I have been trying to do some spring cleanup and prep my patio to put mine out over the next few days.

Your forecast looks much better than mine. I took my trees out this afternoon. It was mostly overcast with only a little bit of sun peaking through for a short while and not windy. It's going to more in the 50s tonight and then overcast again tomorrow here in NY. After that it goes right back to the 40s during the day and 30s at night, so back inside they go. This really feels like the longest winter ever for my trees.

Mine have been out about two weeks! They’ll be fine!

My Meiwa kumquat has been out side sins near end of February on off since. More out than in. It has been a real pain for the rest of my trees getting them outside

I just put my Meyer outside yesterday as it was in the high 60s low 70s!

Why not put it out in the sun?

Denise - sunburn! It’s likely her tree is not accustomed to full sun yet and they will burn.

They are now in the shade against the house! I have a dining room, again!

Atheen, where have you been?

Sure enough, the day after I take them out, it's 40 degrees out and we're freezing our butts... Go figure. Hopefully they'll do fine, because I fried my back taking them out and they're not going back in.

Vlad, I've had the worst winter, ever. I've been sick more often this winter than during the past 5 years combined. Getting over the flu right now and still coughing pretty badly, Dave is still 4 days behind me. It's been a really brutal season. I'm totally exhausted. :(

Atheen, take care of yourself. I had the flu and am now finally getting back to feeling like myself ...2.5 weeks later! Yes, this winter was terrible. Your trees will be fine. Mine have touched out colder temps and are budding and growing like crazy - especially the meyers!

Yeah, it's been really cold. But all my Citrus are now out. I keep them soooo dry in the Winter that they are lovin' the moisture (if not the chill).

I wanted my tree to enjoy the 70 degree weather yesterday but I'm with you guys now, it's 40F raining with 20mph winds! I'm gonna baby mine a bit more and bring it in for the night :D It can't afford to lose its 7 leaves before winter truly passes!

Atheen, it's a joy to have you back and I am so glad you are feeling better. It has been a long long period of cold and yet thank God it was warm in February. It was warmer that month than this month or last. Crazy. Good to see you again.

Mines are outside. I did a test on one, my Ponderosa small tree and it even had snow on the pot, left in the high thirties for days. It's not growing sort of stunted but alive..

The reason why I don't stick mine into the full sun in this cold weather is because both of burn and yet cold root with lots of hot sun which still causes leaf drop. So I keep them in diffused sunlight until the roots warm enough to handle the hot sun.

Welcome back

Mike

Can citrus get sunburn when the temps are less than 75*? I have been putting my trees out in full sun right away without any injury to leaves. I can see it if the temps are hot like higher than 85*.

Back into the 30s for a few nights here. I'm keeping things in a bit longer. Everything's blooming and I don't want to risk any bloom damage.

it's definitely going to be colder than expected, so I hope the trees don't die on me. Hour by hour forecast shows the colder is going to get is 36 for a couple hours on Wednesday. My back is still so fried from taking them out I have no choice but to leave them out now.

Atheen

I think for Tuesday night since it's below 40, it'll help to just huddle them all together in a location that gets the least wind even if it's a bit shady. I think the leaves can get sunburnt if they're relatively new leaves and hadn't experienced that type of sun exposure before. The weather looks better and more consistent starting Wednesday though. Very soon we won't have to worry! I left my tree waiting near the front door for Wednesday

Well, we've had a freeze warning last night, with announced temps flirting with the 32 line. But after completely locking my back when I brought the trees out last week, I finally reached my "whatever happens, happens" stage. I couldn't bring them back in if I wanted to, I can just barely start to move again. And Dave's back is just as bad as mine lately, I think he hurt himself coughing.

I went to check first thing this morning. What do you know? The trees survived. The younger growths are a little wilted, and might or might not make it, but other than that, the trees look fine.

God is great.

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Atheen

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PS: Mike, if you're around, is it dangerous to water the trees up when it's cold like that? I wanted to water them today, but I'm afraid to do more harm than good.

Atheen! What's up?

That is a tricky question....What I like to do is water in the very early a.m. with warm water.

If you are growing in a peaty mix, I don't remember, I think you are growing in the 5.1.1 mix? Yes? If peaty even, the soil will just be moist by sundown and a few nights here and there should be just fine.

You know what? It's finally over 55 today!

Hey, as long as your pot does not freeze through they should be ok. Usually at 32 my pots don't freeze through this time of the year and especially now that the sun comes up much earlier and sets much later. Too, you could throw a blanket over them.

My Ponderosa is doing just fine even exposed to extreme cold. During a snow storm actually.

Denise, I have never heard of that. Putting trees outside in the hot sun after being indoors all winter. Even people get sunburn just an hour in the afternoon sun starting in March up here in New England. I have never been able to just stick them into the full sun without first getting them use to it. Lucky you)

My Meyer has been outside since last Wed-Thurs. and experienced rain one day and continuous sun since then. I have it under a mini greenhouse tent that is frosted white so that some sun is blocked and will create a humid and tropical microclimate inside. But instead of liking this it is extremely unhappy lol. Her 5 leaves are all limp/droopy and the tiny new growth that was pushing out earlier are now wilting and browning. So I agree with Mike that you're very lucky your trees aren't throwing a fit :)

I’m not trying to start an argument, but I always put my trees out in the sun with no adjustment period. I’ve never had sunburn, but the have had issues with windy (as day that as it’s gusting like crazy again). I know you’re supposed to acclimate them first, but I never do. I think it works for me because I take them out any time it’s about 55 and sunny. So if we get some random mild days in Jan and Feb, out they go. I carry them out a few days here and there all spring long. This is the first week that they’ve been out more than a day at a time and it looks like the weather is finally going to warm up here soon. Right now it’s still hovering around freezing at night, but in a week or two, the low is predicted to stay around 45. Im repotting everyone this weekend and then I’ll put up a temp fence in the yard and give them a summer home.

That probably helps a lot and I actually consider that an adjustment period. And don't worry I don't see what you wrote as an argument at all! I'm assuming you mean that you shuffle them outside for the sunny 50s daytime and back indoors for the night? The trees are used to your indoors environment so if you shuffle them in for the night, they only need to adjust for the other half which is outdoors during the day. For me the south side of the house is my backyard and its a long walk to the front door so I've left my tree outside period lol. Unfortunately for my moody Meyer, it's too difficult to do the shuffle. So it has gone straight outside and it's staying out there :)

Alanna, actually you acclimate your trees by taking them out whenever possible so that is their "adjustment period".

Everything is out. I put out a Citrangequat first and unseasonably high and it was NOT happy, drooping tips, but 3 days later standing up again, and appears to be fine, tiny growth intact no burn either.....they really hate it indoors

like bklyn citrus, I finally got everything out too. I did it in stages because some were in the basement and some were on the 2nd floor, so had to use the steps to move them. Also had to figure out where to put them to minimize sun exposure on my small patio until I can move them in their summer spots and keep the 2 newest sortof isolated. It will be an engineer's nightmare to find good spots for the true tropicals when it comes time to take those out some time next month. lol

Welp it's been more than 3 days for my Meyer and the leaves haven't gotten any better. I think getting rained on followed by nights in the 40s have provoked root issues. If you guys see rain on your forecast followed by a cold night, don't let your trees get wet!

Kvetchlambkin. are your trees planted in the 5.1.1 mix? A very fast draining mix? That would definately help buddy)

Hi mike! They're not in 5.1.1. but I'm actually okay with that because most of my plants usually die from drought rather than overwatering. The main cause of this problem is the upper half of the rootball :( I am now certain it was already experiencing root rot last fall but I didn't wash the soil off the rootball. And it only managed to recover over the winter because I withheld water for a long time. The bottom half of the roots look very healthy but it won't matter if the few roots by the trunk is going bad.

Here's what I mean by the good lower half versus very bad upper half.

The brown roots were in the nursery soil. All the healthy roots afterwards were in my peat/perlite mix :)

I've cut a lot of the bad roots off and planted it so the root flare is above the soil and exposed. Hopefully they will stay dry/rot free and give the tree a chance. As a last resort, I may experiment and cut the entire root end off and try to reroot the trunk. It was originally grown as a cutting anyway!