In Zone 7/NJ, I leave all my citrus in a large, detached, minimally heated, detached, insulated garage. Garage faces directly south and there are glass panels in place of the garage doors. I keep the Citrus on the dry side..., watering about once in 3 weeks during the dead of Winter. I overwinter all my citrus except the Kaffir lime out there. My most tender Citrus overwintered in the garage are my Key Lime and Pomelo (grown from seed). No leaf loss over the course of the Winter. Biggest issue is keeping pace with watering once March comes and sun gets hotter. I chuck them all out sometime in early April come what may. Sometimes I am tempted to get them out in March but then I have to bring them back in due to late season cold. Still much better than when I overwintered in the house.

You know, at those temps you would even need shop lights..All you would need are those windows...They are very resilient in those cool temps barely growing, sort of resting and not requiring the sunlight as they would at very warm temps..I do it all the time....The temps on my porch will drop as low as the thirties and as long as the temps out there don't rise above 60 to 65 for a few consecutive days at a time as I have been preaching for years, with the little sunlight they get, all the leaves hang on and they stay green as demonstrated in my photos..)

You know the most BIGGEST added benefit of all? No pests! No mites the biggest pain in the ass this time of the year gnarling all new tender growth and deforming all leaves as the buds just fall off.....Love that!

Another benefit too is that you can stick them out much earlier than if held indoors at very warm temps..I can bring them out on any day above 40 and spray for pests or leave them out in rain..

My lighted basement shop has no pest that i can see, have a sticky pad with only a dozen or so nats and they were there a month ago.

When citrus bloom late they will ripened late. All my tree's in the basement are now blooming. I mist them with a very weak solution of Peters hp,1/2 ts vinegar and a couple drops of G3.

Interesting experiment, I love to hear about unconventional methods for raising fruit. Each person has a method, not all are the same but I usually find one that fits into what I have access to.

I don't have an unheated garage, or a porch that is anywhere near warm enough, but I do have a cold room that stays above freezing and I might try this next year. Just hang up some lights in there.

Ubro, the key is not too much light at cold temps..Usually a sunny room or even less than sunny with a couple of windows is just perfect!

Thanks mike, it is always a game of musical chairs in the winter. I am constantly moving my citrus around trying to find the perfect balance of light and temperature, and trying to find extra space I may have overlooked.

The cold room has no windows, so I will need a few lights. Would it be too late to move them in there now? The temperature in there stays around 35 F to 45 F. Should I leave the ones that have fruit in the warmer room?

It seems that I do something different every year. I moved 5 trees outside for good with 4 of them in ground and the other in a 30 gallon pot. I have 2 trees inside bucket fitted with 23 Watt CFL's.

lighting setups

The 2 Cuban Shaddocks were left outside to die. The other 3 are doing good. I never seem to do the same thing over again.

6b Steve

Steve, are you a scientist by profession, they do things the way you do things.

Steve, i admire a person like you, you got my vote!!

Great Steve. Very difficult to find a handyman like you. Over the years I learned to be a pretty good handyman. I do odds and ends jobs more like a hobby than a profession. The only thing that I am afraid of is roofs and tall ladders - probably because I am a scientist - lol.

Like others I prefer the plants to stay on the cool side in winter. Makes it a lot easier to manage. I have a converted porch and the coldest of nights it can drop to 40F in there. I have a oil-filled heater there but that kicks in at 45F. I keep it turned off and manually turn it on when the outside temperature is predicted to stay below 15F or so.

I also think it helps have a daily variation in temperatures. Cooler nights and warmer day time temperatures - especially if the plants are receiving some light during the day. With artificial lights or sunny windows can help achieve that if they are in a isolated room/environment.