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gryphaeon

newbie with a lime tree needs help

Tucker B
11 years ago

Greetings everyone,

I am hoping to get some guidance from some more experienced citrus people... I have a lime tree planted in a container that I inherited earlier this year and all has been going well with it until now. I am concerned about what I am seeing from the tree and wondering if someone can help direct me to what I should be doing.

I have attached a picture of the leaves which is my main concern, but I would like some feedback about the whole thing so I am going to give as much detail about the situation as I can think of.

To begin with, this tree was outdoors until last week when we had our first frost advisory (Dallas, N. Texas) when I brought it inside. I put up the plastic panels on my patio that allow light in but help keep the temp above freezing inside and turned on the massive grow light that I have. The grow light is a "Hydrogrow" light that uses a massive metal halide, full spectrum bulb (can't remember the wattage, just know that you can't look at it unless you are wearing welders goggles) and provides extra light when the sun isn't shining directly in the windows of the patio. The patio faces mostly south, so the sun it receives is mostly direct sunlight in midday and the rest of the day is supplemented by the grow light.

While it was outside, it was being watered about once a week based on how dry the soil was and it seemed to thrive well. When we brought it in, we watered it once and not too deeply, just enough to be sure that it wasn't dry and when I checked it a few minutes ago the soil was still slightly damp, but not wet enough to stick to my fingers down about 3 inches so I imagine it is fairly dry, just not completely dried out yet.

It hasn't been fertilized for several months and the fertilizer was a slow release citrus tree fertilizer meant to be used twice a year. We saw some problems with fruit drop when we first got it several months ago, but since then it has blossomed and only held three small limes which are now the size of a large olive and are now turning yellow. After bringing it inside, it is now blossoming again, which quite honestly puzzles me a bit since the leaves are turning yellow and starting to fall off. It almost seems like the tree is confused and thinks it is the wrong time of year.

The temperatures in the room it is in have not dropped below 50 F and haven't gotten any warmer than 85 F. What I would like to know is; is this normal behavior for a plant that has been moved indoors to a location like I have described, and if not, what do I need to do to keep it healthy? What would be ideal for me is if there was a set of instructions that someone could give me describing the routine I need to have when moving the tree from indoors out and vice versa, short of that, I will take any information available.

I can't think of much else to add about the details, so if there is more I should be considering, please advise. Thank you in advance for all of your help! :)

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