A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum Fruit Forum yikes! indoor citrus stupid mistakes

Hey all--

I find myself with an "I know better but I did it anyway and now I need to fix it (without admitting to husband that I screwed up because he thinks I don't make plant mistakes)" problem. Help!

Situation:

* Bought (don't much care to spend $$ on plants and plant related stuff) three 2-3 year old citrus trees, two were recommended for indoor growing, but of course, one (lime) was not [mistake #1].

* Bought ($$) biggest pots I could find, and saucers to go with; we're talking 21" diameter at the top, and 18" tall. [mistake #2]

* When the trees arrived, I realized the pots were too big, and would take forever to dry out, so I only filled them up to about 14" (slanted sides, so smaller diameter at this height, special mix of soil). They are in a room with other stuff-- peppers, herbs, and so I run a fan on low to circulate air, and keep windows open, weather permitting. I monitor the temp & humidity, and run about 65-80 degrees, with about 35-60% relative humidity. I haven't needed to turn the humidifiers on yet, and I supplement sunshine with a few (non-grow) lights in the morning and evening. [all attempts at correcting mistake #2]

* They arrived two weeks ago. The lemon and grapefruit seem to be doing o.k. I wouldn't call it great, but o.k. The lime is not doing well. There is leaf drop and a bit of yellowing, and try as I might, I cannot get the stupid pot to dry out in the way the other two are. Clearly, the roots are not happy. I even scraped away some of the soil at the base of the trunk to expose it to air. Yesterday, I went ahead, against my better judgement, and sprayed the lime with Safer Leaf Feed and Shine (N-P-K = 0.1-0.2-0.1). I figured better some nutrients to the leaves than nothing.

Am I being a nervous Nellie? Should I just go plant some bulbs outside? Do you all have any other thoughts on how I can get this plant to take up more water and dry the pot up a bit?

Thanks.

I believe I would re-pot that lime into the same pot only fill it up leaving an inch or so at the top. water sparingly. The soil below the root ball will hold excess water away from the roots so they are not sitting in it. I think it probably needs more light than it is getting also. Limes are a wee bit touchy even here in citrus country.

Thanks! Great idea. I'll give it a try. Wish me luck.

To allow air and help drain excess water, put pebbles on the saucer and sit the pot over the pebbles.

For 2-3 y.o. citrus trees, pots with dia. of 13"-14" will be ideal. The larger the pot, the more soil you will likely use. The soil will hold excess water, which will contribute to leaf drop and yellowing of the leaves. Fertilize 2x-3x between February and September.

Provide 8-12 hours of sunlight; in absence, place in a room that get bright light throughout the day and supplement with light from twin tubes of fluorescent shop light with 40 watts warm tube and 40 watts cool tube.

Next spring, when all danger of frost is over, you can move the lime tree outdoor.

Hope this helps.

If you want citrus as houseplant, look for Calamondin and Meyer lemon trees.

My citrus are houseplants in the winter, outdoor in the summer. The mistakes you made were common ones - though don't get too caught up over the lime not having 'indoor' on it. It will be perfectly fine indoors of given the right environment. Would grow better outdoors but indoors is ok.

The pots are a big issue. In my opinion, if a pot is too big, or the potting mix is made up of too much peat compost with poor drainage, repotting takes priority, regardless of time of year. I downsized citrus once when buying - the pots were alarmingly large. They prefer to be a little cramped in the pots anyway, and you are having problems with water not draining correctly.

If it were me, I would pot into pots smaller than the ones they are in, leaving only an inch or two of potting mix between the roots and the pot sides. I would use a potting mix of 3 parts bark chips, one park perlite, one part ericaceous compost. That is the mix I always use, but if you have another well-draining one that would be good :)

Expect leaf drop - it happens unfortunately sometimes when the roots aren't happy or the environment changes. Don't fertilize for a couple of weeks when repotted, let the roots get settled, and water only when the top 2 or 3inches of soil are dry. Place in a bright, sunny spot indoors...as long as the room doesn't go below 60F when there is any sun...If so, the roots will be cold when the leaves heat up from the light, and the leaves will drop. This is Winter Leaf Drop, lots of postings and websites about it :)

The roots will only take up so much water, and unless you can make it sprout a load of leaves overnight, it won't uptake more. If it sits in these conditions too long, it will start to suffer from root rot. When I first bought citrus, I potted a lemon and calamondin in pots far too big. They barely grew, and when I took them out of the pots, the roots were sitting on about 5 inches of damp, peat compost. I downsized the pot quite a bit and made up a better potting mix, and now they're doing great.

These are only my opinions. Some may agree or disagree with them, and that fine. We all think and do differently :) But it is my sincerest recommendation that they go into smaller pots in a well draining potting mix, especially with winter approaching.

This is also my first post on this forum, so hi everyone :)

Dan