a50 gallon pot would suffice to get a 14 foot tree

Well im not very experienced but ive read with root pruning when they get too big and have outgrown the biggest pot you can give it, can keep them managable, along with regular pruning. The idea of root pruning is scary but it will be several years before i am to that point.

Steve

In April, I visited Boboli gardens in Florence where they house many very old citrus trees. I am sure they root prune. The trunks were thick, but the trees were not massive and still had a good number of fruits.

How often do you need to root prune? Every 2-3 years?

Depending on the plant vigor and growth, during every up potting or repotting, I do prune roots that are brown/ rotting, roots that are circling around in the pot, roots that are very long compare to the overall root mass. I do it for all of my house plants and fruit trees. I especially love root pruning on my seedling mulberries, those things go nuts with root growth.

Heavy root pruning is done growing bonsai trees. With container citrus just the same principle. The trees don't get damaged. All you have to do is keep the root and canopy in a healthy balance.

In the pictures at the top of this post, you can see that due to the tree's root system being trapped inside of a container the tree grew straight up (without much side growth), like tooth paste squeezed out of the tube.

Silica and Steve, Correct me if I am wrong but those pictures are from someones seed grown trees. They needed to get that height to flower and fruit. I believe they were 11-12 years old when the finally fruited and those pictures were from the year before. Grafted trees would provide a very different tree, dependent on root stock but with balanced pruning of roots and canopy I don't see why you couldn't keep the trees in the 8ft-10ft range, even smaller if you prune yearly. John has mentioned the "Drop Crotch" method of pruning and its what I use to shape my trees and I can see if done on a large tree how it would minimize its overall size. Don't be afraid of root pruning, if you start the habit now it will be less of a scary thing to you later. I root prune all my trees, some just a little and others cutting out some big circling roots. I am hoping that by the time my trees are huge its going to be second nature.

Sammers, the tree at the top of this post is root bound, thus the straight up grow habit. Doesn't matter if grafted or seed.

I am sure it is, big tree, little pot. not surprising. If someone wants to grow a tree that size they should have a larger pot and/or regularly root prune. But as most here will never let their trees get that size its up to them to prune both roots and canopy to keep a happy, healthy, smaller tree. That person chose not to prune to get fruit on their seed grown tree, not the same goal as the average potted citrus grower here, that's all I was wanting to point out. Not exactly apples to apples.

My trees pickup speed in October and then I can't leave these super cold hardy varieties outside till December/January. I get irritated.

Sammers you are correct

I schedule myself to repot every 3 years so I will root prune every 3 years then. I just can't imagine how my citruses, or any citruses will look in 70 years though...

Heruga, I have the same problem, while I know in theory what I will do it's still hard to picture when I look at my tiny trees. Especially varieties that will be large and hold large fruit like my Pondersoa, Oro Blanco and Valentine Pummelo. I hope some of us will be able to stay in touch and see how others trees turn out.

Thankfully the citrus that I grow are naturally small sized trees so thats good but you never know after so many years(if its still alive) how big it can be.. I hope someone in this forum has a citrus older than 50 years to share this.

I am planing on global warming to get my trees out of there pots within trhe nex 3 year LOL.

Steve, speaking of picking up speed in October, look what my lime tree and my small grafted lemon tree are doing:

They are really happy :)

They really look nice. It makes growing fun.

Steve

Bob, which exactly do you use of the Espoma? And what is different about the Peters MOST?

I went to a garage sale last weekend and saw about 10 potted citrus trees for sale: several ponderosas, tangerine, orange, and loquat, I believe. The old man had started them the oldest one 35-40 years ago. None of them were grafted and the youngest one was an air layer about 12 years old. They were all about 5-7 feet tall and in Big plastic barrels. They lived in his unheated garage in the winter and yard in summer. He said they produced year round. If I had the room, I might have bought one for $150. So, if his trees on original rootstock only got to 7 feet, I don't think my grafted ones will get very big in pots. As some one else pointed out, the famous Italian citrus all stay tiny in their terra-cotta. I was hoping mine would eventually grow to a decent size, but they're all tiny. Except my key lime, who is more wide than tall, kind of like me.

It will groew as big as you feed and provide bigger and bigger containers

Espoma makes a fert for Citrus/avocado, i think it's a 8lb. bag. Also espoma starter, also 8 lb, then Tomato fert, also 8 lb bags. They were all $3.00. sale.

Dynamite mater is a small round red container $ 1.50. This is a t.r.fert.

Peters M.O.S.T IS a micro fert with higher doses, more or less a one time application, a little goes a long way. Premoisend soil first, comes in a one lb. container, i think it cost $ 22.00 free shipping through Amazon.( The Landscaper store)