Citrus success

[Lesley81]

Hi all,

Over the summer I kept and planted various seeds from my citrus fruits, and many of them have now grown between 4 & 8inches tall (to my delight).

I have opted to bring them all indoors for the winter, as my greenhouse is not suitable for the colder months.

I have some under a UV lamp and some just absorbing sunlight naturally on the windowsill.

I feed them citrus plant feed every other week and they all seem to be fairing well.

Has anyone had success with keeping their citrus plants healthy over winter, and could you offer any advice on taking them back out in spring, when the temps start to rise again.
I really don't want to lose them all if I put them back out too early.

Thanks in advance.

Lesley

[TrixC]

Hi all,

Over the summer I kept and planted various seeds from my citrus fruits, and many of them have now grown between 4 & 8inches tall (to my delight).

I have opted to bring them all indoors for the winter, as my greenhouse is not suitable for the colder months.

I have some under a UV lamp and some just absorbing sunlight naturally on the windowsill.

I feed them citrus plant feed every other week and they all seem to be fairing well.

Has anyone had success with keeping their citrus plants healthy over winter, and could you offer any advice on taking them back out in spring, when the temps start to rise again.
I really don't want to lose them all if I put them back out too early.

Thanks in advance.

Lesley

Citrus don’t normally do well in centrally heated homes as they find it too dry. If you have bright, coolish room that would be best, and mist them regularly with water. I’m not sure where you are, but here they are ok outside from April to November, unless there’s an unexpected frost.

You should be aware that citrus are normally grafted, so there’s a low chance that plants grown from seed will produce edible fruit.

[boatsman]

TrixC is right. Sweet oranges are usually grafted on a bitter orange stock. Growing citrus from seed takes quite a few years before they flower and produce fruit. I have a red grapefruit tree thats about five years old and as yet it hasn't flowered. I also have a citron that is about four years old that I grew from seed and it is now about 80 cm high. I don't use any special fertilizer. I don't know why you would have a problem with the cold, maybe it's the frost, as my trees are planted outdoors and have been covered with snow, on the other hand we don't seem to get much frost.

[devonuk]

If you are in the UK they should be absolutely fine in an unheated greenhouse, unless we get a winter of negative temp all day for weeks on end - perhaps put a couple in the greenhouse as guinea pigs, if you are uncertain about this?

Hoping for fruit is a long shot, the trouble being that they don't just need time, they need to grow to a size most greenhouses can't accommodate before they start flowering.

BTW Seville oranges, in the shops in January for marmalade, are full of pips which germinate well and give you really vigorous seedlings.

[Ocelot]

I keep my (smallish) fruit trees in the bathroom during the winter, on a south-facing windowsill. They seem to appreciate the steam and moisture.

[Kirk]

Most will grow from a pip, at least to a fair extent.
I grew a lemon to a fair size and had it for several years until I left it out one very cold spell.

Used to work somewhere that had a grapefruit in the waiting area. It had come from a pip and was quite large as in about 4ft high and 4ft across. Cannot recall if it ever had fruit.

Oranges need protection, as do others. I have a lime sat fairly happily on a window sill in a SW facing window. Still have 6 limes to decide how to eat on and from it.

The lime is grafted. Not sure if the the old houses which had an orangery had grafted trees or not. As lemons come from a more temperate area they will take a bit more cold.

When you move them in or out the change in conditions tends to make them throw their leaves. My lime now just remains where it is, slowly out growing the wildow recess.

If not grafted then it is usual for then to take several years before they may bear fruit. Cannot recall flowers on the Lemon and I had that for 8 or so years.