I have my trees in water collection tray but are held up by objects so that the drain water clears the bottom of my tree's pot.

I water them in place and use a small cup to remove most the water.

This post was edited by poncirusguy on Mon, Nov 18, 13 at 8:48

Oic. I thought about that but couldn't figure how to remove the water from the tray. Turkey baster comes to mind, lol.

Good idea!

You can leave some just to provide winter humidity.

Place pebbles to increase the surface area of evaporation.

Steve, great suggestion///

One can water freely too which is a plus...

I use bottle caps in over sized plastic saucers..

Home Depot and Lowe's sells them oversized saucers that have indents inside of them and this is great too..

On nice days, you can also take them ouside and do a mass watering them bring them inside again...

Have a great night

Mike

This post was edited by meyermike_1micha on Mon, Nov 18, 13 at 18:50

Mike Are you sure you live in maine. Here in cincinnati my trees came in by mid october and will not go outside till early May. Here is exactly what I have.

I place the vacuum hose in the hole and water the tree. no water spills out the side and I can use the turkey baster or my shop-vac to remove the water.

to see the actual bucket the seed grown sweetlee tangerine is in click on the link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:562609}}

This post was edited by poncirusguy on Tue, Nov 19, 13 at 21:57

Like Mike said, drip-trays if you want to keep your plants in place. I do both. I carry my citrus to the sink during the Winter and thoroughly saturate the mix. Then I return them to their rightful places, below which I have situated drip-trays to capture any additional effluent.

Josh

I am allergic to moving 60 pound trees in 5 gallon bucket. It was hard enough moving these tree when they out grew the bucket lights. I thought they would make it to may 2014.

Steve

What can I say, I like a workout ;-)

Josh

I have close to 20 trees of various sizes. It's a chore bringing them in and I usually lose one or two over the course of the winter. I did pick up a temporary greenhouse this year and it gave me an extra month outside and what I'm hoping is that it allows me to move them back outside a month or so early, like maybe in late February. If I can get by only having them indoors for 3 months I think that'll be a win for me.

My new permanent setup for year late 13 early 14

{{gwi:125728}}
Plants will be to big to place in hear nex fall

I inherited a 1000 watt metal halide light set up that will go in the joist with a 12' by 12 ft area inclosed by 2 by 3 frame and dry wall separate plant room. My wife said "It WILL! look nice"

Treat the trees as if they are sick and spray before you have problems and you will do fine.

Steve

I just barely water my citrus during the winter - maybe a cup of water per week or a slight soaking every third week. Never enough to run out the bottom of the pot. I like to keep them dry and cool so that they are almost dormant. I've had too many of them rot in the winter in the past.

John, when using rain water, I do the same exact thing with every plant just about that I have,,,I only water until I feel it's enough when no fertilizer is in it...

Mike

I am surprised by how well my citruses are doing in the house. I have dwarfs and so far they all look great. I don't water them very often and mist their leaves occasionally.

That's great..The biggest killer of Citrus in the winter is an overly water rententive mix....I am happy for you they are doing well...Seems liek you have the watering thing right.

Mike