Author Topic: Planting citrus in a bath tub.  (Read 1837 times)

BonsaiBeast

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Planting citrus in a bath tub.
« on: March 06, 2018, 06:12:47 PM »
I am planting 3 citrus trees.

One problem: the ground is nothing but rock and clay...

I have dug 4 feet deep, yet water continues to sit like its a bath tub. (I fill the hole to the brim, and in 24 hours, its drained about 60%. But I don't think that's good enough).

I added gypsum to the hole to penetrate into the ground. I hammered a crowbar into the bottom of the hole to get another foot deeper, and hopefully get through the clay layer.

What else should I do before planting these citrus? Elevate the rootball off the ground? Hugelkultur?

Thanks for the advice!

« Last Edit: March 06, 2018, 07:35:10 PM by BonsaiBeast »

mrtexas

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Re: Planting citrus in a bath tub.
« Reply #1 on: March 07, 2018, 01:31:44 PM »
Raised bed.

Viking Guy

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Re: Planting citrus in a bath tub.
« Reply #2 on: March 07, 2018, 01:41:59 PM »
Raised bed.

Pretty much this.  Even without those problems I elevate mine.

The other option is very large pots.  200g-400g fabric pots would be ideal in the long run. 

fyliu

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Re: Planting citrus in a bath tub.
« Reply #3 on: March 07, 2018, 01:57:59 PM »
What part of SD are you in? That sounds terrible.

Maybe build a raised bed out of bricks like the others said. Gypsum doesn't work as fast as we like. There's "liquid gypsum" that I've heard mentioned for SD that's supposed to work faster. I don't have any personal experience with it.

BonsaiBeast

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Re: Planting citrus in a bath tub.
« Reply #4 on: March 07, 2018, 06:17:26 PM »
I'm in Carlsbad, a few miles inland.

Here are a couple pics of the ones. The photos don't give good depth perception.




Millet

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Re: Planting citrus in a bath tub.
« Reply #5 on: March 07, 2018, 06:35:01 PM »
Some years back I had an area with very bad drainage.  I dug a hole 4 feet deep and 4 feet square.  Filled it with a drainable mixture and planted a lemon tree.  The tree never had any sort of problem.  The hole was deep enough and wide enough that even with SLOW drainage the tree has turned out great.

laidbackdood

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Re: Planting citrus in a bath tub.
« Reply #6 on: March 11, 2018, 02:02:53 PM »
You could run a drainage pipe at the bottom horizontally(smack a steel pole through with a lump hammer......good work out......then remove and push through a plastic pipe .....inch or 2 in diameter)...have the pipe into the hole 6 inches....cover with scoria..............then excess water can drain away.......as long as the hole is at least twice the size of the rootball.....it will grow into whatever mix you put there and then still go into the clay.......I grew my dwarf lemon in that way........if the rootball filled that hole.......youd have a pretty good top growth by then.....raise the bed as well..........smash some of the clay soil up and mix with 20% compost and mix.....no food......go for it........most of the roots will be in top half of soil and thats the area you want drying out to avoid wet feet.......oxygen starvation.....the pipe would really help....although clay doesnt allow good drainage......it does hold onto nutrients better........so your tree might well search with its roots into that area.
« Last Edit: March 11, 2018, 02:09:23 PM by laidbackdood »