When do you bring in your citrus?

[telos]

Clearance sales and I should not be seeing each other when fruit trees are involved.. I blame the sales for why I now have six different citrus trees when I only ever intended to have three. I have a lemon, lime, orange, and three mandarin trees all in large pots. I paid full price for the lemon and one of the mandarins, everything else was at least 70% off.

Now, it's starting to get cold enough to turn the colors on the leaves. I've already brought mine in the house and set them by the biggest window in the living room on the southern end of the house. I'm wondering what the rule of thumb is for bringing them in and putting them back outside. It was the combination of weather in the 40s at night and the changing leaves on other trees that made me bring mine inside. The improved meyer lemon in particular looks a lot happier.

I will say the fruit that from the mandarin that fruited this year is really good tasting and nearly fully ripe so I don't regret them. I'm just wondering when about in the spring they go back out into the yard to soak up the heat? What seems to be the key indicator for bringing them in?

[tom spellman]

Protection of Citrus or any sub-tropicals will be weather driven. The target dates will change from year to year. Unless you have a greenhouse all fruit trees would prefer to be outdoors as much as possible. If its not going to freeze keep them out as much as you can. This can be easy or difficult depending on how portable your trees are. Its best to have them on casters so you can move them in and out with ease. Also protect from the cold dry winds.

Tom

[telos]

I'm not really interested in target dates so much as the clues from the other plants and general weather patterns that it is time to bring the citus in or put it out. I'd love to have a greenhouse, but that just isn't going to happen unless I build one myself.

My plants are in twenty inch pots that I can actually physically pick up and lift or when the botoms are clean I can drag them around. I think I may have waited a little too long for the Meyer lemon tree because it's done quite the leaf drop and is now perking up back to the usual paler green leaves again. I'm hoping to prevent that next year, but at least now I know that it's the most tender to the temps of the citrus collection.

At the moment, I'm guessing that when any of the other leaves on the oaks, pistachios, maples and so on around here start turning, it's time to bring the citrus in.

[telos]

Here are some quick shots from the camera on this little netbook of my citrus in it's winter sunning position in the living room.. They aren't particularly big, but they make me happy.

The first one shows the leaf drop on the lemon. The second is all the pots together. The one that is fruiting is the Owari Satsuma Mandarin and it is delicious.

[LeeAnn Barton]

Hi Telos,
Do you know exactly which varieties you have? I have a little experience and info on varieties and minimum temps.

[telos]

I have an Improved Meyer Lemon, a Mexican Lime, and three Satsuma Mandarins; Owari, Seto and Kimbrough. The lemon is the tall one, the one beside it in the second row is the lime. The Owari is the mandarin that has fruit. They seem to be doing okay in the window light, but the lemon had quite the leaf drop not long after it was brought in. It seems otherwise fine.

[cebury]

Telos,

From various other online groups I hear Meyer is one of the hardest to maintain in containers, very finicky to weather and other cultural conditions. My experience has shown otherwise, but I live in the central valley of CA where they grow like weeds (well, not really).

Assuming your trees are still healthy (now that it's January) as they were before you overwintered, you probably have already conquered the toughest parts of keeping them indoors: lighting, over-watering, and humidity.

I do not live in the cold area of the states. But from what I've read and heard from others online, 40F is a very safe number to remember for younger container citrus. In actuality, in-ground and mature container citrus can stand much lower temps (26-30) before foliage loss, but if that's for an extended duration you'll start losing fruit and fine roots before then. The fruit will be damaged and the root loss will lead to dessication as the foliage was also injured during the process.

I'd bring them back outdoors when temps stay at or above 40F in your area. As stated above, if your area has cold winds, then you'll want to keep them inside longer, but it's better to take outside and protect with barriers. For container citrus, you risk fine root loss when soil temp (not ambient) start dropping below somewhere around 40F (there is no magical temp, it's a declining loss based on various factors like health, hydration, etc). If your 20" containers are providing excess soil (ie. the rootball is not filling it up yet) then they won't freeze as easily, but that would mean death.

Other than that general advice, you'll probably learn more about what they can take through your own experiences.

[telos]

Thanks a bunch. I'll keep that 40F number in mind. Our weather is so variable (we had 70 degree highs recently this January already) that it is all too easy to jump the gun and put the citrus out too early. All of it is still healthy. The navel orange set fruit along with the Mexican lime and the Meyer lemon. Looks like next fall I'll be in for a nice treat.

The leaves are taking a little bit of time to return on the lemon, but the blooms have been really lovely and smelled wonderful. I gave all the citrus some Hasta-gro in their water in early January, but otherwise have been leaving them alone to enjoy the warm sunny spot they are currently in.

[telos]

The trees have recovered and are back outside. I talked to a local nursery guy about what was up with my lemon. Turns out that it probably got a little too dry at some point in the winter and that caused the leaf drop. I bought a new moisture meter and that should take care of that.

These are through the window pictures because it was raining out, but as you can see, they are all doing quite well. Thanks for all the help.

[timclymer]

I have both a mexican lime and a meyer lemon that sat outside on my covered porch this past winter when we experienced 18F weather (unusual for SE Texas). Except for some fabric and blankets draped over them, they didn't have any freeze protection other than a wall blocking the most severe northern winds. The lime lost all its leaves but 2 and the meyer lemon seemed happy through it all. I don't think it lost any leaves really. Seems odd but perhaps the heat radiating off the cement and its terra cotta pot saved it? Limes aren't supposed to like much cold at all. It's very happy and healthy this spring and has exploded in growth. I'm happy not having to move citrus to the garage in the winter.