Hi Lemmings,

when I repot these citrus cuttings, how far up do I expose the stem base? Do I just uncover enough to find the highest roots and set that near soil level, or should I expose more? And with the old Jiffy pellet, is it better to carefully peel it off, just slit the mesh, or mostly leave it alone at this stage? These are still young cuttings, not established trees, so I’m trying not to damage the new root system while also not planting them too deep.

Closeup of the fresh cutting in a peat pellet:

Context: I propagated some citrus cuttings in Jiffy peat pellets. They rooted, then I potted them up into regular potting mix. They are alive and pushing new leaves, so that part seems fine, but I’m realizing the peat pellet was probably not the best choice and I’ll likely need to repot them again soon.

I looked into it a bit, and from what I found, for fresh rooted citrus cuttings you generally do not want to bare the whole stem all the way down to the original cut end just because roots may have formed there. The important part seems to be keeping the plant at about the right depth relative to where the first real roots / root flare zone starts. In other words, avoid burying too much unrooted stem, since that can raise the chance of rot, but it is apparently fine for the actual rooted section of the cutting to stay buried.

What I found about the Jiffy pellet itself was mixed. Some people say roots grow through the mesh fine, others say the mesh can restrict roots and should be removed. The most reasonable advice I found was: when repotting, don’t rip everything apart. Instead, take the root ball out, gently remove loose mix from the top until you can see where the first roots start, then maybe slit the pellet mesh vertically and remove only the parts that come off easily without tearing roots.

And advice / experience reports most welcome!

Closeup of the original tree’s root flare for comparison: