Well have you heard of gritty mix? A search around here will tell you what is consists of. My potting mix is three parts. 1 part fir bark, 1 part crushed granite, 1 part Diatomaceous earth (DE). The purpose of this mix is for excellent drainage and gas exchange.
But if you use this you should have a complete fertilizer with all the macros and micros, like foliage pro, cause it's more like hydroponics than soil gardening. I recently re potted all my citrus with gritty, and they love it.
I shook all the dirt off the roots and rinsed it around in a bucket of water to remove all the soil, and then I carefully packed the gritty mix all in and around the roots in the new pot. If you don't want to pot a size up, then you may need to root prune if it's rootbound badly, just remove the larger roots that are encircling the pot.
Hope this helps!

Let me ask you..

What's it planted in now? It seems very happy the way you were caring for it..

I personally use the 5.1.1 mixes and porous heavier mixes for mine..I wonder if that is what it was in and I wonder if I would even be afraid to repot it looking so nice like that. Just kidding..But what ever you are doing, you are doing something right.

Mike

Mike

It's in a fairly porous soil now, so I think that's the way to go with these guys.
Norwoodn, what you describe is nearly Orchid mix that I use with my orchids. As a guess the diatomaceous earth would help to grab micro nutrients from the water and help to hold them in suspension for the plants use. Other than that I'm not sure in a normal potting soil what it's use would be; I'm familiar with the many uses of DE.
I think I have enough information to proceed with soil creation, now I have to decide which pot of the ones I have on hand. I'm actually leaning toward the clay pot. It's heavy so the tree won't tip over which happens in it's present pot. I can use the pink corning hard board insulation as a fill for the bottom of the pot. The pot next to the kumquat is a double wall pot that I used a drill on to give it more transference to the roots. The black one scares me as it will heat up a fair amount and I do set the plant outside my hoop house in direct sun in the summer. Maybe set the black one inside the clay pot drill holes in it and that way I can just bring in the black pot in the fall. Thank you for all your help!!!

I finally got up enough courage to re-pot my tree; boy did it need it!!! Since then it has put on so much new growth! The entire 1/3 of the bottom of the pot was nothing but roots, no visible soil, just compacted roots.

Will You Post A Picture? Did You Plant It In The Black Plastic Pot And Insert It In The Pretty Clay Pot? It Must Look Nice. We Would Like To See It.

Cory

So here's the followup; Tonight are temp. is to be in the 30's F, so in come the trees. Just took this photo and you will see a flurry of new growth along with a crazy new branch that is now 16 inches long; it sure liked the re-potting. Thank you all for your help.

It's Looking Great! Plastic Pots Are Easier To Lug In And Out When you Live In A Colder Climate.

Cory

yes I love it...

Don't forget to fertilize fertilize fertilize from now until the fall heavily...Wiat about a week or two before you start.

Looks nice

I did re-pot in the plastic pot and drilled holes too; and yes pulling it out of the big clay pot was a lot easier than lugging the big clay one around; so glad I did that !! The soil mix I had shipped in is a special citrus mix and already has fertilizer on-board, which I didn't like but it was highly recommended.. I also ordered some fertilizer at the same time it's called Espoina Citrus-tone organic. I also have Chelated Liquid Iron. I am open to any suggestions however.