Re: Transplanting Citrus

Toni,

Glad you enjoyed my brief intro to transplanting mature trees.  I've had a fair bit of practice in my own garden(s), as I don't always get the location right on the first try, and/or building remodels may require a move that wasn't anticipated when designing the original garden.  I've also had to relocate things because I just didn't know how big the plant would end up getting.  If you are limited for space as most Californian gardeners are, you can probably relate.  I once moved a fruiting Cherry 3 times within the same garden, and it continued to do well.  As I am now much older and hopefully wiser, I try to find out as much as I can about a plant before I liberate it into the garden.  Many of my plants remain in containers for years before they get so big that they need to be planted out.  Most people would find so many pots within a garden to be more trouble than it's worth, but it seems to be a trend among many east San Francisco ba! y ! ! area gardeners.  In my own case, I find it multiplies the useful area that I can plant, when I can hang plants from tree brances, attach them to walls and fences, and set smaller pots on the surface of larger pots and make instant arrangements which can then be dismantled when they are past their prime.  Or maybe it's just an old habit I haven't relinquished from when all my gardens had to be portable and fit on an apartment's fire escape...

Related to transplanting, I might add that with deciduous species  and native mediterranean climate plant species, it probably makes most sense to transplant to take advantage of the fall rainy season.  For tropicals and subtropicals, it makes more sense to transplant when the weather has warmed up enough to encourage active new growth.  Most temperate evergreen plants can be transplanted at any time, as long as water is not a limited quantity.  If it is, avoid moving things in the hottest months, and wait until fall instead.  Of course, if you garden in a summer rainfall climate, or somewhere that has a summer monsoon season rather than winter rains, adjust accordingly. 

.Many of the trees we are growing here in Riyadh at this palace come from places like Madagascar, India, and southeast Asia, and are just coming out of there brief deciduous phase and newly leafing out again.  I assume that this correlates with the end of their native habitat's dry season and would usually occur with the beginning of the monsoon rains.  It's a little bizarre to see the Ficus religiosa/Bo tree looking like a Lombardy Poplar with golden fall color in April, with some trees already totally leafless while others are newly green with fresh green leaves,  and all this while temperatures have been in the high 80's to 90's for several months.  Being in a subtropical desert climate such as Riyadh's makes me truly appreciate the diversity of earth's climates, but at the same time makes me realize that I have no desire to experience 125 F come July and August .

Toni Hawryluk <tonihawr@email.msn.com> wrote:

>In future, if you have the luxury of time to do a big tree transplanting job as a two step process, (snip)

>Most arborists would suggest holding off on thinning out a relocated tree until it indicates to you which parts of the tree have been most affected by the root loss, as you really have no way of knowing this until damage appears.  However, crown reduction in advance of your tree moving can be advantageous, and will trigger the tree into pushing new growth more quickly upon being relocated.  You would need to do this again a month to 2 months before moving the tree, and possibly concurrently with sidetrenching the roots.(snip)

>For your situation now, I'd suggest keeping the tree shaded with possibly 50 % shade cloth to reduce water loss(snip)be moved as well, but with citrus, I'd say that early spring about mid-March is probably as good a time as any, in your area of northern California.  David Feix<

You have explained things  (in particular the above points)  so clearly that I'm keeping your post  (the complete one, of course !) for when I'm doing  *any*  transplanting ..... Thanks, David.

Toni Hawryluk

t*@email.msn.com

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