This three-year project was designed to study the effects of regular applications of compost on Valencia orange tree growth and productivity during the first three years of establishment. Trees were planted on 22 acres of land in a commercial citrus grove in southwest Florida near Felda. The trial was established in 2019 on eight raised beds at a planting density of 15 x 22 feet. The experimental design was a split-plot design with eight replications and a total of 3200 trees (145/acre). The main plot was treatment at two levels: compost or no-compost. For the compost treatment compost was applied at a rate of 5 tons per acre twice annually (May and November). To study the interaction with rootstock, four different rootstocks were included as the sub-plot: US-802, US-897, US-812, and X-639. Trees were arranged in two rows per bed, each row containing 100 trees with each rootstock sub-plot containing 50 trees. As root health is a major concern in the HLB era, this project complemented standard horticultural evaluations with evaluations of root health indicators, including anatomical and metabolic root health traits as well as the rhizosphere microbial community composition. We tested the hypothesis that increased nutrient retention through application of compost during the early phase of tree growth will result in better tree establishment and health and therefore higher productivity once trees become mature. We found that the biannual applications of compost increased several soil physicochemical properties such as CEC, pH, organic matter, and water content. Despite some variations across sampling times, soil potassium, magnesium, calcium, and boron content were generally increased after compost applications, while soil copper content was decreased. Increases in soil nutrient content translated into increases in leaf nutrient content in some instances such as for potassium. In addition to changes in soil properties and leaf nutrient status, compost amendments resulted in an increase in the fibrous root respiration rate, indicating a higher metabolic activity, but fibrous root length was not affected. Despite improvements in soil physicochemical properties and nutrient status, we did not measure any increases in growth or productivity after three years of field study. However, the total soluble solids content of fruits was decreased by the compost amendments. There were also differences associated with the rootstock, with US-897 producing the most and best-quality fruits. US-897 also had the longest and finest roots, which may be one reason for the higher fruit quality commonly associated with this rootstock. Changes in the rhizosphere microbiome were also measured in response to the compost amendments, but the impact was only correlated with specific changes in root nutrients for US-812 and US-897. One concern regarding the compost amendments was that they provided a favorable environment for weed growth, evidenced by a higher weed biomass measured in compost-treated vs. non-treated plots in some instances. The competition with weeds may have contributed to the lower amount of soluble solids measured in trees from compost-amended plots. Taken together, biannual compost applications at the rate and with the methodology used in our study did not result in any measurable effect on tree growth and productivity during the first three years after tree establishment despite some measurable improvements in soil and root health parameters.