I usually feed them right around the time they start forming buds, so I'd feed them now if you haven't already. Remember that watering leaches out nutrients, so feed them regularly throughout the growing season.

If you are hoping to get good fruit set, those blooms need to be outside so pollinators can get the pollination work done. While the trees will, technically speaking, pollinate/fertilize without insect activity, they will set more fruit if the blossoms are buzzed by some pollinators. It helps shake up the pollen, just like with tomatoes. Sometimes leaves drop in late winter just so new ones can set, but I think it also can happen after a long winter of fairly weak light, compared to sunshine.

I fertilize with every watering with FoliagePro. It's the only thing I use synthetic fertilizer on, but it's made all the difference. Obviously I water less often in winter, but the Citrus forum people all swear by it, so I started using it last year. Only 1 of 13 of my potted citrus dropped leaves this year when I brought them in, their leaves are a deep green, and they all set fruit (I hand pollinate in winter which helps!) I can't wait to get them outside! I'm so ready for summer!

Hi Dawn! If I remember correctly, you overwinter your citrus in your unheated greenhouse, right? How low can these trees handle without damage? Have you ever lost any? I hope to get a greenhouse specifically for this purpose. I've read all the old posts on how you have set yours up to hold heat in with your wall-o-kitty litter water buckets etc. super helpful. Sorry to hijack your thread, Amy!

No problem. I've been reading the citrus forums, too. Glad to get some feedback on FoliagePro. I've read about it too.

amunk01, It varies with the different kinds of citrus trees, and much depends on how long the temperatures stay low. Most citrus trees in my unheated greenhouse come through nights as low as 26 degrees or so with no damage whatsoever. It helps if you remember to water them before the cold night arrives because dry roots suffer damage more easily than moist roots. The only nights I brought those citrus trees into the house were during the really cold spell in January, when we dropped to 4 degrees on our coldest night here. I'm pretty sure that they would have died in the greenhouse on that night. I use huge containers of water as solar collectors to warm up during the day and release the heat at night, so I don't worry much at all about leaving plants in there as long as we not expected to go below the mid-20s for just a few hours.

The only time I've had a citrus tree freeze back to the roots was when I was gone to a fire one cold March night, forget to move an orange tree into the greenhouse when I got home, and it stayed outside all night on a very cold night. It took two years for it to regrow back to the size it was before it froze.

I've a very negligent citrus mom, but we have happy trees and get citrus fruit every year, so there's no reason for me to stop being as negligent as I am.

Dawn