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They don't need a lot of light but they do need some , most citrus are very small trees and grow under another canopy of trees naturally, they will grow better with lots of light but you need to be carefull about the root temperatures with strong light, winter sun being low in the sky causes the leaf drop, as soon as the shortest day is past the light gets strong , roots are at the coldest and the low sun in the sky gets in the windows in a direct beam and sunburns the leaves and they overheat dry out and fall off not usually a problem with additional cfl lights as like the leds they are very gentle light but it does all depend on root temperature.
Depending on the variety of citrus it takes many years to flower form seed, mandarins only a few years 3 or 4, lemons about 10 years grapefruits can take 20 to 30 years, but...with seed grown citrus you cant prune them until they flower so it can be a problem with size , they need a count of a certain number of leaf nodes to have grown before they will mature and be able to flower. this is why grafted ones are best but rooted cuttings are usually as good sometimes better , just seed grown takes ages
Citrus never become dormant like many plants this is why you need to feed them all year many people change to low nitrogen in the winter ( sold as winter feed ) this causes yellowing leaves!
Only water when dry and always feed with every watering citrus fertiliser ( like citrus centre ,champak or vitax ) is best as some can have salts that cause problems ( I used a well known garden brand of fertiliser on some and it caused major problems due to the form of nitrogen that was used causing salt burn to the leaves) ,
Some dull looking yellowing leaves are normal all the time and eventually drop, just old leaves , with cold roots citrus leaves look very dull and not as green as the root activity becomes very low with compost temperature below 12C but the plant still tries to grow and it cant get nutrients.
Also , dull yellowing leaves can be caused by incorrect pH of the water / compost made worse by low temperatures and less nutrient intake, when watering I add a cap of white vinegar to each 15l bucket of water ( if I cant be bothered measuring the acidity! ) or I sometimes measure it exactly with soil testing kit ( but often cant be bothered!)
Depending on the variety of citrus it takes many years to flower form seed, mandarins only a few years 3 or 4, lemons about 10 years grapefruits can take 20 to 30 years, but...with seed grown citrus you cant prune them until they flower so it can be a problem with size , they need a count of a certain number of leaf nodes to have grown before they will mature and be able to flower. this is why grafted ones are best but rooted cuttings are usually as good sometimes better , just seed grown takes ages
Citrus never become dormant like many plants this is why you need to feed them all year many people change to low nitrogen in the winter ( sold as winter feed ) this causes yellowing leaves!
Only water when dry and always feed with every watering citrus fertiliser ( like citrus centre ,champak or vitax ) is best as some can have salts that cause problems ( I used a well known garden brand of fertiliser on some and it caused major problems due to the form of nitrogen that was used causing salt burn to the leaves) ,
Some dull looking yellowing leaves are normal all the time and eventually drop, just old leaves , with cold roots citrus leaves look very dull and not as green as the root activity becomes very low with compost temperature below 12C but the plant still tries to grow and it cant get nutrients.
Also , dull yellowing leaves can be caused by incorrect pH of the water / compost made worse by low temperatures and less nutrient intake, when watering I add a cap of white vinegar to each 15l bucket of water ( if I cant be bothered measuring the acidity! ) or I sometimes measure it exactly with soil testing kit ( but often cant be bothered!)
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