Those are the same 15gal pots that I use too. I bought 10 of them, also at the specialized hydroponic store. Come to think of it, I need to buy another 10 more. lol.

I wish the big box stores would sell them, but they only have the other 15gal kind, the one that is taller with smaller width.

All my citruses and Japanese Maples go into those 15gal squat containers. I'm kinda lazy re-potting or sizing up, so all my citruses go into the 15gal once they're home.

Smart. My 30 gallon pots were H to move.

Steve

Steve, I am learning from Tapla more about rootculture so that I might be able with containers that I be able to maneuver easily. 30gl is out of the question. 15 gl squat is my answer. For citrus and strong winds those are my go to.

I apply bonsai principles to all my plants whether it is targeted as a bonsai or not. The largest is a 20yr old Ficus religiosa in a container with about 7 gallons of gritty mix. I will be transferring that to a smaller container soon. I prefer wider than taller pots. They are far more stable but the soil definitely needs to be free draining.

Small pots definitely limit the growth and so if you want to support a large plant with plenty of fruits you would need a larger volume of soil. But with proper root and shoot management you can squeeze out the maximum from a given volume of soil.

Here is a strawberry guava in 3 gallons of modified 511 mix. It is 4ft tall from the base, has about 30 fruits on it. The base of the trunk is about 1.5 inches in diameter. It desperately needs a root job and a repot. I would have to find a nice squat pot. I have a strong dislike for black nursery pots anyway.

Very unstable as you see. It will tip over just by brushing past it.

Nice looking tree,yes a wider container looks better. The container that I bought seems to me perfect. You don’t have to fill it to the top, which you can do with your next uppotting. Got a big rim.

Tropic I also dislike black planters and found some very nice off white ones from Target. They have sizes up to 18" in diameter

The green planter is a photo posted by one of the reviewers on the Target site. All the reviews were positive and I bought a couple during a sale. I got the white/cream one in 10" that I potted a Ponkan into. The plastic is not too thin or flimsy but it does not come with drainage holes. They have circular marks as a guide for drilling the holes yourself or if you're like me, I drilled my own drainage pattern that I prefer for my trees. It's keeping much cooler in the Target planter than the other 2 trees in their original black and dark green ones and as a plus it looks absolutely gorgeous. I'll be taking photos of my trees in a few days and I'll share the photos on this thread when I do.

kvetch, what's the drilling pattern you like? I have a few planters that I had my kid drill holes into and he did two concentric circles of pencil thick holes. Not for citrus, for flowering plants, but I'd like to know if there's a good method out there.

I got 15 gallon black planters for $2 each after a big local landscaping job. Shoulda bought the lot!

KC

KC I usually like to drill each hole at max 1" apart from each other but I end up going in a kind of pretty pattern towards the center lol like stacking bricks in a way. I like to drill in concentric circles with each respective hole between the empty space of the 2 holes of the larger circle above/around it. Makes for a nice pattern with mostly even spacing between all the drainage holes. I could drill at 1/2" apart but it would end up being really time consuming. I drill the whole base from the very outer edge of the base towards the very center in that pattern. Drains well this summer but we'll have to see about winter

tropic here is the photo of my Ponkan in that cream colored Target pot

I absolutely love the way it looks and it always feels considerably cooler than the dark green on the left

lucky_cloud, I should do that too actually. I've yet to repot that other tree in the dark container but it should sit in the empty Target container nonetheless!

Thanks, kvetch. Sounds about like what we did. How thick are your holes?

KC

No problem KC! I used a 1/4" drill bit when I drilled. I wanted to use one even skinnier to drill holes even closer together but my boyfriend took the bit. It would be better to use a skinnier bit than 1/4". Stuff will fall out of the hole but I was okay with it because I used #2 coarse perlite in my mix

Last summer I poked holes like this when I first started citrus growing as a newbie and didn't use a drill. It helped a lot for the Meyer with overwatering/bad roots issues

I think I'm better with watering now so I won't need to drill up the side like last year