How many fluorescents? How many watts per bulb? Are they T8, T5, or T12? what size is the fixture? How is it mounted?

Unless you've put the sun in your closet, I wouldn't expect flowers or fruit. Also 65 seems a bit cool. Fluorescents should warm things up quite a bit. Unless the room itself is unheated?

I don't think there's anything wrong with just maintaining over winter. I'm not sure you should expect much growth, especially after repotting due to trauma. I would remove the fruit simply because I don't think there are enough leaves left to support them. You need to stabilize the plant at this point.

I started my M. koenigii under 4 T8 32W 6500k bulbs and they've done well with that - but now that they've had their first repot, I'm putting them under TEN T8 32W 6500K bulbs. I may also overdrive those after the year turns over. Bigger plants need more light.

How tall is your tree and what size pot did you move it from and into?

Hi zensojourner,

I have 4 lights. 4 foot fixtures, mounted side by side hanging from the ceiling by chain. All T8s. 2 of them are 32W 3500k bulbs (warm) the other 2 are 32W 6500k bulbs (cool).

The plant itself is about a foot and a half tall, by about 2 foot wide. To clarify about re-potting, I used the same pot, just changed the medium. The medium I had before stayed wet for a long time. So I just changed to the 5-1-1 potting mix. I'm not sure the exact size of the pot, but I would say it would hold 3 gallons of water. About 10 inches across. The roots weren't touching the walls, and no where near the bottom, not root bound.

The room is heated, but I keep the closet doors closed to try and reflect as much light back as I can, and keep critters out of the plants. I have a small heater that I could put in that closet to bring up the temp. that is thermostatically controlled.

My first suspicion was the wet soil..

Yes, for the existing damage, being waterlogged would be a likely culprit. Also the reason for not having roots near the bottom of the pot - root rot.

However now that you've repotted - and its been awhile since you did that, right? Now your concern is that it isn't showing new growth.

I'm not sure that it would under the current circumstances - but I'm not sure that's a problem yet.

I'm surprised that the closet is only 65F even with 4 32W T8s in there! How are you measuring that temp? I get 85F easily under 4 32W T8 bulbs. I keep a fan running most of the time to keep the temps down.

I think your light is sufficient for overwintering maintenance, but most likely insufficient to promote new growth. It also matters how close to the lights the plant is - I keep mine within an inch or two of the bulbs and will be adding lights hung vertically along the back now that they're getting bigger.

With your setup, light penetration is probably not that great given the size of the tree. On the other hand, with so few leaves, I suppose there's not much to actually block it.

But seriously, fluorescent light doesn't penetrate very far even in the absence of a lot of leaf coverage, so your 4 T8s are not, perhaps, as effective as one might think.

What kind of critters are you trying to keep out of the plant - like pets? Cats or something? Because there is a problem with shutting it up in the closet like that, several actually. First is lack of air movement. Second is potential heat build-up from the 4 T8s. (BTW I'm assuming the closet is empty of clothes - right?) Third is humidity buildup. All of these can contribute to pest and disease problems over the long haul.

I, too, have my lights set up in my closet - but I removed the closet doors and there is NO CLOTHING whatsoever in the closet. Just my wire shelves with the plants and lights. I keep an oscillating fan running most of the day. I've never bothered with a fan before but I was sort of shocked by how hot it can get under those fluorescents. They easily topped 100F when I first installed them. Now that we're on heat instead of AC, they can get up to the high 80s even though I have the vent closed in my room.

So I would be surprised if its only 65F in that closet unless its on an outside wall with no/poor insulation?

My advice is to remove the fruit, keep the lights as close to the plant as possible, get some air movement going - block the animals out with pressure mounted gates or something if that's an issue. Be patient, expect the plant to be pretty dormant for awhile. As long as it doesn't get any worse, that's something.

If, after a few weeks, they're STILL not doing anything, you may just need more light. In the absence of other issues like over or underwatering, of course.

I haven't had an indoor tree that size for decades - not since my mother "accidentally" killed my bonsai while I was at summer camp one year. So maybe my expectations are off. But given the recent trauma, and given the light levels you are currently able to provide, I'm not surprised the plant is in a holding pattern.

Just an observation - after a disastrous experiment with half "cool" and half "warm" (so-called) several years ago, I ONLY use 6500k bulbs now. That year was the only year I've had seed starting failures, and the whole season was pretty much a dead loss. I have no idea what the old 40W T-12 bulbs were rated at, colorwise, but it seems to me they had to have been not very good - yet we routinely started everything and anything under T-12s for literally decades. They got hotter, too.

So I wouldn't THINK that it would matter much what the "color temperature" is with the T8s, but apparently it does. My plants just seem to do better with only 6500k bulbs. You might consider swapping the 3500k bulbs out for more 6500k ... just food for thought.

Most of the time citrus will grow in spurts when it is ready. I transplanted my Meyer lemon two months ago and still have no new top growth. I do believe it is growing roots right now so I'm not worried. It is however growing buds and should flower in a couple of weeks. I grow mine in a east facing window with two 23 watt cfls 6500 k for lighting and in the past I have had top growth and fruiting so yours can too. I heat my plants from the bottom at night which in my opinion helps in root growth. I also fertilize mine weekly weakly with foliage pro 9-3-6. Jack

Sorry for the delayed response.

I did end up pruning back most of the fruit. I left just a few, although I have noticed that the fruit had been growing through all of this. But I still took off most of them.

Also, the closet is an empty closed. One wall is an exterior wall, but it's pretty well insulated. I heat the house entirely with wood, but this end of the house does not get as warm as the rest of the house. It averages about 65 degrees. I have since put in a small electric heater in the closet, which now averages just above 80 degrees. I also leave the closet doors open about 12 inches to get fresh air circulation. I'm also looking into a heating mat for it.

I'm also going to be swapping out the warm lights with the 6500k bulbs. The are definitely brighter. Hopefully that will help as well.

Just thought I would update this post.

Since I changed all my citrus to the 5-1-1 mix and started using Foliage Pro fertilizer, and raising the heat temp of the closet, all of my citrus have been taking off! I am still using fluorescent bulbs. 2 3500K warm bulbs, and 2 6500k cool bulbs. I have a lot of new growth on all of my plants, and everything is looking super healthy. The meyer is producing new foliage, not quite as fast as the other citrus trees, but after it lost almost all of it's leaves, I can imagine it's going to take a little longer, but it is putting out new leaves!

I guess it goes to show, you can grow citrus in a closet with fluorescent bulbs! But still, this spring, they are going back outside!