Your tree will do fine.

Thanks Steve! I'm pretty confident it'll do much better than it previously was even if I accidentally pruned too much. Even with the twisted root ball it chugged along fine but now I hope it will finally have regular cycles of vegetative flushes

I had to repot a Eureka lemon tree from Record Bucks last weekend. I was in such a hurry that I didn't even examine it as well as you did. I just know that it is very small. My tree is a cutting and the roots hasn't grown any since I first planted it into one of my pots 2 years ago. I am tempted to throw it out, but can't do it after spending almost $40.

Kvetch, thanks for letting us know.

Sorry to hear that Denise :( How large is your tree and what size pot has it been in for these last 2 years? It doesn't sound like your tree is declining but I can understand wanting to throw it out too. When I saw new root tips poking out of my tree during last fall's inadequate repot, I had watered it in a unique way to try to push root growth. The watering method I came up with is an option you can try if you want.

Back then, I had read Tapla's thread about water perching, how tall the perched level is, and how it's bad for container growing. I had seen my tree's rootball break in a storm and I wanted the roots to regrow further down into the pot because the tree kept wanting to flop over. It would take a long time for the container to start drying out too with the deep soak/dry method. So I watered with a wicking method as if it was a training program to try to encourage the roots to push its limit. I set my tree on top of milk crate and put a bottle of water directly underneath the tree and crate. Then I put one end of a shoelace into the bottom hole of the tree pot and fed the shoelace through one of the crate holes into the bottle of water. The tree sat on top of the crate for the rest of summer and fall with the bottle of water underneath. The perched water starts where ever the bottled water level is and extend upwards. I added just enough water so the perched level ended right on the very bottom tip of the broken rootball. The roots initially get their drink but as the water in the bottle decreased, the perched water level would drop down too.

So my theory was that the perched water would be a dangling carrot and always be barely out of range from the roots. Growing a centimeter or two every so often shouldn't be too demanding for the tree. It wicked that way for a few months into fall then got repot and that's where I saw small new root tips pointing out of the broken rootball. Then indoors for winter it was watered normally from above once every 1-2 weeks with a long neglectful drought period sometime in mid-winter lol. I've had my tree since last August until now, not long at all. So this watering method may or may not work for you but it definitely made it easier to keep it hydrated during the extremely hot weather.

Kvetch, the tree is the same size as the day I purchased it. I have no die back at all which gives me hope that it can do better. After the initial purchase, I put it into a 14" pot not knowing that the root ball was really small. I just slipped it out of the existing pot into a larger one thinking it would grow like my others. I never had a problem with trees not growing before until I purchased this one. Last week I put it into a 1 gallon pot with different soil to see if there would be improvement. This year I am going to use more Foliage Pro to see if it would encourage it to grow.

The RBF eureka I purchased from HD last month had a huge root system, was very pot bound. It looked like it was a carry over from last year. We’ll see how it does this summer

Let us know how your tree does with the down pot Denise. It should definitely be able to grow in the 1 gallon pot this year!

Lucky you got such a nice RBF tree Kelley! Maybe it won't be so bad to get another RBF in the future

Generally whenever i get a new tree i bareroot and repot in 511 .N esp for RBF i do it without fail their mix is pretty soggy and i have had root rot on two 15 gallon ones which being large pots i was a bit daunted, after that i ensure am barerooting rt after i buy it.

You made the right decision removing the original soil. Replace it with 60:40 sand:peat and you won't get that hard mess of peat (or "death zone" as I like to call it) in the centre of the pot. It will also keep your roots from going everywhere to seek oxygen.

You said bad or good rootstock??? Well, I wonder the same thing when I get a tree 3 times from the same company and they all die every year in a potted situation...