The soil in the pot looks very heavy and has lots of clay, so I might try to re-pot in some higher quality potting mix for citrus. I am not a huge expert on citrus, so maybe someone else with more experience can tell you otherwise, but I would still re-pot into better soil. If you do decide to re-pot it, add some citrus fertilizer as well.

What kind of soil is it planted in? It looks like the soil in the background. If the tree can stand erect on its own, removing the stake would be good. That green tape will grow into the trunk of the tree. I somehow have green tape embedded in one of my trees. Keep the yellow label on the tree in a file somewhere for possible future reference.

It's in an awfully big pot; so it will probably take a few months before you see new growth. Try to aerate the soil a bit, maybe mix in some perlite; keep it moist but not too wet. If you leave it outside without a saucer and water every cupla days until the water runs out the bottom, it should be fine. Look for some Espoma Citrus Tone and give it a good shot of that. Citrus are amazingly resilient; so with these tips and a little patience, your tree should recover nicely.

The soil is a vegetable mix leftover from what I trucked in for my raised garden beds. It does seem heavy after reading some comments from other threads. I'll remove the stake and green tie too. I do have some citrus fertilizer but I think it's old, could I still use it if it' been a year old?

Even Here in northern Cincinnati, Oh citrus do better in ground.

Old fertilizer can be used.... it does not "expire" like human remedies.

Whether it 'expires' or not depends very much on the fertiliser ingredients and the storage conditions.

Nik, please explain. I know one should not allow the fertilizer to get wet. What do fertilizer ingredients have to do with storage life? Are you talking about organic fertilizers?

Andrea, I would get it in ground as the others have recommended. I'm in a cooler, foggier part of the bay area and my citrus (after I learned to feed them) are doing great in the ground. The occasional heat wave and freeze have been relatively well tolerated.

Nik, and John, not to divert the main question, but my bag of AS says something to the effect of needing to water it into the soil as soon as I spread it, as leaving it exposed to the air will cause it to lose effectiveness. So I assumed that I should also keep the bag closed tight and use it up fairly quickly. But I'd like to know if I misread the instructions and it will keep indefinitely?

KC

I see everybody giving advice to plant in the ground. Northern CA is pretty vague and no info was given as to which growing region this would be. If the tree is to remain in a container, is the changing the soil an option? I am aware of two popular options for home citrus growers depending which social media you frequent. One is 5-1-1 and another is using a product of Lowes called Sta-Green Shrub and Tree mix and just add 15% perlite. The tree will recover if it gets 8 hours of sun, temps remain above 32* in winter, fertilized monthly and not over watered. Welcome to the Citrus Club!

Thanks all, I would put it in the ground but we are currently landscaping so I have yet to find a place with 8 hours of sunlight that will not shade my vegetable garden. The current spot might do well but still working it out. I am in Sacramento, CA. My dirt was mostly clay and at my last house I had an orange tree that died because the soil was so bad it got water logged. Any recommendations if my in ground soil is clay such as appropriate amendments?

Watering a pot with retaining substrata every couple of days, especially a plant with so limited a canopy, is too much imo. Once a week will usually suffice unless temps are excessively high. Better to watch for signs of wilting in the afternoon and adjust your watering accordingly. No wilting no watering regardless if you feel it has been too long since the last time you watered. Eventually you will get the hang of it so you will water just before wilting is expected.

Denise, on which social medium do they recommend the Sta-Green Shrub and Tree and Perlite mix? I would like to check it out.

Both on FB: Citrus Kept in Containers and Indoor Citrus Tree Growers. There are a few folks here on one or the other. I have learned a lot from both groups.

After using up a couple bags of that Sta-Green stuff, I'm probably going to quit using it. I put my Meyer in that mix last fall and this spring it dropped all its fruitlets. I took it out to root prune it (figured why not, no fruit to disrupt), and it was already broken down to what looked like dirt on the bottom. Part of the problem, I think, was the container was too deep. But it is also a very heavy mix and I could barely carry the pot.

Anyway I found a great local source of aged pine bark fines (http://www.daddypetes.com/petes-soil-enhancer/), so I'm going to move everything to a more classic 511. And now my meyer is in a slightly smaller rootmaker pot and hopefully it will re-bloom?

I have a good friend who uses it on all her trees and they are thriving. I have no first hand experience with it, but I am sharing what is working for others. I think the perlite added to it lightens it up.

I am still using the Miracle Grow Potting Mix but added lots of mini pine bark nuggets and perlite. My sulking Record Buck Farm Eureka is finally putting out new growth in that combination and all my other trees are doing well now too. Knock on wood. lol.