indoor growing citrus trees

HELP!! ALL THE LEAVES FALL OFF MY CITRUS TREES INDOORS! TREES DIE!

I bought a nearly 7-year-old Washington navel orange tree a few months ago from a local nursery that had the plant for several years in their greenhouse (it did not sell). I placed it indoors (because of cold temperatures outside) under a 48-inch X 24-inch fluorescent grow light -- four red and four blue. The plant flourished. Dozens of bloosoms. Fragrance incredible. A lot of fruit followed.

I then placed the plant outdoors and it continued to flourish in the same way, surrounded by bees pollinating the tree. Just before leaving town for a week (high-wind storms were predicted), I moved the tree back indoors. Same watering, same grow light, by windows that were wide open, no heat (heat turned off). When I returned home, one-third of all the leaves on tree had fallen off. ALL the fruit was gone. I immediately returned the tree outdoors, but no more bloosoms, no fruit and the leaves continue to fall off, e.g. at a slower rate. Many branches are now naked.

The same thing occurred late last fall. My two Meyer lemon trees and two orange trees flourished outside all summer. I moved them indoors November 1 (we had mild temperatures until then), povided artificial grow light (above), and as always utilize Osmocote fertilizer in the soil and Miracle-Gro Miracid Plant Food in the watering can, all to no avail. Eventually all the leaves fell off all four citrus trees and the trees died. When I checked with local nursery in business for two generations, they advised that they quit carrying citrus trees in our White Plains, New York location because the trees usually do not tolerate being moved indoors. Typically, the owner of the nursery told me, the leaves drop off, despite the best care (plenty of light, no artificial heat, near a window, well-balancd weekly watering, etc.) and the tree dies.

Anyone have any idea what to do? Is there anything a dedicated grower can do? I have spent $2,000 on trees, pots, special planting soil (quick draining), grow light, fertilizer, etc., all for nothing. My Washington navel orange tree is back outside but looks dormant, no bloosoms coming back, no fruit, and leaves still falling (a little slower rate). I spray the trees with Messenger (a protein known to stimulate flowering and fruit production), but nothing is working. The two new commercial lemon trees (Lisbon) continue to flourish outdoors, though one has dropped 30% of its leaves even though there are four good size green lemons that look strong and healthy. The trees are in large 22" pots mixed with fast draining soil and regular soil which stays moist ("4" on the tester) at depth (pots just do not dry out completely).


This message was edited May 31, 2010 3:01 PM

do you have any pets? if not you have broke a Routien and might have been better leaving it outdoors in a less harsh location out of direct wind and storm contact look at how FL citrus growers handle their trees and the thrive every year. Think about it , it makes the tree stronger .

I don't know a lot about your tree in particular, but I do know quite a bit about trees in general. First, trees don't react well to sudden decreases in photo-intensity. It's a pretty normal reaction for trees to defoliate or partially defoliate when you suddenly bring them indoors after they've been luxuriating in the sun. The various Ficus species are noted for throwing their leaves on the floor if you make any significant reductions in either photo-intensity or photoperiod; so while I don't know if your tree is on the list of those particularly sensitive to light reductions, it wouldn't be a tree that stands alone in exhibiting defoliation in reaction.

Second, leaves are only able to adjust to a certain amount of increase or decrease in light. I'll illustrate with some numbers on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being almost dark and 10 being extremely bright. Let's imagine your tree growing in a nursery setting under shade cloth so it's getting sun at a level of 6. The leaves on that particular tree are only going to be capable of adjusting to light levels within a rather narrow range on either side of 6, say from 4-8. If you site the tree in light outside the tree's ability to adapt, the leaves abscise and new leaves adapted to current light levels take their place.

Light is only one possibility. Anything that creates a drought response can also cause a consequential/environmental dormancy. If you have a high TDS/EC (fertility level) in the soil, the plant can't absorb water and will shed leaves and branches. The same holds true, obviously, if you under-water, but over-watering can also cause a drought response.

There's not much you can do but wait & see what happens. I would put the tree in the shade and be SURE not to over-water. Your plant will use much less water with a reduced canopy mass. When you see new but movement, return the plant to full sun.

BTW - some plants, most, in fact, just do not tolerate indoor conditions. Remember, there are no such things as houseplants; only plants that tolerate indoor conditions to varying degrees, 'varying' being the key word.

I wish you the very best, and I hope you found what I offered helpful - maybe even encouraging.

Take care.

Al

Sgt. Yates,

Thank you. No pets. Breaking the routine is definitely suspect since the orange tree did so well indoors after I brought it home from the greenhouse nursery where it had thrived for several years. Indoors, it bloosomed and grew beautifully, with plenty of new little, green oranges. I should have left well enough alone. After placing it outside, it also adjusted and did very well. The return indoors was the problem.. After only 6 days, the leaves dropped and all the fruit fell, now back outdoors, it acts dormant with the leaves still falling at an alarming rate (though not as fast they were indoors).

i have had a few of the dwarf trees that produced fruit i keep them on the play house porchand thats where they stay they have fruit and have been their for about three years i do drop the roll down blinds on all sides to sheild them from the storms and cold weather but they stay outdoors they have become hardy trees and amazed my frends that they even lived after the first year. but i did baby them with a heat pad & blankets the first year lol didnt tel them that. ; ) . as much as you have put in to your trees thinking out of the box for an outside growing area could help save your trees and your budget the temp dont have to be very high above the cold line to keep them from dieing and it is healthy for the trees to go into dormincy so one can trim them and repot if needed with out harming them.

Thanks, Sgt. Yates. The problem I have is the weather in White Plains, New York gets very cold in the winter. My tiny porch is a shared, open landing (with a partial overhang). The snow gets too deep to leave any plants outside, unless they are evergreens. My Monrovia Lisbon Lemon Trees are true dwarfs, and Monrovia tells me they are very hardy and will withstand temperatures down to 20-30 degrees in winter. The two Lisbon Lemon trees are doing quite well, having been placed outside and left there for 6-7 weeks on a ledge, behind a white picket fence, in an area I am technically not allowed to use (plenty of direct sunshine, rain, all weather reaches them). They are both blooming again and one has tiny little lemons that don't seem to grow while the other has four, enlarging green lemons. The Washington Navel did very well indoors for six weeks after I brought it home from its three-year stint in the nursery (no one was dumb enough to buy it until I came along -- so I ended up with a 6-7-year-old mature tree, full of fruit, flowers and buds). It did well, and flourished after being put outside on the porch where there is overhang for a month. Then the move back indoors when I left town for a week. Boom. That was the end. One-third of leaves dropped while it back inside. Now, moved back outside two weeks ago today, it is not significantly recovering. Still dropping leaves with only a little new growth and no new buds, flowers -- not even a single, tiny new orange. I think I just learned that you cannot be taking these trees in and out, in and out and expect them to adapt.

Thanks for your insight.

Russell.

Job has a tree food spike for fruit trees . also depending on the length of time the tree has been in that pot it may be time to renew the soil as well or repot it either way I take one spike and mash it up into small bits and unearth the top 3 inches of soil when repotting placing the crumbles to the outer edges and adding the rest of the soil to the pot.

My Brother-in –Law lives in VA and He is still in the Military his Mom has given him several lil dwarf trees and he said you probably “smothered” the tree not as bad as you would think it was use to the fresh air and sun light and being moved inside with none was like a pillow over its face .

Hope this will help you out .

I'd also be patient with it--obviously something stressed it when you brought it inside, and it's going to take it more than a couple weeks to recover from that stress. Assuming you've got it back in the light/water conditions that make it happy, it should recover and put out new growth but you'll need to give it some time. Leaves will come first, then if it continues to be happy eventually more flowers & then fruits. But it takes a lot more time to recover from the damage than it does to do the damage in the first place so you will have to be patient with it.

Thank you Sgt. Yates and ecrane3. The orange tree was just re-potted in a large 24" container, though not as fast draining as I would have preferred. I may need to change that at some point. I think the shock of moving it inside did have a "smothering" effect. It will take a lot longer to recover. A patient with a CVA ("stroke") or myocardial infarction ("heart attack") takes only a minute to do the damage to their brain or heart muscle, but months to fully recover. So your analogy is certainly true. I have invested so much money, and have lost four citrus fruit trees over the winter indoors (despite Osmocote, watering, and a well-balanced grow light) that I am concerned that I have an impossible task: Growing citrus trees indoors during the long winter months. I am going to face the same problems when the trees are moved indoors in late October or early November. The dwarf Lison lemon trees are bred to withstand cold to 20-30 degrees, the orange tree cannot withstand for very long temperature below freezing, so it will have to retun indoors first. I even kept the two windows wide open and placed the orange tree directly in front of the open windows while I was out-of-town, but that did not help, either. The orange tree looks dormant as you suggested and it will take many weeks to grow new leaves, bud, flower and fruit. One of my Lisbon lemon trees with no leaf drop has had two huge flower productions in the last 7 weeks and many tiny, green lemons, but none maturing (they drop off). The other Lisbon lemon next to it has had considerable leaf drop but four green lemons that are growing very large and should be edible in 2-3 months. It is hard to figure. Just like people, I guess, each tree is different.

Thanks again.

Russell.