Good catch.

Steve

That's a cutting. I purchased one of Record Buck Farm's Eureka lemon trees. After repotting, it dropped all its leaves except one branch and they never grew back. I would never buy another tree from that grower again. Good luck with your tree.

Nice tree Matt!

Growers very frequently blame a nursery when a container tree has a hard time, or worse yet dies, but rarely ever blame themselves for their tree's problems. Of all the container trees grown by hobbyists, the average life span of a container tree is two years or less.

Silica

I am with you on that statement. Keep in mind though some companies sell trees with a much higher than average "after sales" death rate the other copanies do tree for tree.

Silica I am confused by your statement "Of all the container trees grown by hobbyists, the average life span of a container tree is two years or less." Would you explain how you came to this conclusion?

So bottom line Matt, great find. I would have snapped it up too. I hope it willl be a great tree for you.

The reason why I asked is because I have 20 citrus trees and 2 of them are over 15 years old which came from Four Winds. I have a mixture of nurseries from which my trees came: Four Winds Nursery, Lowes (Saxon Bechnel & Sons Citrus Nursery) and a couple from Home Depot (Record Buck Farms). The only tree that will not grow for me no matter what I do to it, even though they all get treated the exact same, is the Record Buck Farms Eureka lemon and it's a cutting. My other one is a grafted tree. I purchased the dang thing 2 years ago and right after I repotted it after bringing it home, it dropped all of it's leaves except on one branch. After 2 years, the root ball has not grown at all and the leaves never grew back. I would not encourage anybody to purchase a Record Buck Farms tree as a cutting. After I owned it for a year or so, I did some research on the grower and the reviews are not good from a lot of folks.

Matt z, good luck with your tree. I hope you have better luck with a Record Buck Farms tree than I did.

Thanks guys! It'll be repotted in the next day or two. Run out of room in the ground :D

Denise, Sorry to hear yours didn't make it. I purchased two plants from them last year and they are doing great!

silica, I agree too with that. No reason to blame the nursery. There is a standard for nurseries when they bring stock in. When plants decline it is either most of the time climate related for personal care related as you stated. Most places here at least give you a year warranty.

Laura beautiful plants as always but that middle one, boom! never seen a potted plant so lush!! keep it up :)

I have had extremely bad luck with Record Buck citrus and will never buy them again. I have about 60 trees. Of those, most of the RB trees I have purchased in the past 2 years have died or are in bad shape while the vast majority of the non RB trees are doing fine.

So, silica, I do not believe the cause of death of my RB trees is poor care on my part. I strongly believe that there is something wrong with RB trees.

Vladimir, like I wrote above. Growers very frequently blame a nursery when their container tree has a hard time, or worse yet dies, but rarely ever blame themselves for their tree's problems. Of all the container trees grown by hobbyists, the average life span of a container tree is two years or less.

Silica, I am curious. You said: Of all the container trees grown by hobbyists, the average life span of a container tree is two years or less. Where did you find this information? I do not doubt that is true.

And what about the issue of rooted cuttings, as opposed to a grafted plant, as in the case of this eureka.

I am still trying to find better info about the saying 'x does not do well on it's own roots'. I assume this applies more towards in-ground growing.

For those of us growing in pots, is it going to be a battle to keep the size manageable?

All that said....I also saw a eureka that I couldn't pass up. Plant is not well shaped, and a RB cutting, but price was right, I guess.

I’m also curious about a plant on its own roots. If I take a rooted cutting or air layer a branch off, can I successful grow it in a container? Is rootstock less important in a container?

My Meyer, Key lime, variegated pink Eureka are all rooted cuttings, but all of my other lemons, limes and mandarins are grafted. So far all of my non-grafted trees have done very well, when I’m not doing things to kill them and even then, they’ve survived.

I think when it comes to RBF it really comes down to luck. Not all their trees will be badly grown and unhealthy. I see so many RBF trees where I live. The only time I've not seen RBF was in Home Depot by Van Zyverden and they don't always specify the citrus variety. They were selling a kumquat tree from Van Zyverden but the tag only said "kumquat." When a nursery grows and sells that many trees, there's bound to be a percentage of bad ones that fell through the crack

I generally agree with Silica but that statement is not always absolute. Nurseries are never perfect which often means a lot of the responsibility falls on us growers but the same can be said of the nurseries too. RBF will have a percentage of trees that are not strong and healthy and those of us that end up with one of the faulty trees..we're just very unlucky.

My RBF Meyer lemon cutting was definitely killed by my own hand but it's partially RBF's fault too. When I repotted it this spring to finish its indoor overwintering, I saw the reason it was so difficult to maintain its healthiness. The roots were very thick about 1/2" thick and had a root bound shape the size of a 3x3 container. These super thick roots were set in a twisted, looping, root bound shape. There was little space under the trunk and between the tops of the roots which increased the chance of getting root rot under the trunk. If the roots had not thickened in that root bound state before being slated for the market, it wouldn't have been so difficult to care for.

I managed to revive it once during winter after I made many mistakes as a newbie. After that I learned from those many mistakes and I knew what to do and watch out for but could not revive it a second time after the shock of my repotting. I'm pretty sure it's now dead due to root rot from the bad half of the root system. Meyers are definitely finicky but they're also vigorous growers which make them bounce back if the problems are addressed and fixed. I experienced that firsthand when it revived for me the first time. Because of the state it was in when sold to me, my Meyer tree was actually a special needs tree. It came to me that way and that wouldn't have changed no matter what I did.

If I had to choose between an unhealthy tree with a normal/good root structure versus a healthy tree with an irregular, potentially (tree) life threatening root system...of course I would've chosen the unhealthy tree with a good root system. It's not usually the nursery's fault but sometimes it can be.

here a few photos of the roots I discovered when I repotted it:

In my care my Meyer was capable of creating an amazing and healthy root system as you saw in the first photo with the healthy bottom half roots. It was the top half that kept setting it back and took its toll. The top half of the roots came to me in that condition. I wouldn't blame Denise if she's capable of growing 20 healthy citrus trees. Unless you find a very clear reason for its demise, neither party can really take the full blame

Transplanted a few days ago, it's loving it!

It looks great, Matt! And very healthy :)