Growing trees in pots isn’t new; that’s pretty much what the fabled Hanging Gardens of Babylon were. In relatively more modern times, 17th century European greenhouses of the privileged sported miniature trees; there was even a word, orangeries, coined for mini citrus-producing indoor trees.

Why Grow a Citrus Tree in a Container

Besides the obvious answer – why not? – there are many reasons to add mini citrus trees to your home space:

• They smell great; the fruit is an added treat. In fact, one study of chemo patients found that the scent of a cut orange was enough to quell nausea.
• Not every living thing cares for the scent – which is good; spiders and fruit flies hate the scent of lemon.
• They look pretty. Dark green leaves and a flowers in a range of colors from pale yellow to deep orange.
• They’re good for food and more. In the 18th century, a British doctor discovered that supplying ships with citrus sharply cut the number of cases of scurvy, a vitamin C deficiency disease.
• Expand your garden beyond Mid-Atlantic zone-friendly crops. Citrus trees can sun outdoors during the warm months and shelter indoors during the cold months.

Benefits of Citrus Fruit

Flavonoids, found in citrus peel and seeds, have antioxidant, antiatherogenic (prevents plaque build-up in arteries), anti-inflammatory, and antitumor properties. They can inhibit blood clots and some clinical studies link a high intake of flavonoids with a lower risk of stroke and Parkinson’s disease.

Citrus fruits have a long use as a friend of the immune system. The bitter white part between the rind and fruit of an orange does wonders for breaking up the congestion of a cold.

Citrus oils are germ killers, mood lifters, antifungals, antibacterials – the list goes on. Researchers have identified multiple ways – from combating anxiety to killing bacteria and fungi to killing and/or repelling insects – in which citrus helps us out.

Nausea buster, or anti-emetic. One study found that chemotherapy patients who inhaled the scent of a cut orange enjoyed fewer bouts of nausea.

I’d read that lemon repelled spiders, so I had to give it a try when my basement office was being taken over a few years back. As a spider descended to my desk, I put 2 drops of lemon essential oil directly below it. You should’ve seen that critter scrambling back up its thread! Pretty remarkable. Maybe that’s why lemon is a common scent in furniture and house cleaning products…

Shopping List for a Container Citrus Tree

The Tree

There are two basic routes to Happy Citrus Land: plant seeds or a seedling.

Seeds

Before you send that overripe citrus to the compost heap, salvage a few seeds. Rinse the seeds and put them in soil and water. First comes a pretty, decorative tree with fragrant leaves and flowers that will spruce up your home’s appearance. The leaves can be used in potpourri or sachets or for hydrosoling. And then, one day, fruit starts to appear. How cool is that?

But this is taking the scenic route to a harvest; edible fruit takes about 15 years to appear. If you’re not that patient, you’ll want a seedling.

Seedlings

Seedlings are young trees no more than 3 feet high. They come with or without a container. Once settled in their new home, the seedling will continue to develop with the proper maintenance. Edible fruit appears in a mere 2-3 years.

NOTE: Don’t panic if your tree drops flowers and/or leaves when it’s re-potted. The trees tend to do that at that stage. Once they’re settled, more flowers and leaves will grow and stay put.

Pro Tip: You can also buy a live citrus tree online like this Improved Meyer Lemon tree from Amazon.

Pollination

Minneola and Orlando tangelos can be used to pollinate other trees. And of course bees – but you don’t want them indoors…

Really, you shouldn’t need to worry about pollinating your tree, though; many seedlings are self-fruitful and self-fertile.

Citrus Varieties Amenable to Container Gardening

These are dwarf varieties, trees which don’t grow above 8′ tall. By comparison, a regular tree can grow 12 to 15′ tall. But a smaller tree doesn’t mean smaller fruit.

When You Can’t Decide – You Have Options

It’s not a myth. A fruit tree that grows more than one type of fruit   Yes. It’s the fruit salad tree, aka multi fruit (bearing) tree. Seemingly the more the merrier – grapefruit, orange, lime; two oranges and a lime. . . The ultimate in the art of grafting.

Recipe for a Fruit Salad Tree

For more details, read the Scientific American article. But the basics for growing multiple fruits – like grapefruit, lime, orange – on one tree are:

1. Take one small tree to serve as the base, or rootstock
2. Take branches or slips from multiple trees in the same family (e.g., stone, citrus). These are called scions.
3. Cut the end of the scions into a V-shape to expose the vascular cambium, the main growth tissue inside the stems and roots.
4. Make vertical cuts or holes in the rootstock.
5. Insert scions into cuts or holes of the rootstock.
6. Bind in place with twine, tape, etc. to allow rootstock and scions to form a mass of cells (parenchyma) and, eventually, new vascular tissues (xylem and phloem).
7. In time, from many trees, one tree.

WHY? Why would anyone want to do this? A few reasons:

1. Because.
2. Increased yield.
3. Curiosity (“let’s see how far we can go with this!”)
4. Space saver – one tree, multiple fruits.
5. Increased resistance to mold, fungi, and viruses.
6. Because. It’s not the same because as number one on the list. This one is “because it’s cool” or your descriptor of choice.

Now, on to the rest of the shopping list.

The Planting Medium

Avoid indoor potting mixes with chemical wetting agents. They will make the soil too wet, causing root rot. The folks at Four Winds Growers have found outdoor rose garden soil has a just-right porosity.

For proper moisture management, to help with drainage and aeration, any of the following can be added to the soil:

• perlite
• vermiculite
• 1″ wood chips or shavings
• peat moss
• coconut coir

The right porosity can be achieved by adding untreated cedar or redwood chips. If you’re unsure whether mulch has been chemically treated, stop by a pet store and grab a bag of hamster bedding.

PH Level

The soil should be acidic, having a pH of 7 or more. Two ways to do that:

1. Add 2 tablespoons of vinegar to a gallon of water
2. Use soil with a slow release mix of ammonium nitrate, sulfate, or sulfur-coated urea
3. Jobe’s makes a ready-to-go granular organic soil acidifier.

Feeding the Tree

Citrus trees are heavy feeders; are usually fed during the whole time the tree is blossoming and fruiting. Getting the right mix of nutrients is important for a vibrant tree with robust leaves and fruit. The chart below lists those which are essential for a citrus.

Apply fertilizer to the leaves or in the soil around the trunk, not directly against it. Jonathan Davis recommends Jobe’s Organic Fruit and Citrus fertilizer.

Containing Your Citrus Tree

Avoid the black nursery pot for long-term use. The color and material combine to hold heat and will cook the roots.

Many use plastic containers because of their light weight. But if you want to go plastic-free in this area, use wood or terra cotta. They require more intense moisture management since they’re porous and water can quickly evaporate.

Being heavier than plastic, you’ll either want to have a dedicated space that gets all the sunlight needed. Or you could put the container on a wheeled coaster to make it easier to move.

The deeper the pot, the better it will stabilize the tree when it starts producing all that lovely, heavy-hanging fruit. A foot deep or more, with a diameter of 12 to 14 inches should work well.

The container should hold moisture, but not too much, and have good drainage. If it only has one or two holes at the bottom, it doesn’t take much to drill additional holes. Ensuring proper drainage removes the risk of root rot.

Re-potting

Since managing the moisture content is harder with a small tree in a large container, it’s better to adjust the container size as the tree grows. Each year, check the container for roots peeping out of the drainage holes or if the leaves start to wilt.

To re-pot:

• Ease the tree from its container and inspect the roots. Trim dead roots and detangle ones that were starting to circle the container.
• Shake off loose dirt and wood bits.
• Place the tree into its new home and fill with soil, leaving the crown roots slightly visible.
• (FEED AND) Water well.

Care and Management of a Container Citrus Tree

Eight hours of sunlight a day in a south or southwest location outdoors is ideal. It may be necessary to move it to keep up with the sun’s march through the yard; which is another good reason to put the planter on wheels.

If the tree is indoors and there isn’t enough natural light, say a large picture window or patio door, 12 hours under full spectrum grow lights will do nicely.

Wet-to-Dry Watering Cycle

Citrus trees don’t do well in wet soil but aren’t fond of dry; you’ll need to maintain the right balance between dry and moist by:

• soaking the roots but don’t let the water stand
• allow the soil to get dry but don’t let it linger

To simplify this key maintenance step, get a soil moisture meter to make things easier. These can be single or multi-purpose use; many also measure light and ph levels. Or you could go very low-tech and just use a chopstick. When it’s dry, it’s time to water; when it’s damp, you’re good.

Pruning

Outdoor citrus trees are pruned in the spring. Besides shaping the tree and managing its height, removing weak branches will prevent unnecessary energy expenditure on something that won’t ever produce fruit.

Protecting Your Investment

Pests and disease are the common bane of gardeners but if
you’re going to grow citrus, you’ll want to be aware of one particularly
disease which has devastated commercial citrus crops for over a decade.

Huanglongbing disease, or citrus greening, is a bacterial disease which disrupts the development of trees. Fruit produced is undersized, ugly, and unappetizing. In the U.S., all States with citrus crops are impacted; an estimated 90% of Florida trees are infected. To date, although some strategies work to slow it, there is no known cure or remedy for HB disease.  http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn74155.html

Trees become infected mostly through the Asian citrus
psyllid (ACP), a small aphid which carries the bacterium Candidatus
Liberibacter asiaticus. As it feeds, the aphid ingests the bacteria from
infected trees then injects it into other trees. An entire grove can be wiped
out in 6 years or fewer.

Watch this short vid on how to detect Asian citrus psyllid by citrus entomologist Beth Grafton-Cardwell, Ph.D. at the University of California.

• Steam, which also increases a tree’s lifespan and fruit production
  • Enclose the infected tree in a plastic tent and expose to the sun
• Bactericides
• Protective screening 
• Ant predators -This could go in the list above but it’s an indirect approach to combating ACP. Ants feed on the honeydew produced by ACPs so they’ll protect the nymphs to ensure the babies will grow up to produce it. Ant predators include:
  • beetles
  • caterpillars
  • flies
  • spiders (black widow, jumping)
  • Snails and other hard-shelled organisms.
  • Snakes
  • lizards
  • birds

Natural killers include diatomaceous earth, borax, and Orange Guard, an insecticide made from citrus peels (poetic justice?)

ACPs are thought to’ve been introduced into the country in the 1900s. Tiny (aphid-sized) and brown, ACPs feed on new citrus leaves but can be found on any part of the tree.

The infestation has led to quarantines in 15 states (South Carolina being the closest to the Mid-Atlantic) so it’s really important to know from what source is your seedling.

This past May, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was prepared to give growers the green light to use two powerful antibiotics, streptomycin and oxytetracyline, to combat the disease. This led to an alarm being raised because so little is publicly known about their long-term effect, there is a fear that their use could create a new strain of HD that’s more antibiotic resistant.

ACP Predators

As noted in my article on combating uninvited garden guests, predators are a great option for pest management. Those that have a taste for Asian citrus psyllid:

• Parasitic wasps (tamaxixia radiata and Diaphorencyrtus aligarhensis)
  • These were released into Southern Californian groves with encouraging results –
• Ladybugs, especially olla v-nigrum and harmonia axyridis, eat the ACP nymph before it can develop
• lacewing larvae
• syphid larvae
• minute pirate bugs – 1/5” oval or triangle-shaped minis feed on small inspects and insect eggs. Unfortunately, these can inflict painful but nonvenomous bites on humans in late summer as they migrate to fields and woods. Scientists at Iowa State University recommend wearing dark clothing to repel the mini pirates.
• spiders
• birds

Grove to Container and Back Again

Because there is no known cure for HLB, any tree found with even a slight infestation of ACP should be destroyed without delay. It was spread from groves to the many trees in the yards of private homes and back to the groves.

All this to say: Buy Carefully. If you see ACPs on your citrus tree at any point, it must be destroyed. Check with your local or State environmental department for instructions.

Fixable Infestations

Beyond the dreaded citrus greening are your more – sorry – garden variety infestations. Fortunately, we have an article discussing proven remedies for prevention and eradication for these uninvited guests:

• spider mites
• whitefly
• scale
• mealybugs

Now, on to more appealing citrus-y things!

Recipes

Besides enjoying citrus in their natural state, here are a few recipes to try with your new harvest.

Honey-Grilled Chicken with Citrus Salad from Saveur
Four kinds of citrus with savory rosemary and cilantro – which may also be in your garden.

Lemon Custard Pudding Cake from Allrecipes.com
Sooooo good. Just sayin.

Kale Lemonade

I saw this on a Facebook post offering suggestions on how to incorporate more greenery into a daily menu. Looking around, I see various recipes involving fresh kale and freshly squeezed lemons and a blender. But, since kale releases its nutrients better slightly cooked, I slow simmered

•  2 cups of raw shredded kale
•  1 whole lemon
• Filtered water

Let it cool then poured some into a glass with ice. The taste was was very . . .  green. I didn’t add sweetener initially because I wanted to see what it tasted like on its own. Green. Just green.

Will I try it again? Possibly; it has potential as a cold soup type of thing. Simmering leaves it thin enough for a clear broth. I’ll try it again at some point with birch xylitol for sweetener.

Lemon Soup from Allrecipes.com
One family’s tradition proves that a little (time and ingredients) can go a long way to resolving dinner dilemmas any time of year. This soup boasts only four ingredients which come together into something wonderful in 15 minutes.

Orange, Onion, and Olive Focaccia from Fine Cooking
Nice sweet and tangy-sour combo for those who love making a good yeast bread.

Baked Lemon Cod from What’s Gaby Cooking
Three iterations of lemon in a simple recipe.

Crab Balls with Grapefruit Salad from Food and Wine
Take advantage of crab season now through November with the something a little different. If I ate crab, this would be in my recipe box. You’ll have to let me know how it turns out.

Citrus Container Challenges

Citrus can contribute to every part of your home, from DIY
personal care products to cleaners and fresheners to repellants and deodorizers.
The biggest challenge may be in deciding what to try first. Are you ready for a
citrus container garden?

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