Hi all

Edible landscaping nursery has charts for all its plant to steer you as what to plant and where.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://ediblelandscaping.com/products/tropicals/Citrus/

Good to know Mike! I think I can add Kaffir lime to the list. All winter I think I only lost 3-5 leaves. My meyer looked beautiful ALL winter, until march, then it decided that it wasnt happy and it proceeded to drop almost all it leaves except for 5-7. If that happens again next winter I most likely will give it away or chuck it. I can't have a tree like that, as much as I love meyer lemons :(

Kristopher

good info mike. I agree my meyer is very intolerant of low light, my key lime is close to that as well. My Washington naval could probably be put in a closet for months and come out still full of leaves.

thanks
Mike

I think Temperatures are a huge factor as well. My experience is with more light you have, the higher temperatures must be. Lower light trees can maintain a canopy with colder temps.

I agree Moro i one of the hardest to maintain a winter canopy. Tarocco is a challenge too. Ive also found that sometimes the trees that defoliate the most due to high light levels, flower the strongest that spring.

Kristopher,

Don't chuck it, just bud graft another citrus to it. You can graft any other citrus to it. Only takes about 2 minutes to do:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQgVFq-7kEs

I have a Meyer Lemon tree and as soon as I can I'll be bud grafting my Persian Lime (Tahiti Lime) to it and then cutting all remaining lemon branches after that.

This post was edited by bedtime on Fri, May 24, 13 at 14:52

That's an interesting idea, bedtime. I don't know how I would get any budwood though. I'll have to remember that for the future.

Kristopher

don't give up yet on your meyer lemon.

{{gwi:570206}}Broccoli grow chamber using light to heat roots of kumquat tree that is under it's own bucket light. 16 starts and 2/3 of meiwa kumquat tree from seed grows in 4 of 12 months.

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Bucket light for meiwa. Trash can can be used for bigger tree.

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12 13 watt CFL's 4ft by 4FT box with larger tree in center pokes through 2FT by 2FT hole with light above. Chose the wall height you need.

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Using hairdryer to aerate the roots for speed growth.

This really works well and all my plants grow faster here than in full sun light. What a lift for the winter time blues

Yup! That is right!

I have always wondered why my Meyer Lemons always get thinned in the leaf department and have many bare branches up to the tips and then realized that any growing in my area that are full canopied are either growing in a greenhouse with full sun for hours or in very sunny conditions in the home or yard, which I do not have the luxury of.

The thing with me is that I find providing extra light for certain trees very difficult and or expensive to do if using an artificial one. Been there done that.
I don't love my trees that much any more. If they don't do good in what I can provide for them, then I could care less if they look good or survive.

My objective now is to grow the easiest and most tolerable of the lights conditions that I can provide that I can get my hands on. It seems that my ORANGE trees are it!
I know a lady that sticks hers in a heated garage all winter with a window the size of my hand, and it always looks full green, lush, and healthy at the end winter.

Now if I can get my hands on others that do just as well given the light I can give them.
It is true that certain Citrus Trees need just about 8 or more hours of direct sunlight to do as awesome as you see them sold in stores or delivered at my door step, Lemon Meyer being the ultimate first.

Have a great day all.

*****Once again I am stuck with weather that does nothing for my trees, even at the end of May. It is always a grow, stop, grow, stop situation with me now that temps remain in the 40's and cloudy for days!******

It's wonder any of our trees up here in cold states look as good as they do or even survive!

This post was edited by meyermike_1micha on Sat, May 25, 13 at 14:30

For instance..............

It was warm for only a few short days last week, and look at all the new growth that started that now has to stop until temps warm up again. Now that it is cold again this is what happens.....

The new growth on my Calamondin LIMPING because of these cold temps.

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One of my Calamondin trees turning yellow because of cold nights...

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And then my Orange Tree doing well despite all this cold, cold, rain, and lack of sunlight.

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Mike,

"My objective now is to grow the easiest and most tolerable of the lights conditions that I can provide that I can get my hands on. It seems that my ORANGE trees are it!"

I feel the same way. I've recently been scrapping plants at my house that don't thrive in my conditions. No more trying to increase humidity. No more using terariums for the bigger plants. I'm tired of it. If the plants can't do well in my 25-50% humidity conditions, then sobeit...

I noticed that the orange plants seem to have darker leaves, which as you probably know means more chlorophyll and increased sensitivity to light. Seems Valencia and Washington Orange might be good varieties to go for. If only I could get a bud somewhere.

Btw, that pic you show above of the orange tree, what variety is it Mike? I grow my citrus only for its foliage (I discard the fruit and eat the flowers), as I love making tea with it and I also use the leaves in cooking. Infact, I'm making tea right now with some dried/powdered meyer lemon leaves... Do you find the orange trees to grow their foliage any faster / slower then lets say meyer lemon or tahiti lime? Sorry for the questions but you seem to have alot of experience in this department.

I am in a situation where it will. be cheaper to heat with Compact fluorescent lightbulbs than to heat with natural gas. That makes it profitable to grow greens, peppers, tomatoes, figs, kumquats, and other crops under lights. Lights are in my case the way to go in winter. It also give a great hobby to work through winter time blues. , The lack of sun has no impact. As a mater of fact I do better when I don't use any sunlight.

My trees have been out for up to 2 months and have not got quality citrus growing conditions yet this year.

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4FT BY 4 FT BOX FOR LARGTER TREE WITH A 2FT BY 2 FT PASS THROUGH FOR TALLER TREES TO GET LIGHT FROM AN ADDITIONAL ARRAY ,AS PICTURE BELOW

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There is plenty of room to get your garden starts growing. The savings is plants grown from seed will save you enough money to pay for the electric they use.

I am growing these meiwa kumquat tree s from seed mainly for fresh fruit though out the winter.

Thought I would bump this thread as I thought it was an interesting topic.

Does anyone have anything to add regarding differing tolerances to indoor winter conditions? I wonder if some species better tolerate the dim conditions or if any differences have more to do with the health of the individual plant.

I have a kumquat and a key lime I planted from seed this past spring. Both are in the same soil and have been exposed to the same environmental conditions. The kumquat has not lost any leaves. The lime lost about half of it's leaves in December, but has put out a lot of vigorous new growth over the past month.