Soil Volume Needed for Container-Grown Myers Lemon

Q. I plan on building a wooden planter for a Myer's lemon tree and would like some guidance on how many cubic feet of soil the tree will need to live to a ripe old age.  Also would like your recommendation on what to mix with screened desert dirt.

Citrus planted in 24 inch box container. 24 inch wooden boxes are available from Viragrow for $25. 

A. keep in mind that soils in containers become exhausted of nutrients and organic matter in a few short years. In other words, these trees need to be repotted or a portion of the soil replaced every year two.

You can do this by either pulling the plant out of the container, removing some soil, replacing the plant in the container as well as adding some new soil or you can dig some of the soil out of the container and replace it or add one or 2 inches of compost to the top of the soil in the container and lightly rake it into the surface.

 

Vermiculite is available from Viragrow for $10 per cubic foot which equals about 30 quarts.

It also helps if the soil surface in the container is covered with a mulch that will decompose adding organic matter back to the soil.

 

Organic ground cover or OGC is available from Viragrow for $60 per yard or $2.50 per cubic foot. OGC is a wood chip mulch that decomposes over time adding organic matter back to the soil. Apply 3 to 4 inches.

I guess what I'm telling you is you cannot just put a plant in a container and expect it to be healthy and live a long life. You have to do something to add nutrients and organic material back to that soil. The soil mixes here are rich in sand mixed with compost and eventually become mostly sand as the compost breaks down. Plants do not live a good life with their roots in 95%+ sand.

Citrus fertilizer is available from Viragrow for $20 for a 20 lb bag. Apply half of it in January and half again in three to four months.

It isn't a question of just soil volume. However, I would tell you that the volume of soil should be as large as possible. How is that for not answering the question?

First I will tell you what is best for the tree. Then we will be realistic. Nearly all of the Myers lemons are grafted onto rootstocks that keep them smaller than their 10 to 15 foot height grown on their own roots. They should reach a size of 6 to 10 feet in height in a container.

 

Biosolid Free (BF) compost is available from Viragrow for $55 per cubic yard or $3.00 per cubic foot. Viragrow Compost is available for $43 per cubic yard or  $2.50 per cubic foot. Mix this with native soils 50/50 for soil improvement and as a soil mix.

The minimum size container would be a 24 inch nursery box used for landscaping or as close to that size and volume as possible. 24 inch boxes are 24 inches wide.

It is more important for trees that containers are wider than they are deep. So wide containers are better for a tree than deep containers.

 

Garden Gourmet Planter Mix is a ready to go fortified container soil mix in a bag available only from Viragrow for $4.00 per cubic foot bag.  Use this product straight as a container soil mix.

Realistically, we make the plant fit the container. So this means that periodically we do some root pruning and some annual top pruning to keep it smaller.

When planting in containers, weight of the weight is always a concern. Other concerns are drainage and water holding capacity. We should also take into consideration how well it holds fertilizer so you don't end up washing most of the fertilizer out the bottom of the container.

 

Viragrow has a bulk container soil mix called Grower Blend Soil Mix available for $45 per cubic yard used by commercial nurseries. It can be purchased by the cubic foot for $2.50 per cubic foot.

If money is no object, I would use a soil mix of one third sand, one third compost and one third vermiculite or perlite. The vermiculite or perlite helps to make the soil mix lighter and easier to move around. Sand adds inert bulk to the mix. Some people might put sphagnum peat in the mix but peat moss is not environmentally sustainable and doesn't add much in the way of nutrients.

Soil pH a problem? Organic Magic lowers soil pH quickly. It is spread over the soil surface and watered in. It retails for $30 for a 30 lb bag.

Compost is a sustainable product that adds nutrients as it decomposes over 2 to 3 years and has many of the same properties of peat moss. Compost should be added back into a soil mix on an annual basis. The sand and perlite or vermiculite are pretty permanent in the mix so they do not need to be renewed but compost must always be added back the soil mix. 

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