Sorry, here’s a photo

Citrus are quite resilient; I would keep a good thought.

The squirrel was probably pissed off when he realized you left him no fruit. Took it out on the tree. I also think it'll survive. Might lose a few leaves.

reset, loose mix like that spared roots, work on overcast and cool day or night

And I thought root knot nematodes were a problem.

Steve

Thank you to everyone for the responses! I basically just stuck the roots back in, watered well, and placed in the shade for now. Would it cause any further harm to just bring it inside for a couple weeks?

That would be fine. If you plan to put it outside again you will need to acclimatize it to sunlight again.

Best to leave it outside... perhaps in the shade until it recovers and begins to make new growth.

Matt - when my stupid squirrel was digging in my pots, I found I could cut pieces of this gutter guard material (it is a 6" wide by 20ft long roll of "Frost King" gutter guard from Home Depot) and lay it in the pots (secured with a couple landscape "staples") -

Gardenweb - 2018 · More Info

I've found that topping the soil with lava rock keeps squirrels from digging in my pots.

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. I actually had hardware cloth over the top and wired down before the attack, but there were big gaps and they seem to have dug around it. I might have to get more aggressive, will try the landscape staples as well.

Only lost one leaf so far, though it looks pretty droopy and sad overall. Any thoughts on watering and fertilizing in the period? I want to just keep watering it since the leaves are drooped, but still don’t feel like I have a good grasp of watering 511.

Thanks,

Matt

Funny but I just found out from my sister yesterday that her black lab *hates* squirrels and apparently while my BIL was walking him yesterday (on a retractable leash that had been let out some), the dog saw one and dispatched it immediately. My niece texted me about it. lol I know their cat has brought chipmunk "presents" to them before but this squirrel thing with their dog was surprising to me because he normally just lounges around chewing on bones. My patio is too small with too many pots to put him out there for ad hoc "pest control" (plus he is > 100lbs) but I guess push come to shove... :-P

Since your plant's roots have been disrupted, I wouldn't fertilize but you can give it regular watering to get new feeder roots going again. I know people say to use the "finger method" on 511 but sometimes using that plus lifting the pot (since yours looks liftable) would be helpful too. We have had a ton of rain here (almost 1.5" since last night alone and almost 9" for the month) so I actually had to pull some of my smaller pots under my patio umbrella.

Man I hate it when squirrels dig up and throw around the soil in my container plants! I have a small jasmine plant that I left outdoors last winter and it actually survived so I have been regrowing it this year. Yesterday I found a shallow hole in the soil next to the jasmine's trunk and there were roots that were clearly broken from the squirrels digging :(

I found that putting smaller potted plants on top of the soil of your large containers work. The small pots aren't appealing enough for their digging instincts and they don't seem to understand that the pots are separate and can be knocked away.

wrap tin foil around the top part of the planter worked for me

I’m worried the squirrels may have won this one. It’s officially been 1 month and my tree has slowly dropped all of its leaves. Lost the last few about 1 week ago. It has had some thinner branches with a little die back, but most all are still green. Is there any hope at this point? It lost quite a few leaves when I switched to 511, but I feel like it had started to put new growth by now.

If you live in a colder zone like 7 and lower then there might not be enough warmth for the roots even if you have sunlight. It may recover its roots better if you have it brought indoors even if the light is weaker

I hadn’t even thought about that. I am in zone 6 and just brought it in 1-2 weeks ago, it’s currently under grow lights. Hopefully this will give it a jump soon. Branches still appear green, so I’m hopeful, but have not seen new leaves so far