Any advice on transplanting lemon tree

[ash]

[ash]

The last picture was taken just after it was put into the ground and I was moving the greenhouse over it. But it hasn't changed since and that was 3 days ago so I am hopeful it will survive

[sc4001992]

Ash, I suggest you thin out the smaller branches, you should remove about 1/3-2/3 of those leaves or it won't make it.

[sanguinho]

From what I have been told, citrus transplants are best done when it is warm in spring, and with few leaves to avoid transpiration and photosynthesis work.

[ash]

I really feel that it has few leaves on it for its size. It has been trimmed to heavily already for years so its just a thin layer of leaves and lots of branches. I worry about shocking it any more and I really would like to just leave it as it is and hope for the best..

But if more people think I should trim off the leaves please tell me

[adriano]

If you did not damage the roots, i would Not trimm the leaves, but you should water a Lot in order the soil atach to the roots. Of course the Nice and warm weather would help

[ash]

I done lots of damage to the roots but it has been trimmed heavily for years and has few leaves for its size. Also it had just lost about 10% of its leafs to cold.
It really has less leafs than it looks like in the picture.
It's now been 6 days and no sign of anything wrong with it

[sc4001992]

Ash, your roots look good since you have some small ones, not just the big long ones that don't help much. Good luck, I would still cut more branches if that was my tree. Let us know how it looks in 2 months.

[ash]

Yes it had a few smaller roots
2 months sounds like a long time to wait but I suppose I really will have to wait for it to put out new growth to truly know.

I mixed in a lot of mycorrhizal fungus into to the soil so I'm hoping that if it survives 4 weeks then it should have a large mycorrhizal system to care for it

[ash]

Ok it's been just over two weeks now and I've already got new growth all over the lemon tree.




I've also got a few new flowers forming though they are a bit blurry in the picture since my camera on my phone isn't good




So I think I no longer have to worry about having killed it

[ash]

We've had some hot weather recently and definitely some wilting and yellowing of the leafs. But it took nearly 3 weeks for it to show any sign of the move.

[sc4001992]

Ash, how is your lemon tree doing?
Hope it made it and still growing.

[ash]

It's very hard to tell at the moment. I think it's going to be a year or so before I can confirm anything.. All my other post were a bit premature.
It has lost nearly all its leafs. Only the few at the which were out of the sunlight are still on it and I expect those to fall soon. But no branches have died they are all still green. So I think it will survive. But still too early to tell.
All the new growth that happened stopped after growing only about 1cm. But since that was only 3 weeks after moving it I guess it was only just then going into shock.

I probably should have removed loads of leafs as suggested.
At the moment I'm expecting it to lose all the rest of its leafs and then hopefully put out some new leafs..

[sc4001992]

If your leaves all fell off, you may want to cut back the skinny branches now and leave a few inches where they meet at each branch. I would make sure to cover it (shade) so no direct sun. Your tree sounds like my variegated valencia orange tree that I transplanted and put in my front yard in direct sunlight (big mistake). As I mentioned, it looked ok for a few months, then it got worse like yours and in 3 month it was completely dead. At least your tree had more small/fine roots than the tree I transplanted years ago. I'm now starting to dig out my larger tree for transplant this month. It's a multi-grafted citrus tree with 8 varieties on it. I plan to dig/wait/dig/uproot then move it in a large pot. After it revives in the pot, then I will transport it to the final destination and plant in-ground.My tree is probably a little older than your tree and larger. I just dug up a large fig tree (10 ft, 5" trunk diameter) and put it in a temporary pot for now. Its doing fine, I have it in shade area of my yard. I also cut back the fig tree to 5ft when I put it in the large pot. I will also need to dig-up/tranport 3 large plumeria tree (6"diameter trunk) this summer and plan to do it the same way. I was planning to build one of those Versailles Planter Box Millet mentioned but didn't have time yet.

[ash]

Yes maybe I should cover it with some that just let's a little light through.. But I am in Ireland and we've hardly had any direct sunlight so far this summer. If we get some nice weather then I'll definitely cover it.

I think I won't cut ant branches just because I don't want to cause any more shock to the plant