looks great Laura. May winter flow by nicely for you.

6b Steve

Thank you Steve! Those light bulbs you recommended in the upper end of the spectrum seem to work well. Lots of my trees are actively growing...my blood orange even has a bud! And Mike, I just got my first electric bill....not much difference. Last month I think I paid $181, this one was $189, but that may not all be the lights since we've had the heat on.

I finally had to turn my heat on Monday morning. I am still getting almost 100% of my heat from solar heating. I can pull a 20F rise on solar heating.

FANTASTIC job there my friend!!! It will be so much easier to spray and water without ruining the floor and provide humidity at the same time...By the way, did you leave enough plastic at the end to bring it up to allow water to not escape on to the floor?

Now, save some of that roll..Because if it ever gets too cold to spray outside, you could use painters tape and hand a piece from your walls and those windows and spray away.When done, just take them down and reuse....So much easier than worrying about your walls and windows too)))

Great job...

That's great Steve! Mike, I taped the edges well above my floorboards to the wall, so yes, it's pretty safe. I feel much better having the plastic down and spraying . Thanks for the idea!

That's a neat setup. The plastic is a great idea, I think I'll do the same. I think sumfink is attacking my Meyer and my lime. Time to purchase some neem oil and follow a rigorous schedule!

>_<

Is that a giant Ponderosa I see in the last picture? That's a whopper.

Good night!

J.

Seeing all this work you guys and gals do makes me feel blessed to live in a moderate climate. Although it would be nice to have some more snow for hiking. :)

Laura it is a nice set up indeed, and your trees should make it through the winter, but your trees will unfortunately probably produce very little in the way of fruit using that set up. All citrus trees start producing next years buds in the fall and the winter months, these buds will either turn out of be foliage buds producing only leaves, or flower buds that can produce fruit. In order to become buds that will produce flowers they must go through a process called Citrus Flower Bud Induction. For buds to be "induced" so that they will form flowers instead of foliage they must receive so many hours of cool temperatures bellow 68-F. Flower bud induction starts at <68-F active temperature (minimum temperature), lower temperatures give much much better results. The minimum amount of cool hours required is approximately 400 hours to set a crop, and this would be a minimal crop. 600 to 700 cool hours is better, and will produce much more fruit. With all the lights, the plastic curtain enclosure trapping the humidity and the heat from the lights, plus the additional house heating, your trees will have a difficult time accumulating enough cool hours for Citrus flower bud induction. Unless you make some cooling changes to cause Citrus flower bud induction, your trees will produce foliage growth, but very few or no fruit next year. You can read about the importance of flower bud induction and the amount of fruit you can expect your trees to produce next year on the Internet. I tell you this because I know you put a lot of time and effort into your hobby, and we all wish you the best outcome next spring.

Both my Meiwa kumquat and New Zealand lemonade trees set 3 to 4 sets of flowers from fall till this summer. They were inside all winter. 3 out of the 4 flowqer sets produce fruits on the meiwa tree. The lemon tree set fruits all 3 times but lost the fruit at about a 1/3 inch size. My US897 tree Just grafted 8 months ago and growing 6.5 months ago is now setting flowers.

NZL on USS897 all 3 pictures

6b Steve

You are so right..That is why my trees perform much better in my cool porch verses any warm room in my winters! I get lot's of bud development and fruit set...I assume that even Citrus Trees need seasons to produce they way they should and they just don't get those cooler temps stored at room temps..

Yes, the cooler temps and the more humidity you will have will spill a fragrance all over your room!! The flowers will even last a whole lot longer than in a heated dry room... By the way, the plastic on the floor will make nor difference temp wise..

If you can find a way to keep your trees no lower than 50 to 55 degrees consistently by night, and no higher than 70 by day, you are golden!! That goes for every citrus grower although if given a good amount of light and warm temps, you will still get some fruit development..

Thank you guys! Let's see...Jemma, that is actually a Meyer lemon! It is huge! That tree is only about 3-4, so I took off all the other little lemons to encourage growth. Bacon...yes, we go through a lot of trouble!! Don't I know that! ;-). Steve, i hope you get more fruits this year from your trees! Silica and Vladimir, thank you for the info. I had never heard this before, but believe what you say. I have two separate area for my trees. The ones I posted now are in my kitchen area and I cannot control the temp much there without freezing my family ;-). I have the thermostat set to 65 at night, and that little nook is a bit of a microclimate because all the windows make it a bit cooler. That said, I have overwintered my big Meyer lemon there ...this will be my 5th year with him, and have always gotten lots of fruit from him. Every year, he blooms profusely and is very prolific. I took a few pics...he has buds on almost every branch and many little lemons. I was telling my kids that I was going to have to thin them out. Now, in my sunroom, i can do much more with the temps because I can isolate it from the rest of the house with a sliding door. I will begin cracking a window to let the temps drop further. I bought a thermometer that records the low and high temp for a 24 hour period. Last night, without open windows, it dropped down to 64

I'm going to play around with the windows to get an idea of how cold it can get without freezing them to death ;-). Here are some pics of my other buds..even my very tiny sanguinelli has one lonely bud...I appreciate all the help from you guys. I would not be able to do this without all the help and advice from the members of this board!blood orange budmeyer lemon - Silica, that is the tree I've complained about with the Mg deficiency...the new leaves look great and it is loaded with blossoms.this is the Meyer I hacked back early this year. I has a lovely shape now.limequat budding all overanother Meyer Alexander the Great I can smell the blooms from my living room! It is lovely!

Silica and Vladimir, (I know you were referring to Laura, but) Thank you BOTH for the information about flower bud induction. I learn so much from all of you good people on this forum. I do realize that when I get my next greenhouse set up next season, I would need to divide it into two separate areas once I bring my citrus in for the fall. One area I can keep cooler at below 68 degrees for 600-850 hours for the flower bud induction.. that area would be for the citrus trees that I want to bud and set fruit, the other area can be kept at above 68 degrees for stem and leaf growth for citrus that needs to concentrate on that growth.. I would need two space heaters in each divided area, set at different temperatures..

Or, I will just decide to keep a few like minded ones in my sunroom...Then not divide my gh in two separate areas..I have more planning to do over the winter.. Sounds like I will be filling up my notebooks and sketch book with a lot of ideas that my mind is filling up with.. :)

Laura, I did not see your pictures before I started typing.. Your citrus are looking great.. Nice job!! :)

Jinny, I had some of the same thoughts in that many of my trees are young and I don't want fruit - I want growth. For now, they will have to put up with what I can offer them though...

So I calculated that 800 hours is about 33.3 days. I have no doubt that my trees got that (and more) during the Spring and Fall. I put them outside early March of this year. They probably got at least 20 days in March/April, and again in October. The 800 hours were not consecutive though.

Silica, thank you for bringing this up.

Laura, I believe that the 800 hours is a cumulative figure.

Thanks Vladimir, if that is the case, then that would explain why I have so many blossoms. I do plan to get a greenhouse next year, so this should not be an issue...although I would still like to have a few of my favorite trees inside the house because I enjoy them so much - even if I have to set up a few lights. Let's see...I suspect that a greenhouse will be so much better that I will likely end up leaving them all there...we shall see.

Laura, the hours for citrus flower bud induction do not have to be consecutive to achieve the required allocation. Unfortunately, the hours that your tree received in March and April will not count for the buds developing for the 2017 crop.

No matter how a grower handles their tree, the chances of their tree producing a symbolic fruit or two is fairly good. However, if one wants to insure a good crop, flower bud induction is necessary. Further as Vladimir wrote, using reverse induction knowledge you can insure that a young tree will receive additional foliage growth instead of fruit. Although the cold temperatures work to induce a good crop of fruit, what the actual element is, is stress. In the tropics where the temperatures never get cold enough to stress the induction of flower buds, the induction stress is provided by the dry season.

Well, then let's hope the cool hours from this Fall will be enough. The Meyer lemons will produce tons...and the limequats and kumquats...and the Persian lime. The other trees (besides the calamondins) are all young, so I would prefer them to grow. I find this stuff fascinating...thanks for the insights.

Another question: is this situation similar to times when a stressed tree produces tons of blooms because it "thinks" it's near death? I would have gladly left my trees out longer this Fall, but was afraid that the low temps (low 40s) would have stunted their growth - many were sprouting leaves or buds. Perhaps I should have left them outside longer.

Mike, you mention:

If you can find a way to keep your trees no lower than 50 to 55 degree.

Would there be a problem keeping them at say, between 40 and 50 degrees?

It it went down to 57 in there last night and is currently 61. I guess I'll keep the windows cracked like that from now on...I'll have to read in there with a blanket ;-)

Vladimir, I honestly can't answer that...What I do know is that mines kept too cold because they are in pots cause a number of issues, especially if I don't get long hours of lots of lights and moving air...The buds drop off, rot off, open prematurely, and all growth practically stops...I have kept mine at times some where in the range that Silica says and they have always done wonderful...That does not mean that someone keeping their trees that cold will not have success...There are many factors that come into play, but I like to play it on the safe and proven side for myself..

Laura, good job! I don't understand a lot of the above but if you do, that's great) I do know that drought in pots can also cause stress and push buds, but at the expense of the loss of leaves..I am not convinced that dry periods cause blooms since I lived in Puerto Rico for years and I did notice Puerto Rico also has seasons in which temps do drop dramatically as compared to summer. They also gets lots or rain for weeks on end while trees are blooming like crazy...There are nights in Puerto Rico where it gets as cold as the 40's and 50's and 60;s and that can be for weeks in winter...I am not sure what triggers bloom the right way, but I do know that stress can cause it but that does not always mean it;s good..A very confused Mikey..)

What I do know is that what applies to in ground citrus is not the same as potted ones...Yes,I agree with what's said towards in ground trees, but potted ones can get cold and stay cold as early as August, some nights during summer, and many nights during the the spring. Mines get fruit set and flowers at all times of the year, and they are not stingy, unless I can't give them lots of direct sunlight..

The ground on the other hand stays warm/stable, a lot longer than potted ones and seasonally cools off at the end of summer.We are not growing our trees in that environment but uprooted and grown in house and in pots...Your tree roots are already being cooled down at night even in heated rooms, especially near windows...So I would not fret over it. ..I have gotten many fruit and buds and flowers at all times of the year because of temp fluctuations at any time of the year, and yet many friends of mines get fruit and flowers 'seasonally' where they live, in warmer climates, 'in ground'...

Unless your minimum temps are being held above 70 by night and day, I would not give it even a thought. A good 5 to ten degree drop at night is much appreciated by most plants, it's natural...Citrus trees in the south where I lived start producing buds and flowers more than ever once nighttime temps consistently fall below 70, in the fall and even spring.....Besides, you are not using a 'plastic curtain enclosure' that is holding lots of heat.)

Mike