Raised bed/container growing citrus

[Tropheus76]

SO my next project is a raised bed garden. In the back(North) row I have 2 4 foot wide circular plastic pipes that I am cutting from a larger piece I found in the woods. Long story short, previous owner was big into motorcross riding and used these giant plastic and some concrete pipes as the basis for his ramps and then he dumped them in the woods. So depending on the height I can get 8 to ten 24-30inch containers out of it.  I want to try a couple citrus trees. My plan is to put topsoil on the bottom half of the pot and citrus potting mix cut with perlite on the top half. The first two I am going to try are a Shiranu and a Sanguinelli Blood Orange.

Before I start cutting past what I have cut on the pipe to make sure I could, is this a direction any of you would try? What would you do different? Any further advice on the subject? I am very new to  the world of raised beds and container citrus in general.

[brian]

Why not just plant right into the ground?

Your plan sounds fine, though, as long as the lower half of the soil is free draining enough that the containers drain out when it rains

[Tropheus76]

Two reasons. I have tried a lot of citrus in the ground here and failed. I have a few that have worked but all on large mounds or fill dirt mound(the house is 6 foot above the mean level of the ground)and not native soil. So by having them in the fairly large containers I can control whats in the soil from the get go. Kind of an experiment. Interested to see if there is any less pest pressure too.

Second reason is aesthetics. I go to Epcot fairly often and love the Moroccan planters with their fairly large orange trees in planters and want to do something similar on a smaller scale. I think they will look good as a backdrop for the garden. I am also growing Blue berries nearby in similar sized containers but am going three per container.

[brian]

Makes sense.  I think it should work well, but be sure your container drains in a reasonable amount of time and isn't blocked by the lower soil. 

I have a ton of citrus in containers.  They are happier in ground, but do fine in containers

[brian]

Also, look into HLB virus if you aren't already aware