Make sure you acclimate them to direct sun light slowly. I start slowly by exposing them in the morning and evening and work to the center of the day. The next 3 days you could give them a rest inside, Then increase over the next 4 days. Now for the tricky part. Can you hang them from the house gutter. perhaps from a south facing window ledge. My gutter is a box gutter that can hold a 55 gallon drum on the south east corner. No one is going to take my tree there. My trees are on my roof. I am glade to hear that I was not the only one worried my trees would grow legs.

I like looking at tree pics. Could myou post some.

Here are my meiwa kumquat tree pics
{{gwi:569382}}
CLICK ON THE PIC WILL OPEN MY PHOTOBUCKET DISPLAY. NAVIGATE FROM PIC TO PIC USING KEYBOARD LEFT & RIGHT ARROW KEYS

Sweet-lee tangerine and nagami kumquat trees grown from seed

{{gwi:576121}}
Same instructions as above

Click the provided link below to see where they are or going to go

Here is a link that might be useful: https://plus.google.com/photos/111099372377958308731/albums/5864651368775846321?banner=pwa&authkey=CI763rvAj8eLAg

I don't think that I have a way to hang from the gutter, but maybe I could think of some other way to secure. I will try and get some pics loaded.

If you are worried about theft why would 4 days be ok and all 7 not?

Doing the back and forth will be a very slow but certain death of your trees. They need to have consistency to thrive.

Mike

I'm home 4 days of the week. So, it sounds like it would be best to leave them inside...or take the risk.

Just thinking out loud. Could you take some chain and put it around the pot and a fence or porch post and affix it with a bike lock so that ONLY you can move it around? Something that resembles a snow chain for a tire?

My thoughts as well about the bike chain idea. If you have plastic pots you could even drill a hole in the top and string a bike lock through them. Not the prettiest but effective. I live in a less desirable neighborhood and was concerned about the same thing, but I think the reality is that no one is going to steal a plant, the lay man will have no idea what it is anyway.

baconquest

Don'.t kid your self about the lay man or woman. my neighbor who works as a metal scraper. Has a 7 ft tall bushy orange tree on her front porch. However when I watch her handling huge metal objects with ease and bare hands, I realize that her tree is "VERY SAFE". You would be surprised how many of us lay people have citrus trees. we grow them from seeds. We also have avocado, papaya, and mango, trees. All of them from seed.

I have a similar question. I have a meyer lemon tree and currently the temperatures are about 20C (68F) during the day and 8C (46F) during the night. I've been bringing the tree in every night and back out every day. Is it better to just keep it outside?

To my understanding the roots shut down below 55 degrees and when the sun hits the leave they heat up and take damage before the roots start supplying the needed water. I bring my plants in when ever the night temps drop below 55 degrees. I wait till after dark to bring them in and place them out side before sunrise. That way the soil is near 70 degrees and the soil will not cool off fast enough to be a danger. This way my trees gets consistency of light from day to day. Another option would to place the trees on the west side of a structure to give the roots time to warm up, or provide shade for the foliage while letting sunlight to hit the pot first to warm the roots up faster.

I am working with pots Painted black on 1/3 of its diameter. That way I can turn the pot to expose as little or as much of the black side of the pot to warming sunlight and adjust the length that the pot will receive sunlight on the black side simply by turning the pot to expose more or less black to the sun.

root temperature is most critical when the tree is inside behind glass or in a greenhouse environment where the sunlight is concentrated. Outside its not near as important to maintain a rootzone temperature of 55 degrees. My trees are outside full time now. they are seeing nights fall into the 40's and get the full exposure of the sun from rise to fall. Not one leaf has been drop.

in regards to temperatures I only get interested in moving my tree inside when A) there is a chance of freeze, which for me means anytime there is a forecast of temps that start with 3. B) the day highs arent going to be above the mid 50's.

as long as your daytime highs are getting into the high 50's or above your trees need to be outside if possible.

citrus are a lot tougher than people think and really the only true danger to them temperature wise is a frost or freeze.

edit-really high heat is not good either. 100+ and mine like some shade.

mike

This post was edited by mksmth on Wed, May 8, 13 at 14:28

Thanks mike

You just saved me a lot of hassle because we are dropping into the low 40's and I was worried about my trees. I can leave then out.