ideal pH level?

Duncan, I did let the soil rest a bit. I always mix a big batch . My trees do well in 5-1-1 . My experience has been that you have to repot after about two years as it deteriorates

Maggy

Maggy, any tips on where to find the pine bark?

Duncan. I found big bags at Vermeers in Welland . Reasonable price. here is a picture .just the right size.

Duncan. Lowes has this one but haven't tried it

And home-hardware

Awesome, thanks. Looks like there are a number of options around here.

Here are a list of places that sell farfard nuggets in your area

http://www.fafard.ca/en/find-a-retailer/

Just type in your city

great - looks like I'll be heading to Sheridan's.

Good luck. I had such a hard time finding them last year. Might want to call as sometimes they don't have them. Let me know how you make out.

Got the fafard mini pinebark, and we're almost good to go. Just need to make a quick trip to home depot to get some dolomitic lime.

Awesome. I really like the farfard mini pinebark. Can't get it here.just ordered a different one ,2 (40 lb. bags ) from Lowes . Glad you found it.. Maggy

Remember to remove all the old mix when you repot to the new mix. Looking forward to the pics.

I tend towards repotting things after I get them from the nursery, because then I know exactly what the growing mix is. Also, you find out what the roots look like.

Good advise, I bare rooted all my trees for the past 6 yrs before putting in 5-1-1. It takes a little time for them to adjust .

Maggy

Duncan, sounds like you have some extremely awesome help here. Maggy is a longtime member, friend and great citrus grower! I love what she uses and I myself use the same mix.

Just so you know, your tree would be a lot better off doing this now than risking a chance all winter of getting rotted roots..Too, you would have to wait until at least June before your trees are strong enough to take a hard re pot after a long dreary winter in their weakened state. Now is not ultimate either but provide lots of sunlight and warm temps and if you do it should help your tree to adjust very well! Nice to meet you

Mickey. Where have you been ? . I have been thinking about you. Good to see you again. I was away from the forum for quite awhile . There was some negativity awhile back but glad to see all the new people here with so much to offer and share. It feels really good to be back

warmest thought my friend

Maggy

It feels even better to have you back! You had so mush to offer and to help with. I know you lost a few trees a while back and I know you gained a couple here and there. I would love to know what you have and any pics if you have some. I have missed you too and I am sure my buddy Brian has...I miss him greatly too. I wonder how his weather us considering mines is just plain ole weird. I wonder how yours is?And of course I always wonder how you are? I will never forget the kindness you showed me and the whole forum here after everything you have been through...Much love

During my initial research for this I actually stumbled upon, and read Maggy's initial post. A bit surreal being part of the conversation with both of you!

As an update, I found the dolomitic lime, and I'm good to start the mix. I'll put it together tomorrow along with some pictures.

Mike thank you for your kind words .Mikei I listed what ai have here on the clip and snip thread and there are some pictures. I even got a shuriua and baboon lemon from Harris. Their trees are great. The photosanitary certificate and shipping made it pricey . I am doing quite well after suffering with sciatica for more than a year.? Rick and I went to visit Brian in Ottawa in Aug. It was an awesome trip. You should see his trees.

Duncan. That is funny that you saw the original post. When I started growing Citrus I had no idea what to do. Brian, Cory and Mike along with others taught me so much and I have only been successful because of the great information and advise I got here. Growing in 5-1-1 is worth the effort and your trees will love it. I also add a bit of slow release fertilizer to the mix . Can't wait to see your trees in their new mix.

Maggy

Soil mix is complete.

Pine bark, sifted, large bits removed, fine particulate screened.

Full mix.

Meyer tree as it currently sits.

And my helper.

I'll let the mix sit for two weeks, and then transplant. Will keep everyone updated.

Nice job Duncan. I love you little helper ?You tree looks fantastic. Here are my helpers .

Maggy

Duncan, GREAT job and what a cute little helper! How old is he or she if I may?

Duncan, did you get a chance to soak that bark for a couple days at least? What kind of pots did you use? Did you push that new soil between all the roots and force the soil between the roots with a good jet of water through that pot? Did you use Lime? Did you use peat? Is that tree right back in the sun again? I would remove it asap until that tree gets use to that mix. If the leaves are wilted in the slightest bit, it's not good and we can fix that. I think I might of missed exactly what you did here.

Great job even doing what you did. I am sure that Maggy and I want to see that mix succeed for you and there are a few steps that many miss when using it..Is the top dry to touch just a day after watering? Can you explain your observations?

I see you like Camelia too? Nice So do I

I'm glad you are here sharing and a part of this forum Duncan)

Maggy, amazing the color difference and yet the same dogs. Just lovely my friend!

Mike

Hey Mike - the helper is Keltie, and he's an older guy...around 9 or 10 I think?

Re: the mix. I haven't transplanted anything yet - the lemon tree is going to stay in the container I purchased it in for two weeks. I used lime (dolomitic), peat, perlite, and the bark. All the ratios should be good. I have not soaked the bark, or any of the rest of the mix for that matter. Can you share the wisdom there? Does it accelerate the interaction of the lime, or is it just to ease transplant shock once I'm at that stage?

The tree is in full sun, but since it hasn't been transplanted yet, it should be OK. I integrated it slowly over the past week because I wasn't sure of the conditions it was in previously. Once I transplant I will very slowly re-introduce it, and it will likely spent the majority of its time inside under some CFLs.

I have some experience with bonsai, but that's generally with more inorganic mixes. That said, I've done a fair bit of root pruning in the past, and have learned from mistakes (dead trees!). Appreciate all of the advice, and happy to take any intermediate/advanced tips you may have!

Mike, just checking back to see if you have any thoughts on what I wrote above. I appreciate any advice.

Quick update. I repotted on Monday, and so far so good. Still waiting for the tree to start sulking. I pruned 95% of the fruit before the repot, and then spent about twenty minutes working on the roots. After a quick dunk in water, mildly vigorous combing/raking and some pruning, I was fairly happy with how everything looked. I didn't take any pictures of the process, but here's the finished article:

Looking good. Keep my fingers crossed for you that it does not drop too many leafs

Keep us updated, Duncan! Looks good!

We're just over a week in and the plant seems to be doing fairly well overall, but I am seeing some yellowing on the bottom leaves and have had 4-5 leaves drop. The leaf drop seems normal, but I'm not sure how normal it is to see what appears to be nitrogen deficiency after a transplant. Perhaps the tree is smart enough to remove the nutrients from the leaves before it drops them?

I have some foliage pro that I can apply in small doses; I'm just not sure how long to wait before I start doing that, and if a foliar spray maybe makes more sense at this point.

Leaf yellowing/drop continues. Plant has been moved indoors. Hoping it doesn't defoliate completely before the roots recover. Root zone temp is around 62 degrees which is probably too low to have a heat lamp on it.

If it only loose the old yellow leafs, tree should be okay

Leaf yellowing an drop continues. Lots of flower buds, but not much sign of new leaf growth. Fussy little plant.

Photos for everyone to track the slow death of this tree :p

Closer view of most of the leaf loss. Most new growth appears to be flower buds.

most prominent area of yellowing leaves

If anyone has any wisdom, please let me know.

Duncan if this would be my tree, I would elevate it from the dish it stands in. Your tree looks like it gets more water then it needs. One reason can be that the water does not drain out at the bottom.

Hey Susanne, it actually is elevated - it sits on two small pieces of wood, and after watering, all of the water that drains out is immediately removed. It drains very quickly, and there are twelve 1/4" holes drilled in the bottom in addition to the larger 1" hole the container came with.

That is great. I could not see that from the picture. Now next question would be what to you use for fertilizer? And how much light does it get?

I use dyna-gro foliage pro. I generally stick to 1/4 tsp per gallon, but I have given it one full feeding. The tree is in a south-west facing window, and has had a 26w CFL dedicated to it for the past 10 days or so.

I don't see anything wrong then. Maybe need some time

It may just be a suicidal tree. I'll keep everyone updated.

In the meantime, does anyone have a good picture of what new leaf growth looks like at the very beginning stages. Or failing that, how to differentiate new leaf growth from new flower growth? I have a good idea for what new flower growth looks like as the tree is budding quite freely (likely part of the suicide plan)

It's stress flowering. When the citrus tree is stressed badly it would flower profusely n try to set fruit . Do u recall if u saw any root rot during repotting.

My experience with record buck esp their 20 gallon pots has been that every time I have faced root rot even the later times when I immediately repotted and had to treat it.

Since u have been fertilizing and it seems to be getting enough light so doubt it's winter leaf drop that said my Meyers r more finicky that other citrus and do sometimes drop leaves though it doesn't yellow n drop.

If it detoriates further maybe u can check the roots .

The roots looked reasonable when I repotted. Not pure white, but not rotted deep brown either. I trimmed off a bit of the bottom of the roots so I expected some stress to be completely honest. I'm just going to let it do its thing and try to provide the best environment for it (within reason).