I think the weather immediately preceding your cold event had more to do with the problem than the actual low temps. Where I live we can have an 80* day at Christmas and then a cold snap with temps not getting above freezing for 24 hours. With a new flush of tender growth [or no visible change] you have the recipe for a catastrophe. 

Sounds good and your roots look wonderful. Not much room for dirt. Magnesium sulfate , Epsom salt would help top.

Great article. Thank you !!

Your finger works best. The cheap moisture meters are very inconsistent. Your roots look fantastic. Your soil must be pretty porous especially after adding lots of perlite. If it's as porous as I think you should be able to use water to assure no air pockets. The less your soil drains the more danger with large pots staying too wet. Do you have plenty of holes in the bottom of your large pot ?

You might be a little gun shy. You are doing lots of stuff right to have so many roots as pictured. How did you fertilize before ? Before it's all over I think you will need to prune more roots and branches or maybe you will need to put them in the ground. I think you are pushing container limits pretty much already. What came out of the 1/2 barrel looked good. How many Meyer lemons per year did you have then ?

I'm glad some stinky soil got left out. I've done exactly the same. I think your worms will die from the increased fertility program. You might be so fired up that it would be safer to use organic fertilizer. Your compost worms would appreciate it. Fertilome makes an organic in an orange bag around here. There regular is in a blue bag and cost less. I think both are marked as citrus and nut tree fertilizer with magnesium and minor elements. Millet says citrus uses fertilizer in a ratio of 25-5-15 or anything in a multiple of 5-1-3. I use water soluble fertilizer sometimes and I like controlled release like the small BBs you see in recently purchased potted plants. I'm afraid to use too much for fear of burn but I do like green plants !

You can cut your tree like you want but there are guidelines. I haven't googled it in a while but yes at a v is a good place not in the middle of a limb. Anywhere two limbs are rubbing is bad so one can go. I would not want the remaining limbs to be pointing down. An angle like a 90* L is stronger than a a sharp angle less than 45* like a v. I think you need to remove a lot of limbs if your roots have disappeared. I'd think the dead rotten roots with just fall apart and smell bad. The soil will probably smell bad too. I'm sure there are lots of info found by googling and looking at you tube. I hope it's just a root bound problem. There are articles on that too. The roots go around and around. You can unwrap many of them but some will get broken. All the missing roots and damaged roots mean your top and bottom are way out of balance. I don't remember seeing that in many articles on line but I've read it here or the old citrus forum several times. The old forum seems to be back up and running but nothing added lately. The pots mentioned earlier that Millet likes are called 'rootmaker'. There are other air pruning containers that use the same principle. Good luck. Tom

The pictures really help. In the last pictures posted I think your roots look fantastic. I think your new pots are sized fine for what you grew in 1/2 wine barrels for 5 years. I hope you did not leave your roots out in the air naked for a long time because they dry out and die quickly.

If the roots dried out and died or if the roots then stayed wet all the time in your new containers then now  they will not look anything like before. I'm guessing your roots look bad and probably smell rotten. They may be just a few left. If I'm correct your top growth and root growth are badly out of balance. Looks like a terrible case of winter leaf drop. In this scenario I think your only hope is to severely cut back your branches and stop keeping your roots soggy.

I think your soil is fine. Sounds like 50% perlite is too much perlite. First big mistake was when everything looked great but you were about to out grow your 1/2 wine barrel. You could have cut out and removed up to 1/2 of your roots and also removed 1/2 of the top anyway you wished and replanted in the same container with more soil just like you had been doing. Working quickly and keeping your roots damp and covered with wet burlap sacks or even newspaper in a shady place out of the sun would have kept everything happy.

From the pictures I can't tell but maybe your roots barely fit in the new container. If they barely fit they needed trimming a little and the top would need trimming too for balance. New pots need to be about 4" bigger all around or the root pruning and top pruning are needed.

As evidenced by the newest pictures you were doing a really nice job but about to out grow your current situation. I'm afraid your grow pot with constantly wet soil was a drastic change for the worse. If I'm wrong and your soil didn't stay too wet all the time maybe you will find that your roots are badly rootbound. That would probably be a best case scenario !

Either way you need surgery on the top and it may be too late. I'm sorry. You had it growing really good. What were you doing about fertilizer in the 1/2 barrel ? To me it looked great when you replanted.

Tom

gardennewbe,

I think your soil is staying wet all the time from your description above. That and your soil mix seem to be the problem. I think you need to forget the self watering stuff for citrus. They don't like to stay wet all the time. I think your fruit don't have a chance this year and I'm afraid the citrus trees are about to die. More citrus in pots are watered to death than not watered enough. I've read stuff about using hydrogen perioxide for oxygen but I've never done it and yes I've had citrus die sometimes.

Wet soggy potting soil is terrible for citrus. You have done a good job of copying the popular 'grow boxes' but that's not good for citrus. Your citrus look big enough for the large pots to me. You need to do something immediately or they will almost surely die. I'd prune off the dead roots and prune off at least half the top to balance out the top and bottom. I think you should remove all the fruit if the plants look as bad as the picture. I'm afraid you, like me and others, have almost 'loved your plants to death'. I'm sorry but good luck ! Tom

Very interesting post. Do you remember what other varieties were in the taste test and what places they came in ? Thanks. Tom

Thank you Millet, that's very interesting and beautiful pictures ! 

Thanks for the report Mike T. That is very interesting. I guess it would be boring if everybody and everything were the same ! Good Day ! Tom

Thanks Millet. Glyphosate kills almost all plants and green tissue but it can be pretty safe on woody bark. There is no activity in the soil. It's one of the most broad spectrum herbicides. It will kill grass and most weeds but has more trouble with woody stems. Asiatic Jasmine is not fazed by it. There might be others. Tom