I live in zone 8 near the Fla/Ga line. My garden receives full sun.

The Meyer lemon will need protection in winter. It is limited to zone 9 or warmer. I have a Fukushu in ground zone 6b but it is under 2 layers of glass and a sheet of bubble wrap.

If the manure is composted, it should be fine in soil mix outdoors. Manure can't be used in containers, it burns the roots.

In your location you should be able to plant them in the ground, but be prepared to protect them from hard freezes by covering and using heat lamps / old style Christmas lights. I live on the 8b/9a line in western Louisiana and grow citrus in ground, with fine sandy loam soil. On average I have to cover my in ground citrus about once every other year for hard freezes, with Meyers you need to protect anytime the temperature falls below about 29 degrees.

p.s. do not add fertilize to the hole, wait and fertilize after it gets established, but not after July, Citrus grows well in sandy soil, some commercial groves are even in almost straight sand, though sandy loam or loamy sand may be better. Also hose off the root ball before planting at least enough to expose the outer roots.

In my own experience, I have not been successful with any citrus indoors with the possible exception of calamondins and kumquats. My zone is NJ/Zone 7, and I leave them in a detached garage where it does get cold, down into the 30's during the worst of the winter (but is essentially frost free) and they pull though the winter fine in full leaf, no problems (in the warm house they would be DEAD by now). They can recover from 100% defoliation so all is not lost. I would wait a few more weeks though in case we have some arctic air moving in. Good luck!

this also may be of some interest to you http://extension.uga.edu/publications/detail.html?number=B804

and http://www.growingproduce.com/citrus/georgia-citrus-seeking-to-make-its-mark/

Thanks Ike for the links. That's good information.

Many people trying to be "kind and helpful, "believing" digging a large hole and adding various amendments is helping a planted citrus tree. The proper method to plant a citrus tree is to dig a hole large enough to accommodate the tree's root ball, and when back filling the hole use ONLY the dirt that was made by digging the hole. Large holes with amendments such as peatmoss and etc. is only making a lake for the tree's roots to set in.

I dug a big but shallow hole for my seed grown Poncirus Ttrifoliata about a month before the transplanting. That time was needed to dry the hard pan orange yellow clay so that I could crumble it into dust and small nodules. I removed all the 2-2-1 from the roots, placed the tree in its shallow hole and poured the clay dust around the roots and watered in well. The tree is now 7 feet tall and very full. Your trees really do need to go into soil that is the same as the surrounding ground. It has been in ground for 3 years.

Steve

Today I took them outside for a few hrs of sun. I plan to do this for about a week and then plant them in the ground on the south side of the property. I will protect them with a plastic tent and christmas lights if we have more freezing nights. I'll post a progress report in a few weeks.