Anything can be grown indoors, it's just more difficult. And meyers can be extra finicky. Getting them enough light and avoiding root rot are the two biggest issues indoors. Keep an eye out for pests too. Without rain and natural predators, pests can kill a tree pretty quick.

It is definitely possible! I've been growing my own trees exclusively indoors. They grow well, bloom, even fruit. Each environment is different and it can take some fine tuning to figure out what mix, how often do you water, what fertilizer, etc. works best for your environment, but once you do it's like any other houseplant. What direction does your bay window face?

I put river stones on top of the soil on some of my potted trees. It weighs them down a bit, helps with weeds, and keeps them from drying out too fast in summer.

Do you have landscaping shrubs you can use as a wind block. Maybe your house can block the wind, be careful about heat reflecting off the building in summer.

You could try digging a hole and recessing into the ground a bit.

In general I think wind, rain and sunlight are good for the tree. If you do move it outdoors, make the transition gradual so it has time to adjust.

Thanks for the input! I think I finally have my watering schedule down, and fertilize with osmocote slow release fertilizer so as not to over fertilize.

My bay window is a south/southwest facing window, so gets pretty decent sunlight especially in the afternoon, and pretty close to the 6-7 hours I have heard citrus need.

kind of frustrating, but I bought the tree from a fairly large nursery in California, and it was shipped to me with a pretty decent spider mites infestation. Neem oil seems to have cleared it up but I have been extra vigilant about pests to. My big clue I was overwatering in the beginning was the development of fungus gnats in the pot. Haven’t seen them in over a month since backing off my watering schedule and using a wooden dowel instead of those stupid moisture meters. I have it planted in the 5-1-1 soil recommended by some, and I think it is just so porous the moisture meter can’t read it well.

Just nice to hear that some have been successful in growing citrus indoors! I am looking at a spot on my back deck that I may be able to shelter from the wind a bit more, and rocks on the surface of th e pot may also help, but I am just worried about how tall and thin my tree is now, probably need to give it a bit more time to grow before leaving it outside full time.

A terracotta or ceramic pot is a bit heavier than plastic and harder to blow over. Look for one with a wider bottom. Put some sandbags around it to help keep it in place.

Spider mites are awful. We have them really bad outdoors where I live, and they'll destroy small plants in 24 hours. Luckily, I've found they don't travel far without wind, and they don't tend to climb elevated planters indoors, so as long as I keep the trees up off the floor I don't deal with them inside. For the most part the only major pests I've had are the ones I bring in, so I quarantine all new plants and give them a bathtub drench of 2 hours to kill off any that I might not catch. The only one I've had come in on its own is fungus gnats, but fungus gnats are horrible in my area and will nest in my pots if I don't put down a layer of diatomaceous earth. (We get clouds of them outside in mid August through October and I can never seem to keep them out). Luckily some mosquito bits and the diatomaceous earth usually prevent them from nesting and sticking around. South facing is awesome, and 6-7 hours is plenty for most trees. I've found that once you get the watering and fertilizer under control, if your tree is happy it'll do just fine. They typically like a drop in temp at night that might usually happen near a window, and tend to prefer the temps that a lot of people find comfortable, so they do great in a window. If you have issues with the humidity, placing them on an elevated planter (I love the wheeled ones), with a nice oversized drainage tray and set up on pot feet, you can let the water in the tray evaporate on its own and it tends to help. No claim to be an expert, but these are the things I've found growing indoors. Outside of that, I think my biggest challenge has been deciding how big I can let my trees get before I have to cut them back so I can get them through doors if I need to.

Yeah i have my tree growing in a Terra cotta pot, only a 10” one for now but have a 14” one to report in over the tree gets bigger.

My spindly tree. I need to make/buy some pot feet, but have it on a humidity tray, and wheeled dolly I made to move it easier as needed. I make sure to empty any water touching the pot after watering after about 6 hours so it doesn’t soak it all back up and get waterlogged in the bottom of the pot.

It's ok if a tree looks a bit spindly at first. If you want it to be a bit more bushy, use a bit of bonsai wire (or really any plastic coated easy to bend wire that will hold shape), wrap it around the top part of the tree and bend the top downwards a bit, this breaks apical dominance without hurting the tree and encourages branching. Rocks work well, if you want to elevate it a bit more, you can add more rocks or just find some really big ones outside, wash them well with soap and water, and then use them as pot feet to lift the pot even higher. I note that it seems to have a slight nutrient deficiency, that can be due to overwatering, or it could be that it needs a bit more fertilizer. How long ago did you start using the dowel to determine when to water? In my own experience it can take a few weeks before a tree shows improvement when you make a change, so it might help to wait. Not an expert, by any means, but I've been doing a lot by trial and error and I've learned quite a bit. How long have you had the tree?

Tree since late august last year, and definitely overwatered up through early February, with fungus gnats showing up in December. They have been gone now about 4 weeks, same time as switching to the dowel and cutting back watering to every 12-14 days from weekly.

i have also heard that once citrus leaves show nutrient deficiency, they usually don’t go back to normal until the old leaves drop and new ones come in. Is that true?

I'm not sure for meyers, I know it really seems to depend on the nutrient deficiency, from research I've done, some are transient and the leaves will return to normal once the nutrient deficiency is corrected, others stick around until new leaves are produced. I know some damage will remain (my big Nagami had a lot of damaged leaves when I bought it and many of those stuck around until this year when they all suddenly just started dropping over the last few weeks while being replaced by new leaves.), other times the leaves are too damaged to keep and the tree drops them when it starts growing again. 4 weeks is a short time, relatively speaking, so I'd just keep doing what you're doing and keep an eye out for new growth. Rather than watering on a schedule I'd just water when needed, I've found my trees tend to go through spurts, some times I'm watering every 5 days, other times I'm watering every 14 days. It just depends on how quickly the trees are growing and how warm it is both in and outside.

With enough light, yes, some citrus can do OK indoors. I have seen successful Calamondins grown indoors.

Dave, thanks for clarifying that SOME can do Ok. I'd say that most of the more acid types will do well. You can probably successfully grow something like a Navel orange, and it would probably grow fine, but they need heat to sweeten up so I have no idea what the fruit would taste like grown in the ambient conditions of a home.

Thank you all for the insights! I am still nursing my Meyer lemon tree for now, but have aspirations to try and grow a mandarin tree at some point as well. I had heard they are not as difficult as oranges, but a little more difficult than the lemon to grow indoors.

Bob - people grow citrus indoors or outdoors in often overcast places (PNW or UK). Since it sounds like you want to continue indoors, you're really going to need to invest in supplemental lights for any light loving citrus to do grow reasonably well. Lemons and mandarins are not those. Your mandarin would grow tall and spindly just like your lemon. You need much stronger light density to get it to bush out. Finger Limes do better in less light, but I suspect, your light levels would still need some supplemental for to succeed there.

Ken, while I would agree that stronger light density is required to make the tree bush out more, if he's had the tree since August, it is possible that the tree didn't grow that spindly, but was that spindly starting out, so I would hesitate at this time to attribute it to light levels. (I've seen trees from mail order look that way, in fact my makrut came looking just the same with fewer and darker leaves.) He says that he keeps a grow light on it and that the window faces south/southwest. If it's a large enough window, right next to the window can get very bright, bright enough to successfully grow a tree. I might be wrong, but I think that the current issues may be more from watering practices than light. Just a thought, no ill will. :)

Thank you f or the further support! The tree itself actually shipped like this, had all of the lower branches trimmed off and just a small crown of 3 branches at the top. This January, during my accidental overwatering, it lost about 5 leaves, and although I haven’t seen too many new leaves sprouting yet, there are a ton of blooms growing right now after adjusting my watering.

i do have a decent grow light on the plant, not just an LED light or anything. I also use the 5-1-1 mix suggested by some, which after the winter overwatering fiasco and understanding this mix can still hold onto water well, I think the tree is doing a bit better.

i have also looked into finger limes because I too have heard that they are likely the least light-demanding of the citrus, but so far I haven’t been able to find where to buy any, as they seem in high demand.

out of curiosity, is there any possible bad sign coming from excessive blooms coming from my tree? I had heard of a couple people commenting on young trees “blooming to death” due to so many spent energy on the blooms, and not enough vegetation, but most responses seem to suggest that any blooms should be considered a good sign of a happy tree, and a tree will “self-select“ the blooms it cannot support down the road.

Thoughts?

I'm partial to knocking off young blossoms on a struggling tree, but it can be a double-edged sword. Sometimes trees will produce even more flowers after having their last batch destroyed. If the blossoms are large, let them do their thing.

More often than not, small trees don't even try to carry fruit, though they may flower.

I figured iI would update you guys on my summer so far. Ended up adding a Shasta gold mandarin and giant finger lime tree to my collection. i I found a nice semi protected spot on my back porch with some afternoon sun, and watered at least twice per week. Pictures are below, but all three trees seem very happy out there, and so far only one blown over during a thunderstorm! my meyer lemon tree has remained nearly stagnant over the summer, but just in the last few days has sprouted 13 new growth. Meanwhile my finger lime has bloomed profusely (no fruit but didn’t figure iI would have any this year), and my Shasta gold grew two new branches in the last 2 weeks.

Thanks for the advice and happy growing!

I'm excited to see this thread because I'm also trying to grow citrus strictly indoors. It has been a challenge but I hope to post an update next week. Are your trees from 4 Winds Growers? They look like mine kind of, they're healthy but very thin.

Are you now leaving your trees outside?

Yes they are all from four winds growers, came pretty leggy.

i am keeping them outside for the summer but will bring them in during the late fall and winter. My Meyer lemon tree did ok inside in sa large window under the grow light, but iI can tell it’s much happier in the summer sun and heat.