- 22 minutes ago
Grow citrus trees successfully from planting to harvest with this practical guide to choosing, planting, watering, pruning, and protecting your tree through the seasons. The lesson focuses on oranges and other citrus varieties, including lemons, limes, mandarins, and satsumas, with special attention to growing a tender tree in a pot where winters are cold.
You’ll learn why drainage matters, how to use gritty soil, how to keep the graft point above the soil line, and why a young trunk may be whitewashed to protect it from sunscald. The guide also explains how to move a potted citrus tree outdoors for summer sun and back indoors before frost, then care for it near a bright south-facing window through winter.
There are also clear tips on watering by soil moisture, feeding lightly, pruning for a healthy compact shape, thinning fruit for better harvests, and handling common pests without overcomplicating the process. It is a useful gardening and fruit tree care video for beginners, backyard growers, and container gardeners who want sweeter fruit and stronger trees.
Created for viewers searching for citrus tree care, how to grow oranges in a pot, lemon tree planting tips, container gardening, fruit tree pruning, and winter care for potted citrus. It also fits searches for gardening guide videos, backyard orchard advice, and step-by-step citrus growing tutorials.
You’ll learn why drainage matters, how to use gritty soil, how to keep the graft point above the soil line, and why a young trunk may be whitewashed to protect it from sunscald. The guide also explains how to move a potted citrus tree outdoors for summer sun and back indoors before frost, then care for it near a bright south-facing window through winter.
There are also clear tips on watering by soil moisture, feeding lightly, pruning for a healthy compact shape, thinning fruit for better harvests, and handling common pests without overcomplicating the process. It is a useful gardening and fruit tree care video for beginners, backyard growers, and container gardeners who want sweeter fruit and stronger trees.
Created for viewers searching for citrus tree care, how to grow oranges in a pot, lemon tree planting tips, container gardening, fruit tree pruning, and winter care for potted citrus. It also fits searches for gardening guide videos, backyard orchard advice, and step-by-step citrus growing tutorials.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Here is a thing most folks in the cold country are sure of, that they can never grow their own
00:05oranges, that an orange tree is only for the warm, sunny places like Florida and California,
00:12and would freeze dead the first hard winter here. And they are half right, for an orange tree left
00:19out in our winters would surely die. But here is what they do not know, that you can grow your
00:25own
00:25orange tree even in the coldest country, and pick your own sweet oranges right off it by one old
00:32simple trick, and that is to grow it in a pot. For a tree in a pot you can move,
00:38and a tree you can
00:39move you can carry indoors out of the killing cold and back out again come spring. Folks have kept
00:47tender fruit trees alive through hard winters this way for hundreds of years. Today I will show you
00:54the whole of it, how to choose and plant and grow an orange tree in a pot, how to tend
00:59and prune it,
01:00and above all, how to carry it through the winter so it lives for years and gives you your own
01:06oranges,
01:07in a land where folks swear it cannot be done. I am Elias, and though we are blessed with good
01:14ground here in Lancaster County, some things will not grow in our cold, and the orange is one,
01:20unless you grow it in a pot and shelter it. This is a bit of the old potted tree wisdom,
01:27the way folk have long kept a tender tree alive far north of where it would grow on its own.
01:34If you live in the warm country where oranges grow outdoors, much of this holds for you too,
01:40only you plant yours in the ground. But for the rest of us, it is the pot and the winter
01:46shelter.
01:46Let me give you the whole of it. Quick word before I go further. The old methods my family uses,
01:54there is more of it than fits in any one video. I gathered the whole of it into a book
01:59at Elias
02:00Yoder.com. The book is the long version. If you want it, it is there. I will not mention it
02:07again.
02:08I remember the wonder of an orange when I was a boy, for we had them but rarely. An orange
02:14in the
02:15toe of a stocking at Christmas was a real treasure, sweet and bright in the dead of winter. It seemed
02:22a thing from a far-off, warmer world, not anything a body could grow here. It was years before I
02:29learned that with a pot and a bright window, you can grow your own even in the cold. So let
02:35me hand
02:35you that knowing. First, the choosing of your tree, for it matters which orange you get. If you want an
02:43orange for juicing, the Valencia is the old classic, hard to beat. If you want one to eat straight off
02:49the tree, peeled in your hand, I would steer you to the cara cara, a sweet, rosy-fleshed orange,
02:57about the finest eating orange there is. And here is a fine one for the cold country especially,
03:03the mandarin, the little easy peeling orange, the satsuma above all, for the mandarins are the
03:10hardiest of this whole family by a good margin, taking a fair bit of cold that would harm a regular
03:16orange, and they peel like a dream. So if your winters are truly hard, a mandarin or satsuma
03:22is your wisest pick. Choose a good young grafted tree, and for a pot, a smaller or dwarf kind is
03:30best.
03:31Now here is a thing you must understand before you plant, for getting it wrong kills the tree.
03:37Near every orange tree you buy is a grafted tree, two plants joined into one, a hardy tough root
03:44below, and the good fruiting orange grafted on above, joined at a point you can see low on the
03:50trunk, a little bump or scar. And the number one rule is this, you must never bury that graft point
03:58below the soil. Keep it a good few inches clear above the soil line, for if you bury it, the
04:04good part up
04:05top can rot or send out its own weak roots and you lose the tree. So find that graft joint
04:11low on the
04:12trunk and plant so it sits clear above the soil. Folk who do not know it bury the graft and
04:19wonder why
04:19their tree fails. Now the soil and the pot. The one thing an orange cannot abide is wet feet, sitting
04:27in
04:27soggy, waterlogged soil, which rots its roots. Now it likes water well enough, it drinks a good deal, but it
04:35does not want to sit in it. So it wants a soil that drains fast and free, a gritty, sharp,
04:41airy soil that
04:42lets the water run right through and never stays soggy, lightened with a bit of good compost. And the pot
04:49must drain as fast as the soil, so above all it must have good drainage holes in the bottom.
04:54I say this plain because folk lose more potted trees to this than to anything, planting in a
05:01handsome pot with no holes so the water sits and rots the roots. If your pot has no holes, bore
05:09some
05:09good ones before you plant and stand the pot up on a couple of little feet or stones so the
05:15water runs
05:15clear away beneath. And a pot deeper than it is wide, for an orange sends down a good root. No
05:23drainage,
05:23no orange tree. Now the planting itself. Take your young tree gently from its nursery pot and look at
05:32its roots, and if they have wound round and round the bottom, circling tight, you gently tease them
05:38loose and open with your fingers so they will grow outward into the new soil rather than keep circling.
05:45Do not be timid. A gentle loosening does the tree good. Then set it in the pot, minding that graft
05:53point stays well above the soil, at about the same depth that grew before, or a touch higher, never
05:59deeper. Backfill your gritty soil around the roots, and here is a good tip. Once you think the pot is
06:07filled, give it a few wraps on the side to settle the soil down, and you will find it once
06:13a bit more.
06:14Firm it gentle and water it in to settle it, not soggy. And there it is planted. Now here is
06:22an old
06:22orchard trick worth doing to a young tree, and it may look strange, but it is wise, and that is
06:29to
06:29whitewash the trunk. You take a plain lime whitewash, all natural, and paint the trunk and the larger
06:36lower limbs white. Why? Because a young tree has thin, tender bark and few leaves yet to shade itself,
06:45and the strong sun can scald and split that bark, and pests can get in besides. The white paint reflects
06:54the harsh sun, and guards that young bark from scald and pests until the tree grows older and leafier,
07:01and can shade itself. So whitewash the trunk of your young orange, an old, proven protection,
07:08and it starts life the stronger for it. Now where to keep it? And here is the heart of growing
07:15an orange
07:15in the cold country, the moving with the seasons. An orange wants all the sun you can give it, so
07:23through
07:23the warm months, from after the last frost of spring until the first frost threatens in fall, you keep
07:30your potted orange outdoors in the sunniest, warmest spot you have, up against a warm south wall is ideal,
07:38and there it grows and blooms, with a blossom that smells like heaven and sets its fruit. Then, as the
07:46first
07:46frost nears, before the cold can bite it, you carry the pot indoors for the winter. For the orange is
07:54an
07:54evergreen, keeping its leaves and growing on through the winter rather than sleeping, so indoors it still
08:01needs light, and you set it right against a big south-facing window where the winter sun pours in
08:08the sun's strongest, as close to the glass as you can, or in a bright, cool sun room. It wants
08:15all the
08:15light it can get, and a cool spot rather than a hot, dry one. There it waits out the winter
08:22alive, and come
08:23spring, when the frosts are surely past, you carry it back out into the sun. In and out with the
08:30seasons,
08:31out for the summer sun, in for the winter shelter, that is the whole secret. And a gentle word on
08:38that
08:38moving, that a tree feels a sudden change, so when you first set it out in spring, do it by
08:45degrees,
08:46a few days in a sheltered spot before the full sun, so the leaves do not scorch from the shock.
08:53And keep
08:54it clear of cold drafts, and away from the hot, dry breath of a stove or heat register
09:00indoors, for the dry heat is hard on it. Ease it between its two worlds, and it takes the move
09:08without dropping its leaves. Now the watering, where most potted oranges are lost, and it comes
09:15right back to those wet feet. The great danger is over-watering, drowning the roots, and here is the
09:21cruel trick, that an over-watered orange and an under-watered one look near the same, both yellow and
09:28wilting and sickly. So folks, see the sickly leaves, think it thirsty, water it more, and drown it dead.
09:36So do not water by the leaves, water by the soil. Push your finger down a few inches, and only
09:43if it
09:43is dry down there, do you water. Then water well, let it drain right through, and leave it be until
09:50it
09:51dries down again. In winter, indoors, it wants far less than you would think. When in doubt, wait,
09:58for an orange forgives dryness far more readily than soggy feet. Now the feeding, and go easy.
10:06An orange in a pot wants feeding, for it has only that little soil to draw from, but do not
10:12overdo it.
10:13Early on, you want it building itself, its trunk and branches and leaves, strong and bushy before it
10:21fruits, and a bit of good compost and aged manure feeds that. As it matures, a light, steady feeding
10:28through the season, but go gentle, and do not force it with too much rich feeding. And a thing to
10:35know
10:35for troubleshooting, that if the leaves go yellow between their veins while the veins stay green, that
10:42is often the tree wanting for iron or such in the poor pot soil, and a feeding of good rich
10:48compost sets
10:50it right. Now the pruning, for an orange wants a little shaping, though less than many fruit trees.
10:57Unlike some trees, you open right up. An orange likes to keep a fairly full, bushy, leafy canopy,
11:04for those leaves shade and protect it, so you do not thin it out hard and open. But you do
11:11keep after
11:12the three D's the old pruners speak of, cutting out any wood that is dead, diseased, or damaged,
11:19always. And you cut back the odd branch to keep it a nice compact shape and a size you can
11:25manage and
11:26move. For a potted tree you must be able to carry, so keep it from growing too great and tall,
11:33headed down
11:33to a good, bushy, manageable size. Keep it healthy and shapely and a size you can shift, and that is
11:41pruning enough. And here too the thinning of the fruit, that same wisdom we meet in every fruit.
11:48A young potted orange may set more little fruits than it can well ripen, and if you let it carry
11:55them all, it feeds them all poorly and gives you many small, mean oranges, and may even strain the
12:02young tree. So thin them, pinch off some of the little green fruits so the ones left have room,
12:09and the tree pours its strength into fewer, finer, fuller, sweeter oranges. Fewer fruit, better fruit,
12:18the same wisdom as near everything worth growing. And be patient, for a young tree may take a few
12:25years to bear you a good crop, so do not despair if the first year or two give little, it
12:31is building
12:31its strength. Now a plain word on pests, for folk fret over them more than they need. The main trouble
12:39on a young orange is a little pest that mines squiggly trails in the tender young leaves, and it
12:46looks alarming, but the honest truth is it mostly troubles only the soft young leaves, and a healthy,
12:52vigorous tree simply outgrows it. For as the leaves age and turn tough and leathery, the pest cannot
13:00touch them. So if it gets bad, just pinch off the worst hit leaves and let the tree grow on
13:06and toughen
13:07up, and it leaves the trouble behind. No need to go spraying poisons. A strong growing tree tends itself.
13:15I will mention honestly there is a serious citrus sickness out in the warm orange country that has
13:21harmed the big groves, and it is the very reason you may find young trees hard to buy or ship
13:27into
13:28some areas, for they guard against spreading it. But that is a matter for the great groves,
13:33little for you and your one potted tree. Now let me say a small plain word, not a who-profits
13:41sermon,
13:41for the orange is no one's scheme. But notice, once you have your little tree, it costs you almost
13:48nothing to keep. A gritty soil, a pot with holes, a sunny spot in summer, and a bright window in
13:56winter.
13:57And it gives you, year on year, your own sweet oranges off your own tree, a fruit folk in the
14:05cold country
14:05are told they can never have and must always buy shipped from far away. There is a whole notion
14:13that certain good things are simply beyond you, that you must always buy your oranges because you
14:20cannot grow them here. And it is not so, for a pot and a sunny window and a little old
14:27knowing put your
14:28own orange tree right in your kitchen. The old folk knew you could carry a tender tree through a hard
14:35winter and eat its fruit. And it is a fine independent thing and mostly forgotten. So there is the hole
14:43of
14:44growing your own orange tree in a pot, even in the cold country. Choose a good kind, a mandarin if
14:51your
14:52winters are hard. Plant it in gritty, fast-draining soil in a deep pot with good holes, keeping the graft
15:00point well above the soil, and whitewash its young trunk. Set it in the full summer sun outdoors and
15:09carry it indoors to a bright south window before the first frost, out and in with the seasons. Water it
15:17careful by the dry soil, never soggy. Feed it light, prune it to a healthy manageable shape, and thin its
15:26fruit
15:27to a few fine ones. Do these and you will pick your own sweet oranges off your own little tree
15:34for years,
15:36in a land where folks swear it cannot be done. Now I want to hear from you. Tell me down
15:43below whether
15:44you have tried growing an orange or any such tree in a pot, and how it fared through your winter.
15:51For I know
15:52some of you in the cold country have fine potted trees you carry in and out, and I would learn
15:58your
15:59tricks. And tell me your county and how hard your winters come, for the harder the winter, the more
16:06this carrying indoors matters. I read every one. Next time I want to show you the growing of a fig
16:14tree in a
16:15pot the same way, another fine fruit you can keep in a tub and carry through the winter, for the
16:22fig
16:23takes wonderfully to a pot and will give you sweet fresh figs even where the winters would kill it in
16:30the ground. The old people knew that a tender tree need not be surrendered to the cold, that with a
16:38pot
16:38and a sunny window and a little care you could carry it through the hardest winter and eat its fruit
16:45besides, growing what your neighbors swore could not be grown. There is a quiet triumph in that,
16:52in picking your own sweet oranges in the snow country by nothing but old knowing and a bit of
16:59trouble taken. The people who built this country with their hands knew that, and we are only just
17:06starting to remember it.
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