Meiwa-sink or swim

12 years ago

Hello all,

{{gwi:28398}}

I waited two years for our nursery to get in a meiwa kumquat, they usually just carry nagami's. So I made my version of gritty mix, pulled out the meiwa and started to loosen up some of the soil with the water hose. Well, I intended to only take off a couple sections of the soil from two sides, but when I hit the root ball with the hose the whole thing just started falling apart, so it was "what the hell". I took off all the soil without pulling at the roots, I cut off the bottom third (which wasn't much), then planted it.

Before anyone say's anything, the soil is mixed well, I just raked my finger's across the top to even it out and it moved all the bark to one side. Also, it is in the sun, I have a back injury and there is no moving that huge container, it's bigger than it looks like in the pic, the container alone is heavy, once it's filled it stay's put.

The poor meiwa will either sink or swim, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Jerry

Comments (6)

tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
12 years ago
Good luck!

Unless I'm misinterpreting what I'm seeing, it looks like it's planted pretty deep. That doesn't carry as much potential for being a problem with the gritty mix as with other soils because the top dries out fairly quickly with the gritty mix, but it is something you might want to consider fixing by removing enough soil that the upper roots are at the surface or just barely covered.

AL
JerryVentura Jordan
Original Author
12 years ago
I actually added more soil than I wanted to in order to bring it up closer to how deep it was in the nursery pot . It's grafted very low, but they only had three and I wasn't going to be choosy, the other two didn't look very good.
JerryVentura Jordan
Original Author
12 years ago
Here you go Al, a better look.

{{gwi:31427}}

You see that little brown line across the trunk near the bottom, that was the plant depth in the nursery pot, I kept it up as high as I could.

Jerry
groem
12 years ago
You could tape some cardboard to your pot to give your plant some shade and wind protection for a few weeks until the plant adjusted. Bring the shade to the plant if you cant bring the plant to the shade :)
emgardener
12 years ago
Good luck with your Meiwa.

They are great plants. I have one in the ground and enjoy the non-bitter kumquats every winter season.

Rabbits probably are not a problem judging from your picture, but if they might visit your deck, you should wrap the trunk while its young.
poncirusguy6b452xx
10 years ago
JerryVentura

2 years 2 months later How is your meiwa doing.
Here is a picture of my potted meiwa seed grown.

{{gwi:31428}}
! year old and at its best

{{gwi:31429}}
What is left after problems 15 months
It is doing well now