I use 1/2 wine barrels and drill lots of extra holes with a variation of the 5-1-1 mix. Its been 100* all week and they are getting watered daily. I don't seem to be able to over-water my citrus. I also use 7 gallon root-maker plastic molded pots for my smaller trees.

Of course you can add extra drain holes. For plants still in nursery pots, I don't mind drilling holes all over the pot, but generally don't do that with the 'fancy' pots.

Also amend your potting mix to make it drain faster.

As for mold, increase airflow and get direct sun on the soil.

Are you going to add a Meiwa to the collection? They are kind of hard to source these days (mail order), I'd recommend grabbing one before they get any more scarce. I just picked up a Fukushu for that reason. Nagami seem to be the most easily found.

Thanks for the input. I'm still looking into it. I think to increase airflow enough in a plastic pot though, I'd have to add some holes to the side which is a bit tough to do with trees that live in my living room. When I used to use plastic, before I switched to clay on a recommendation from a local greenhouse, I would drill the bottoms out as much as I could without compromising the integrity of the pot, but even amending the soil, I would usually find mold in the pots around january with the constant rain and shorter days. Another local garden center recommended fabric pots, but I've only seen them used a few times and I'm not sure how well they would hold up indoors. I have been curious if anyone has any experience with them.

@Nick, I had considered half wine barrels but I heard that they rot over time. Has this been your experience? How many years do you usually get out of one?

As for my collection I've been wanting to add a centennial and a meiwa, and possibly a limequat and a finger lime, but I have to move to a bigger place first. Right now my only window large enough and bright enough to grow plants already has a pretty sizeable population, and for some reason all my tropicals like to get big. I couldn't keep good airflow if I added another tree. Hoping to add more in the next few years though, especially with the two that I have growing so well. Since it took it's place in the window, my fukushu has probably added 6-9 inches of new growth on most of its branches and dozens of tiny little buds that weren't there when I got it.

Hello Hu I live in Vancouver and our winters are very very wet! I plant most of mine in plastic since clay got too heavy. I have a greenhouse which makes things a little easier to grow but when I didn’t and grew it inside my house I never had a problem with mould because with the heater going inside my house it’s very very dry. In the greenhouse however is a different story its very humid and even my gold nugget which is in clay pot rotted and grew mould! I’m not sure what happened there but I do have lots of fans going! Maybe direct a fan at your pots?

I use mostly the plastic 1/2 wine barrels and get them between $15-20 each and once in a while at Costco for $12

Plastic pot holes drilled to suit.

I've seen people talking about using round rope handled utility tubs. Those things are 67L 17.8gallons. what do you guys think about this size? It would be bigger than anything I currently use. Seems people can get them for as low as $5 usd but here in Canada I don't see them for less than 15cdn.

The ropes pull through the hole under any big load. It is also unlikely it can resist UV.

Steve

I would use a dolly to move extreme large pots that already has the plant in

My yard rises 30 feet from the road and my house is cut into that hill. A dolly won't work.

Steve

Probably resist uv no better or worse than a 5 gallon bucket that plenty of people use. I never buckets for planting but have had plenty of them sitting outside. They break down and crumble in two years if they stay outside all the time.

I didn't know that I'm talking about washtub or old whiskey barrel size pots

5 gallon buckets are free and they have such nice carrying handles.

Steve

apparently I was talking about much larger size containers than you were

I get 15 years out of this

plastic pot

A home depot paint pail

Okay I was talking about much larger tree

Anyone use any of those wicker pots that have been popping up in different places (I've seen them on amazon, ikea, a couple local hardware stores) or grow bags? They seem like they'd be lightweight, but I wonder if they would leak from the sides.

I have a pluot tree in a 30 gallon grow bag and it’s doing great

my trees are just young seedlings right now and by weight when the trees get big enough a dolly will be good to move them around

Here is my tree in the growbag and its doubled in size since planting it this spring in the growbag.

How well do the grow bags hold up? I'm wondering if they'd be ok in an indoor space. The pluot looks great!

I usually get 3-4 seasons from a grow bag.

Nick I wish my Meiwa kumquat tree would grow that fast.

Steve

maybe I can graft my lemons on to a japonica for cold hardiness and get good results

Has anyone here ever painted black pots?

no I haven't but I can't say for anybody elese

I have painted plastic pots all kinds of colors from white, tan, brown, red,blue and black.

Did you use spray paint?

isaid I don't right now but I can't say fo every body

Yes just cheap cans of spray paint from Home Depot

like I said I just did not know

I just cleaned and spray painted a 16" wide black rootmaker white. Expensive pots but they get too hot. Now to let it cure a few days.........expecting a premium size delivery soon

you may need to order large clay pots larger than stock sizes and make sure you order the right size plant saucer for those pots as well