Congrats on your new tree. Wont be long and you will have a dozen.

if done right you can overwinter them just fine indoors. you need to be sure the soil drains well and you water only when the soil is just about dry. It will need at least 8 hours of light either by a south window or supplementary light. The trees worst enemy during winter is over watering, pest such as spidermites, and low humidity. Another thing that can happen is called "winter leaf drop" this occurs when the plant is placed by a window and the hot sunlight heats up the leaf surface so much that the cooler roots arent active enought to supply the needed water to cool the leafs down. so the tree just sheds the leaves. To combat this the grower should try and keep the roots at a temp roughly greater than 55 degrees F. Mine dont go into the greenhouse until the lows are nearing 40ish.

mike

brkieffner, you definitely want to leave this distressed lemon outdoors in good sunlight for as long as possible. Bring it indoors when your temps threaten to drop below freezing. There are some excellent suggestions for proper potting mixes for container citrus, so do search for that (gritty mix). Lots of water, fertilize once a month to help it repair itself. Be sure to also give it a couple of applications of micronutrients as well (Grow More Citrus Growers Blend is an excellent product). It is technically an outdoor plant, but can be brought indoors and overwintered. And yes, highly fragrant when in full bloom
:-)

Patty S.

Thanks for the great tips. Okay, I will leave her outside until temps fall. She isn't in a very big pot, how soon should I replant her? I will look immediately for the citrus potting soil, any specific place for those? Do big box stores sell them? I will look for the nutrients as well. I think I'll probably have to supplement light, any suggestions on how to set that up?

Yes, definitely re-pot now. Be sure to fertilize every 6 weeks to start this season, to help it get established. And the "gritty mix" is a self-made mix. Just search this web site for the ingredients, they are pretty easy to find. The big box stores definitely do not sell a good potting mix for citrus. I have used EB Stone's Cactus Mix, which is pretty decent, but truly, the gritty mix described in this forum has really worked well for the list members and many, many others who have potted citrus. I grow all mine in the ground because in live in the citrus belt, so there are other list members much more experienced than I am, with regard to good potting soil for citrus. Same with supplemental indoor light.

Patty S.

Here is the link to the gritty and 5.1.1 mixtures .

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/citrus/msg072141139684.html?19

Erm, sorry, those instructions are not comprehensive. I didn't talk about particle size or fertilizing or anything in that post as I was just trying to clarify the proportions and make it seem less esoteric for you dsieber. Sadly, I don't know of a single thread or post that gives every detail of the process from sourcing to mixing and fertilizing. I'd edit that to be a complete response but we can't edit. So brkieffner if you are serious about trying to keep an indoor citrus I'd check around for more threads with information on Al's gritty mix.

Maybe sometime this week I'll throw all of the information up on an external blog or something that is editable in case I get something wrong or people want to add to it. It would be so much better if we could edit here :( Part of the issue is that there is a lot of variation.

brkieffner: I successfully overwinter lots of citrus indoors but I certainly wouldn't call citrus trees "house plants." Do you know if it's grafted? If you purchased it at a big box store in IN rather than a nursery then it might not be grafted. If it isn't then it will get very large in a hurry (for a perennial anyway).

The tree won't give off a strong scent unless you cut it as you did (kind of a sickly sweet smell to my nose when you do that), leaves drop, or blossoms open. The open blossoms smell quite nice but on larger trees can get overpowering indoors.

I think the gritty mix will be your best bet for keeping the plant indoors but there are some things to consider. The gritty mix is very free-draining - that's its purpose. It's great for the plant but it means that you will need to water more often and that when you do you will get a lot of runoff. Outside this isn't a big deal but indoors it starts to add up quickly and the usual saucer underneath the pot will be full after just a few days. Larger catch basins fill up quickly as well. Since the gritty mix is also physically heavy picking up the plant to empty the basins is more of a pain than usual. Some people use large turkey basters to get in there and suck up the runoff but that gets old very quick. I'd suggest modifying a pot with some tubing and elevating the tree so that you can catch the runoff in something that you can empty easily. Since the gritty mix doesn't wick you will need a way to water it evenly. This means a watering can with a rose or some dispersal mechanism. It's not like an ordinary soil that you can just water on one side and the moisture will move all around for you.

Also remember that if you go the gritty mix route you either need to use a fertilizer with calcium and magnesium already in it (rare) or mix gypsum (for calcium) into the soil when you make it and then feed the plant some epsom salt periodically when you water (for magnesium). Don't get confused and use Garden Lime or dolomitic lime in the gritty mix. These would provide Ca and Mg but they also raise the pH and the gritty mix is already about as high of a pH as you'd want to go.

Since you're making the soil it will contain zero nutrients so don't be fooled into thinking that a "Citrus Fertilizer" will have everything you need. You will need to provide a complete package of nutrients Major,Minor,Micro which very few fertilizers actually have. Were I you I would mix Osmocote Plus (time-release fertilizer) into the soil when you make it for insurance and then use Foliage Pro or something like it with Ca and Mg. If you don't use something like Foliage Pro then you might want to buy some STEM (Peter's Soluble Trace Element Mix) and then a 3-1-2 or 5-1-3 ratio liquid fertilizer like Miracle Gro and then mix them for your fertilizing. Just remember that straight Miracle Gro or Brand X "Citrus Fertilizer" will almost certainly not have everything that you need. You will need the STEM. Ask if you need help deciding.

Particle size matters in the gritty mix so be sure to track down the information on bark size, granite size, and make sure you buy the correct Turface or Axis product (I don't remember which ones you want offhand). There are some substitutes for these ingredients if you can't find them locally but don't assume that because you've seen 1 post where someone is using a substitute that it will work for you. Make sure to ask if you try to substitute. Somewhere Al has a list of substitutes and you can see that it changes the proportions when you do that.

I use T5 lights to overwinter citrus and I have all of them either in a sunroom or in front of large windows. If you don't have a large south-facing window then you might want to think about some sort of grow light.

Aphids, scale, and mites are a big problem for me in the winter so you might also think about a location where you can spray the plant periodically with your choice of products. If it's still very small you can move it to spray it but once they get larger you will want to be able to hit it with neem or other nonsense indoors and that can be an issue. I'm going to try a much more organized release of lacewings this year to control my indoor issues. That might work for you.

If you see ants on or near the plant when it is indoors make sure to kill them with baits immediately. They are farming scale or aphids on your tree and they will cause serious problems.

I'm sure there is more but that's all I can think of right now... goodluck

redshirtcat, do you happen to have a picture of your grow light setup? I know I will need it for the winter since this house gets NO direct light. Do you have the light on the leaves or at the base or how are you doing it?

Or others, if you have grow light setups, could you show some pictures so I can get an idea?

My setup is not ideal. I have to keep the plant in a finished area of the house. On the plus side there are a lot of windows.

You can see the fixtures I use in the photograph below. They are 8 lamp 54w HO t5 fixtures. Really these should be as close as possible to the plants. If you want to mount them on the ceiling as I have here you would probably need an high pressure sodium or metal halide setup. Those both generate lots of heat. They will also cost you more up front and in electricity. They will support more than just 1 tree unless it's a pretty large tree. {{gwi:593543}}From Al's Gritty Mix