Citrus trees, winter in the UK

[starloc]

As a test i decided to keep a large lemon tree outside all winter, i picked a hell of a winter to do it, the tree is fine though, loads of new growth, when i took the frost cloth off i had lost maybe 5 leaves!, its now growing fine, loads of fruit and im going to try and once i move my other citrus trees outside i will not keep them inside this year.

I wrapped a few sets of xmas lights onto the tree, covered the pot to stop any water getting in, and covered the tree with frost cloth,

Watered in october, I then left it to go dust dry all winter untill i checked in december and the lemons had gone slightly softer, at that point i added 40 gallons of slightly warm (70F) water / citrus feed... i only watered again this week

I tend to water as the fruit stops being as hard, not goes soft, just not as hard, the tree wll use the water from the fruit if it needs it so its a good test to show when to water, the fruit will firm up within an hour of watering most times.





The mandarin tree wasnt so lucky, it had the same treatment, but only one rubbish set of lights, the frost cloth stuck to the tree s the outermost leaves are frost damaged, the tree is fine though, lesson learned use something to hold the frost cloth off the tree, dont pull it tight and use some rope lights they make more heat., the mandarin looks a bit better now as its grown a little and i chopped the dead stuff off, this is before i chopped!



It was cold this year the trees in large pots next to the lemon tree are 50 to 100L i have 15 of them in a row and they all froze solid, i thought the citrus would have had it!

The lemon tree photos are taken today, the lemons are so much better than shop ones, even small ones have more juice and taste so much better, im just about to go and work on lemon merangue pie!

[Capsid]

Thanks for the information, those are great looking trees. What is the purpose of the Xmas lights?

I want to buy a lemon tree. Thompson & Morgan sell them for £50 which is a bit steep, but it is a fruit laden tree and I don't want to have to wait too long to be picking my own lemons for a tasty cocktail and other culinary delights. So do you have any suggestions where is a good place to buy a fruiting tree?

[starloc]

The xmas lights keep them warm at night if theres a frost, between december and februarys very cold weather they created the heat to fill up the frost fleece to stop any cold damage, the rope lights with bulbs in work best as they make a lot of heat, even now i run them at night with no frost cloth, just incase it drops a bit low and we get frost, a just in case measure

Homebase had some lemontrees full of fruit a couple of weeks ago (well our runcorn one did ) , they didnt have any today though, they were about 3 foot high and had about 10 or more lemons on

The ones from mailorder plant companies seem a bit expensive for the size often, usualy you will get better/bigger from a specialist supplier for the same money or the same tree for less
Places like the citrus center have them, global orange groves have them but have no prices on there website they have a price list of loads of different citrus and other fruits they will send you if you click on send me a price list on my list from last year you can get 5-6 ft high ones from them for 50-60 pound depending on type of lemon, they have large ones at 8ft+ for £125 they dont say if they are in fruit or not but i would ring and ask them
I got the big one from seagrave nurseries

http://www.seagravenurseries.co.uk/product_details.asp?d=15&p={73376EF1-1F08-46DA-B3FB-D8C66FB5A46C}

and it was healthy from when i got it no problems at all other than moving it, i got the mandarin from there as well again with no problems , they have allsorts of sizes of trees in lemon and orange they have some under £50

http://www.seagravenurseries.co.uk/product_details.asp?d=15&c=-1&p={9FF21C67-C3AA-4671-8F1A-BB70FAFB9AE1}

[Capsid]

Thanks for the response. On that advice I shall take a trip to either a garden centre or Homebase/Focus/B&Q and look out for a fruiting tree rather than risk getting a non fruiting tree from mail order.

I have an unheated greenhouse so I plan to overwinter the tree in there but when it gets bigger I can overwinter in the conservatory (also unheated). I presume that will be protection enough or is a wrapping of fleece still warranted? A Ficus tree in the conservatory survived last winter, so I reckon a lemon tree would make it through.

[starloc]

They will be fine with no fleece in a greenhouse, in the conservatory as well , you just need to watch the humidity levels dont get too low and if its cold ( roots (not the room) below 70F ) then shield it from direct sun , i have loads of smaller ones upto 6 foot in the house i keep them 2 ways

1) they sit on heatermats to keep the roots warm and have growlamps pointing on them ( only so they grow very rapidly all winter as well) , they dont need much light but the more there is the more they grow

2) in a cold dull room, i had the window open most of the time unless it went too cold like at the end of january, but as it started to get brighter in january/february the sun moved and lit through the small window and hit one plant, it lost all its leaves in an hour or two as the plant was about -10C , roots and air it was fully dormant, when sun strikes a dormant tree the leaves overheat and fall off as they cant cool themselves, the tree was just taken from that room to a dull area underneath some other trees on the heatermats with the growlights (not direct light) within 2 weeks its leaves were growing and now about half of them are back and they look great all being new leaves.

Its only actual frost on the plant that can damage it, as long as it doenst get direct light while freezing cold, in a greenhouse if theres a very bright day i would shade the area with something to cut out direct bright light

[ourarka]

I know it's an old thread, but wanted still battling with how best to overwinter my potted citrus trees here on the UK's south coast. They are not huge, but decent mature plants and I have two Meyer lemons, a Tahiti lime and a Calamondin. My unheated conservatory always seems the ideal place, as it is bright, cool (except for very sunny days) and always frost free BUT they always get ravaged by leaf curling caterpillars/aphids/scale.

Am I right in thinking that, really, the longer they can be outdoors for the better? I am wondering if they would be best to find somewhere sheltered from wind and bright sun that they can rest for the winter, and I can whip them in for the night if a frost is forecast. That way the humidity will stay up, but hopefully the darn pests will not get so much of a grip. Thoughts?

[Snadger]

^^^^Could you not keep them in the conservatory and mist them with a spray to keep the humidity up?

[Alison]

I've lost one in he past in an unheated greenhouse so now always bring into the cool conservatory over winter. However on sunny days I take it outside and give it a good wash with the hosepipe to remove any nasties before bringing inside again. Seems to work well.

[Snadger]

Are all lemons edible? Mine are all starting to turn yellow after being green all summer. I've no idea what type they are as I was given the plants a couple of years ago when they dropped most of there leaves for someone. They now look like healthy plants.

[starloc]

Are all lemons edible? Mine are all starting to turn yellow after being green all summer. I've no idea what type they are as I was given the plants a couple of years ago when they dropped most of there leaves for someone. They now look like healthy plants.

All lemons are edible

[starloc]

I know it's an old thread, but wanted still battling with how best to overwinter my potted citrus trees here on the UK's south coast. They are not huge, but decent mature plants and I have two Meyer lemons, a Tahiti lime and a Calamondin. My unheated conservatory always seems the ideal place, as it is bright, cool (except for very sunny days) and always frost free BUT they always get ravaged by leaf curling caterpillars/aphids/scale.

Am I right in thinking that, really, the longer they can be outdoors for the better? I am wondering if they would be best to find somewhere sheltered from wind and bright sun that they can rest for the winter, and I can whip them in for the night if a frost is forecast. That way the humidity will stay up, but hopefully the darn pests will not get so much of a grip. Thoughts?

I would not keep them outdoors in the winter in the UK, i take mine in when inside temperatures are the same as outside, so if the house is heated to 20C, as soon as its no more than 20C outside they go inside so they dont notice

If in a dull place they need a root temperature about 0 to 12 deg C and a room temperature about 5 to 15C
if its in a hot room the roots will warm up they need some sunlight but only in-direct light unless they have a warmer root temperature (15C to 30C in the compost) citrus do not need lots of light just some light as they are an under canopy plant so strong light is not necessary
if they get strong light and have cold roots the leaves fall off `winter leaf drop`
Hot room and cold roots, leaves drop
hot roots, no light leaves drop

put them near a gas heater that has no flue and they drop leaves they hate gas fumes

so....
they need a constant-ish cool temperature, with warmer roots and indirect light with some humidity
watering is the hard bit as it coos the pot by 10C as the water evaporates, so water with warm water very very occasionally only when dry as in winter they dont use much

Many of mine are now in an unheated bedroom (used for the citrus for winter for 4 years... till yesterday when i added a heater ) in Bulgaria, ice on the windows inside every night and -10C outside most nights, they are raised off the floor to get sun on the pots during the day and they get a bit of direct light on the leaves shining through some trees outside, they went in at the start of October when it was 35C outside and no leaf drop

yesterday and today i have added heating in the room for a few hours its 20C in the room with a wood burning stove for a few hours 10pm to midnight to make sure the compost stays warm overnight due to -15C outside

Calamondins are the easiest of them, lemons are quite easy but limes like it warm and shouldnt goi under 5C to 10C , never under 0C

you want to let citrus get cool to under 12C for about 400 hours during the winter to make them flower, lime they let them dry out to stress them into flowering to avoid the cold