I've been rooting citrus cuttings for a number of years and recently started to germinate seeds. Plus I bought some C-35 and some Flying Dragon rootstock from four winds growers. Invariably I end up with problems when the seedlings get about a foot tall. Often it's my fault: I over-water or I forget one and under-water it, or I don't see the scale insects attacking the plant until it dies back.
Is there a "recipe for success" for watering these small plants and, related, is there a trick to get such stressed seedlings to get growing again? I've now had a couple that are about a foot tall, have 2-3 leaves, are green, but have not done anything in a year. Their roots are small but not rotten.
As potting mix I use half pumice and half the E.B./Stone citrus&palm mix (
https://www.ebstone.org/products/eb-stone-organics?tab=outdoorsoilamendments#citrusandpalm-439) and I fertilize monthly with their citrus "plant food".
Some pics...
Here are 4x FD rootstock from 4Winds (left) and 4x C-35, received late january.
I repotted the FD as the roots were filling the tiny pots:
Unfortunately I didn't calculate the automatic watering correctly when I left for two weeks and the FD got overwatered as far as I can tell. (I should also have completely removed the very water retaining mix they were in as opposed to just filling my mix around the existing one.) Now I"m struggling to get them "restarted".. (Sorry for the bad photo with all the mess in the background.)
I've only recently started to use the transparent cups for the small plants after seeing that use on ourfigs.com. I need to put some paper wrappers around them to block the light, but so far there are not enough roots for this to be an issue :-(. The mix is very well draining but perhaps the 6 small holes in the cups are not enough. I'd love to experiment, but I find that it takes a very long time to see whether things are improving or not, typically the plant just sits there do nothing either way for a looong time...
Any help appreciated!