I hope you put them in shade while you get their room fixed up. One day's full sun is worthless to risk farther leaf shock and drop. If not move them as soon as you reed this.

6b Steve

No on the deck which is covered.

Steve how close do you put the lights?

Nancy, I put mine as close as a few inches. I have 23w 6500 cfls. My trees seem happy enough. I have had a few accidents where the lamp got tilted a bit and the edges of a few leaves got scorched, but the damage was minimal.

I use 23 watt daylight CFLs and I keep at least 4 inches.

My typical setup

the red X ends marks the surface of my bulb and the highest I let the plant get to the bulb.Beets on the first floor to warm the floor that the citrus trees sit on.

bigger tree needs gaebage can light.

best setup for most people

Laura's trees. I could not find the post for these pictures

6b Steve

Steve, I have always wanted to ask you this question????

How do you keep your trees contained enough to grow straight up within the buckets without wanting to naturally spread horizontally? Do you have to keep cutting them close to the trunk so that they fit the width of those buckets or don't outgrow them??

Thanks

Thanks for finding my pics Steve! Just before logging on I added four more of the clamp lights to fill in some darker areas. Nancy...I'll take one now from the comfort of my recliner within my citrus jungle ;-)

Mike My trees are small and I'll bend the side branches upwards to fit. I needed the trash can light for my larger tree. My plans are to grow one winter in buckets to get a tall tree very fast then out in the ground.

6b Steve

All I can say is I am in Awe of you pros on this forum! What a set up, Nancy! And such good advice and support here for the taking. You are all so inspiring as to what is possible!

When we live to far north to grow our citrus trees we must resort to cheating. LOL

6b WAY TO FAR NORTH Steve

Here is my setup

Nancy You have about the best setup anyone could have. I hope thing go well for you and your trees. I do not have any room in my house for a setup like yours and I rely on my bucket lights and grow boxes which work very well for me

I have an overhead bucket light and a side light on a low level shoot. This all sits on a vacuum bucket that I use with my vacuum cleaner to draw air through my root base. My soil is to heavy for winter time without pulling air through 2 time daily.

Tree in south window with side light to help grow low level limbs.

4 side limb water spouts. Up north it is much better to have spread over height.

The rest of my sweet fruited citrus trees. 4 in ground sweet citrus trees.

6b Steve

Thank you Steve, I figure in 3 years, I will have to do something else, maybe cut trees down and have a small greenhouse. I like the way you are doing your trees, I would put mine in ground if I could. I am having a hard time controlling the room temp. I was home Thanksgiving and watched the room temp rise to 84 degrees with the door closed, humidity was 65 percent. There is no other heat running in the house, all from the lights. If I leave the door open temp is about 77 degrees. I have two fans running, and a humidifer. When I get home from work I shut all lights off and run the humidifer at night only with no other heat source and it drops to 60. They are still dropping leaves though, my pots are not drying out either, I have not watered in 10 days. I read your post on spraying the leaves twice a day, what are you using and what strength? I sprayed leaves Thursday with foliage pro and last night I used Miracle grow half strength.

Thank you for your help!

I only use MG at 2/3 strength. I spray with enough solution to rinse off the last sprays dried residue so there is no build up of fertilizer.

65 Steve

Thanks Steve!!

Great setup Nancy! I wish I could dangle lights from the ceiling!

I did it, don't think my mother is too happy with me, since it belongs to her.

Thanks Laura

Steve, are you still getting in your greenhouse by dropping through the window or do you have a door now.

Nice setup Nancy.

The greenhouse is not up to the window that I use to craw through before dropping 7 feet to the dirt.

The window visible is now 6 inches higher than the greenhouse top.

I have to go 6 feet up my ladder then another foot to slide through the window before dropping head first down the other side to the dirt 4 feet below.Close up of window.

About the same as before I climb up go through the window and drop head first to dirt. Coming out I bend at the waist and worm through then down the ladder head first into the basement. In both setups the pass through space is only about 14 inches tall so turnarounds are not possible.

6b Steve

Everyone here is so creative with light that is just dazzles me!! It's amazing to see the lengths everyone goes through to get good growth..I am thoroughly impressed!

I have one pepper plant in ground still blooming that deer have not eaten. It is hot!