# Tap Root and Lousy Instructions



## Denton (Sep 18, 2012)

On many occasion I have planted fruit trees on my meager little backyard and embarrassing front yard so that we might have some food of our own, and every single time, I have followed the instruction printed on the tag. Every single time, the tree has refused to grow very large, and every single time, I have had no problem taking it out of the dirt. 

The lady who is my partner at work would be described as a prepper by most, but she is really just someone who uses good, common sense and prefers her own food over grocery store food, and prefers to barter with the local stores, trading her fruit for whatever she needs but doesn't grow.

Long-winded way of getting to the point, I know. Sorry. Point is, for those of you who are as dumb as a fence post like me, it is important to find the tap root of the tree when taking the tree out of the container. Once you get that sucker, unwind it from the ball of roots, trim the length if need be, and plant the tree with the root in the right direction. Otherwise, it will choke the tree and you'll never get what you wanted out of the tree.

I never saw this important bit of information on any of the instruction tags. Thanks to Lynette and her decades of growing things, I now have one more piece of info that will help me not screw up. At least, not in the same way.

Hope this helps someone else.


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## slewfoot (Nov 6, 2013)

We have a lemon tree. lime tree, peach tree, and an orange tree all growing and producing quite well. I never bothered with the tap root, just loosened the roots around the edges of the ball and made sure the soil where the tap root will sit is loosened. You can see where the tree was grafted do not bury above this. I was told many years ago by a grove manager that this will suffocate the tree. 
Good luck


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## MrsInor (Apr 15, 2013)

I'm going to write both of those down in one of the tree books we have. Thanks!


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## Denton (Sep 18, 2012)

slewfoot said:


> We have a lemon tree. lime tree, peach tree, and an orange tree all growing and producing quite well. I never bothered with the tap root, just loosened the roots around the edges of the ball and made sure the soil where the tap root will sit is loosened. You can see where the tree was grafted do not bury above this. I was told many years ago by a grove manager that this will suffocate the tree.
> Good luck


Lynette always shares a lot of Meyers Improved lemons with us, and Wifey bakes a lot of lemon goodies for Lynette and her husband. Me? I'm just the driver. Stick with what you know, I guess.


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## slewfoot (Nov 6, 2013)

Cutting off all or part of a tap root on citrus can cause the tree to go into shock. It take a lot of watering and care to bring it back and it may never recover. That may be what is happening to your trees.
Look for fertilizers that stimulate root growth.


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## Denton (Sep 18, 2012)

slewfoot said:


> Cutting off all or part of a tap root on citrus can cause the tree to go into shock. It take a lot of watering and care to bring it back and it may never recover. That may be what is happening to your trees.
> Look for fertilizers that stimulate root growth.


Nope, I never untangled or cut a thing. I just plopped the thing into the ground as the tag (paper tag, not a hash tag) suggested doing.

The only thing I have ever planted and watched thrive was a calamondin orange tree, and it was a mere eight inches tall when I got it from a Florida tourist trap in 93. It is easily ten feet tall, fully established and puts out the strongest little pucker-producers I ever tried. I used to give them to the neighborhood kids until they all caught on and learned to hate me.


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