A citrus tree profusely blooming, dropping leaves, and the leaves remaining turning yellow, is a sign by the tree that you need worry about. The tree is in trouble of dying, and is trying to produce a fruit so that through the fruit, life might continue. You should read (or re-read) the link on "Winter Leaf Drop" (WLD).

My citrus trees are very actively growing flowering and setting fruit (temps 15C to 16C at night and 21C to 24C during the day) Because of the high humidity, I don't need to water that often but fertilizing has not stopped. I still have to figure out how to get humidity under control. No leaf drop or yellowing yet.

The leaf dropping occurred when my tree was outdoors. The leaves that turned yellow while outside have stopped turning color once it was brought inside with the lights last week. I think the low light levels outside and cold winds were causing the tree to go downhill. The leaves have gone back to being vivid green except the few that started yellowing when outdoors. Thanks for the reading suggestion Silica! I'll make sure to take a look at it. Maybe the tree being a Meyer makes this common behavior. Have any Meyer growers seen the same thing happen to their Meyer trees when transitioning to winter?

Of course your trees are doing amazing things under your care Susanne. Is it all the trees being grouped together that raises the humidity? It must feel like walking into a greenhouse when you enter the room. Thanks for letting me know how your indoor treatment is going! I may feed mine reduced fertilizer and go back to the full amount if I see good things happen :)

seed grown meiwa kumquat trees 1-5 are under the white bucket lights. Fukushu kumquat tree on C35 roots is under the yellow bucket light.2b with ground 14 gauge cord with integral grounding plug hooked up to light fixture in a grounded {with grounding screw} 4 inch metal octagonal ceiling box.same grounded box with grounded outlet. All plugged into GFCI

Steve

Last year I fed them about every other week at half strength. I also fed the protekt. It’s hard to tell how much that helped, but it certainly did not hurt. I also at times added a tiny bit of FP to the water I mist them with. This year I am thrilled to be using rainwater from my new rain barrel, so I suspect they will like that better. I water them about every 5 days or so depending on how dry they feel, but I don’t like to let them get too dry bc then the mix becomes hydrophobic.

Here's a small photo update on my Meyer since bringing it in under lights

Tons of flower buds keep emerging and opening and the smell of it is amazing! I can't wait to have more citrus trees. The information you guys gave me about your own tree care has been really helpful. I notice the yellow veins of the leaves slowly filling in with green again! I don't know if it's possible to become fully green again but I'm so happy to see she's regaining strength.

After reading all the threads about WLD and indoor lights, I figured out why my tree dropped so many leaves outdoors. My tree still got about 4-5 hours of direct sun but the temperatures outside were in the low 60s down to the 50s. Nights were also cold from 40-50F and windy as well. My tree must've stopped being active from the cold temperatures but was receiving too much light so it shed a lot of leaves! It's a good thing the rest of you brought your trees in a bit earlier. Maybe if my tree wasn't a Meyer it wouldn't have dropped so many leaves but at least she made it easy to see what was going wrongly

Steve, I noticed that some of your buckets with soil do not have holes on the sides. Are there holes on the bottom?

Also noticed holes for ventilation. How warm does it get in there? What are the average, high and low temps? What are the ambient temps.

All the buckets have hole in the bottom. Since I am using 2-2-1 mix I did not drill side holes.

Can you answer the questions about temps?

There is about a 10F to 15F degree rise inside the light bucket. I have never measured the soil temperature. I could slow down soil cooling by mulching with pine bark or a layer of sand or pelite. My house never gets cooler than 58F and with my quad glass window I get a lot of solar heating. My walls are R-30 and the roof about R-200..

Steve

Thanks, Steve. I was just wondering what the contribution of temperature was to the increased growth rate. Looks like your bucket temps are about 70 - 75 F.

New growth is usually light green. Mist with FP whenever as long as it is out of direct sun.

Your trees sound happy to me Kelley! There's another couple threads talking about indoor lighting and temperatures causing winter leaf drop but yours are growing so I think your trees are happy. I don't spray mine with FP but I know foliar spraying is best done when humidity isn't too dry. You don't want the spray drying up faster than the leaves can absorb it.

I watered and fertilized my tree last week and it's going crazy with blooms. I'm not sure when to water again but I'm going to monitor the soil and air temperature and water when it's at its highest.

Don't mind the soil.. sometimes I throw small pieces of degradable stuff on top lol. The veins used to look very bright yellow but now they're slowly turning light green. I think the light is working!

Hi Kvet for my winter lighting I Use an LED shop light strip from a big box store, my citrus seem to love it. My Persian Lime has a flush of new growth already no blooms yet. I do cut back on watering and fertilizer until my trees get over the initial shock of being brought inside. Once I see signs of new growth I step up the watering and fertilizer a bit. My house is very dry in winter and my plants are situated above a heat duct so I actually have to be careful they don't get too dry.

Very nice growth on your lime Corey! Maybe it's a good thing they get more dry rather than staying wet all winter. I worry whether the soil stays too moist for too long since temperatures are still a bit cool indoors. The new bundle of growth looks adorable! I'm envious, my tree is doing much better indoors now but still hasn't pushed any new leaves yet. The flowers finally seem to be slowing down though