Many on this forum say to repot in the spring. Over the years I have repotted in every month of the year. with no difficulty what so ever.

I agree with Silica. I too have successfully repotted at different times of year. Others on this forum have said to repot on Father's day.

I would gently remove the old potting mix from the rots and not do a bare root. Your two mixes are so similar that I would not worry about using the new mix.

I tend to repot during active growth unless there's a major problem, in which case one simply repots whenever one has to. Since you're in active growth, by my general rules, it would be fine.

I also don't bare-root unless there's an issue, just knock off what I can and work from there.

Oh I meant to ask, is it ok to fertilize right after repotting when I water it? Or wait it out a bit?

Some say yes, some say no. I say yes, but generally recommend half-strength fertilization.

Ok and just to clarify the rate for normal applications is 1/2 tsp per gallon was it? It was it 1/2 tbsp

It depends on what you're using, but even if you were using pure urea (the purest nitrogen source) 1/2 tsp urea per gallon wouldn't be a major stress.

I use foliage pro dynagro.

1/2 tsp is barely any nitrogen or anything else for that matter. It'll be fine.

Ok but what if I was applying it to bigger established citrus? How much should I be giving for them?

Well I repotted my yuzu today and ended up not applying fertilizer to it as it was extremely rootbound in the bottom and I had to root prune it quite a bit. Hopefully the root pruning did not stress it out

Do you have a picture of after root pruning? In your case it is not too bad congestion (at least from the picture). The bottom inch should be sliced off. Can be pruned more than that but not absolutely necessary at this stage. You can fertilize if you want. If not, no big deal.

As to timing: If you are up-potting with some root pruning on the outer edges, you can do it any time of the year. Of course, it helps if the plant is generally healthy. A bare root repot is best done in Summer when the plant is at peak of its health and there is enough growing reason left to fully recover from it.

Heruga, your tree was not extremely root bound. The condition at the bottom of the rootball is very common on container trees.

Agree with Silica. Some accumulation of roots at the bottom is to be expected.

If that is common at the bottom of potted citrus trees then I am repotting too soon.

Steve

Steve, it is a bit relative though. Heruga has a pretty thin mat of roots at the bottom and not much on the sides. On the other side of the scale will be when the bottom 2-3 inches is a dense mat of roots and the outer inch or so is also a dense mat. With the amount of visible roots that Heruga has I will bet that a good amount of relatively fresh soil is still available for roots to populate.

This is a case of slip pot or up-pot and so overall it is going to be good for the plant anyway. Just a minor stress from some root pruning. Not a bad idea getting into a full growing season.

I didn’t take a picture of the after root pruning. But I pruned at least 3 inches( some as far as 6 inches) just so it will take that much longer to get rootbound again before I repot in couple years. Don’t know if that was harmful to the plant but it seems to be for now. One thing I can say is that it’s ALOT heavier with the pine bark compared to the fir bark!

Btw, I used a pot that was just available in my shed and don’t know if there was ever any soil in there but there were leaves and debris so I just removed them and washed the pot until debris free. I did not sterilize them with bleach or anything, will not doing so potentially harm my citrus with pagthogens and fungus?

Most bagged fir bark I know (like Repti bark, orchid mix, etc) are sifted to remove all the dust. Whereas normal bagged pine bark has good amount finer and dusty material. These finer material hold more water and thus are bit a heavier. Fir bark seems to be sieved very well to remove the smaller material. The other difference could be level of aging. If one or the other is more aged then the aged version is going to hold more water and so a bit heavier.

I do wash my pots before reuse but have never have bleached them unless I know a very specific reason. Like if I know that an obviously diseased plant was in that pot. Otherwise, it should be perfectly fine.