Just bought an orange tree from Lowes!

[soldier]

I was at Lowe's buying some supplies and I decided to browse through the garden center. For some reason I got really excited and before I knew I was on my way home with an orange tree. I put it out on my balcony, but it only seems like it get one hour of direct sunlight a day. I quickly realized I had no idea what I was doing. I researched online and saw some people growing indoors. Is this an option for me? When will this tree start producing fruit? It's about 24 inches tall. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!

[bearded bloke]

If only we had San Francisco type temperatures here,even just for a few weeks in the summer it would be so nice

[Two_Sheds]

you will need a sheltered, south/west facing patio, and a frost-free greenhouse or conservatory in the winter. Unless you live in California, of course

Growing Citrus Fruits | Lemons | Limes | Oranges | How To Grow | Grow Your Own

[bearded bloke]

Here you go soldier,Lowe's has it's own online plant guide ... Lowe’s Plant Guide

[Two_Sheds]

Ah, now I see that he IS in California

[WendyC]

I was at Lowe's buying some supplies and I decided to browse through the garden center. For some reason I got really excited and before I knew I was on my way home with an orange tree. I put it out on my balcony, but it only seems like it get one hour of direct sunlight a day. I quickly realized I had no idea what I was doing. I researched online and saw some people growing indoors. Is this an option for me? When will this tree start producing fruit? It's about 24 inches tall. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!

Obviously location is going to be very important when offering advice, so could you add it to your profile.

[soldier]

Thanks for the replies everyone, but maybe I wasn't clear because it seems everyone missed my question. I am in Cali, but my location does not matter because I will not be growing outside. I do not get sunlight in my balcony, so I will be growing INDOORS. All of my lighting questions pertain to grow lights. What kind of light should I buy? How long do I leave the lights on? The other questions probably don't matter indoor or outdoor; how much light do they need to grow fruit? How long before it starts producing fruit. Should I ever change the amount of light it receives?

Thanks again!

[bearded bloke]

I would guess that the best plan here would be to try & mimic the light levels & durations that occur naturally in your locality,I dread to think what your power bill will be though I would think LED lighting although initially the most expensive to set up would be the cheapest in the long term given it's low running costs.

[veggiechicken]

Hello Soldier and welcome!
I can't recall anyone else on here who grows anything as large as an orange tree under lights. Most of us use our lights to bring on seedlings during the short days of winter. Not sure I could afford to run lights all year round
Hope you find an answer somewhere.

[out in the cold]

We grew some (admittedly sour tasting) oranges indoors in a flat in the Glasgow area a few years ago.

It just stood on the living room table, albeit quite well lit.

If we can grow them in a colder climate like ours, yours should cope on say a windowsill or similar area.

As to lighting, we never used anything like that and still got fruits.

[starloc]

For a small tree indoors, get a CFL lamp , they sell a large bulb that gives out red and blue spectrum the bulb is about 1 foot long and 4 inch wide, it runs at about the same as a 100w bulb but gives out the equivelant of 300w or so of a metal halide light, but needs to be about 6 inch away from the tree

I grow some of mine indoors I used to have about 100 small size citrus trees covered by a few metal halide lamps, in the living room, with misting systems to increase humidity....

now the living room is back to being almost a house and most plants have gone to a greenhouse in Bulgaria as I got sick of police raids for the growlights

In the UK house its mainly a couple of large ones indoors and a couple outdoors,

indoors its a 7 foot vlemon tree and a 9 foot calamondin , they were ok with no lights, but are better with lights

With no lights they are fine, citrus in the wild grow under other plants so with low light they stay alive but dont grow so much, so I use lights for rapid growth

I now use one metal halide 600w on 45 degrees angled across the room to cover both large trees at about 2 meters distance from the side of each tree turning the trees once a week so each side gets some light,

My trees are in a bay window during the summer but moved away to get no direct sun in the winter if no lights are on., my window gets sun for about 2 hours a day but not much gets in with the net curtains

[Kristen]

I have tube lighting (T5) and Metal Halide for plants that are over wintered and for seedlings in the Spring.

I use the Metal Halide for anything that needs "canopy penetration", and tubes only for seedlings.

The Metal Halide needs to be about 2 feet away from the plants, otherwise they burn, and it will cast light strong enough for the plants up to about 4 feet.

The tubes (and this would also be true of LED) need to be 2 inches away from the leaves, much more than that and the "power" available to the plant is dramatically reduced (inverse square law applies to light "power")

For over wintering (e.g. in a unheated conservatory) then "tick over" may be enough, and just some dangling Compact Fluorescent (CFL) lights - without reflectors - would do. Obviously anything deciduous / defoliated doesn't need light in winter at all.

I have my Metal Halide lamp in my home office, so although it is 600W, and uses a lot of electricity, much of that is converted into heat so, in the Winter at least, that is somewhat offsetting my house heating (although Gas / Oil is obviously cheaper for space heating than Electricity)

I run the lights at night as we have cheaper electricity then, plus the house benefits more from any "waste heat". If you need to run the lights in Summer, and would normally be using air conditioning, then night time usage might mean that the waste heat is OK and not having to be "removed" by air conditioning, doubling your energy bill!

You need a "Ballast" for Metal Halide, and you cannot run it off an ordinary timer, so you need a "contactor" to bring the lights on (the contactor plugs into both the Mains electricity, and a regular timer, and when the timer clicks ON the contactor supplies the power to the lights from the mains, not via the timer - if the power comes through the timer direct it would weld the contacts closed - not good!)

I recommend that you have a look on the Cannabis forums, they have the whole indoor growing / feeding / lighting thing down to a fine art, and when I was buying my lights I found they answered all my questions (strength of light, growing effect, feeding regime, bugs [that's the worse but for me, I get ALL the Summer bugs thinking its Nirvana in Winter under my lights ] and so on), even though I was growing a different "crop"

[Kristen]

P.S. I grew Cannas from seed one Winter. I saw on the TV that you can sow them in October, with some artificial light over winter, in order that they flower in the first year. I may have over done the power of the light! because they were in flower by Christmas and set seed in January!

This is 8 weeks from sowing the seed! under Metal Halide

[soldier]

I have tube lighting (T5) and Metal Halide for plants that are over wintered and for seedlings in the Spring.

I use the Metal Halide for anything that needs "canopy penetration", and tubes only for seedlings.

The Metal Halide needs to be about 2 feet away from the plants, otherwise they burn, and it will cast light strong enough for the plants up to about 4 feet.

The tubes (and this would also be true of LED) need to be 2 inches away from the leaves, much more than that and the "power" available to the plant is dramatically reduced (inverse square law applies to light "power")

For over wintering (e.g. in a unheated conservatory) then "tick over" may be enough, and just some dangling Compact Fluorescent (CFL) lights - without reflectors - would do. Obviously anything deciduous / defoliated doesn't need light in winter at all.

I have my Metal Halide lamp in my home office, so although it is 600W, and uses a lot of electricity, much of that is converted into heat so, in the Winter at least, that is somewhat offsetting my house heating (although Gas / Oil is obviously cheaper for space heating than Electricity)

I run the lights at night as we have cheaper electricity then, plus the house benefits more from any "waste heat". If you need to run the lights in Summer, and would normally be using air conditioning, then night time usage might mean that the waste heat is OK and not having to be "removed" by air conditioning, doubling your energy bill!

You need a "Ballast" for Metal Halide, and you cannot run it off an ordinary timer, so you need a "contactor" to bring the lights on (the contactor plugs into both the Mains electricity, and a regular timer, and when the timer clicks ON the contactor supplies the power to the lights from the mains, not via the timer - if the power comes through the timer direct it would weld the contacts closed - not good!)

I recommend that you have a look on the Cannabis forums, they have the whole indoor growing / feeding / lighting thing down to a fine art, and when I was buying my lights I found they answered all my questions (strength of light, growing effect, feeding regime, bugs [that's the worse but for me, I get ALL the Summer bugs thinking its Nirvana in Winter under my lights ] and so on), even though I was growing a different "crop"

You guys have been extremely helpful. I'm temporarily using a 400w HPS light (I have a MH) but I heard HPS was better), I'd like to get LEDs eventually. Still a few things I'd love clarification on:

1) How long before my tree stars producing fruit?
2)How much indoor light does it need? Does the amount of light it needs change?
3)Can I use one grow room for all different plants?

I had the light a light over a foot away and the flowers started to burn, so now it's 3 feet away.

[Kristen]

I had the light a light over a foot away and the flowers started to burn, so now it's 3 feet away.

I hold the back of my hand under the light at the same distance as the nearest leaf. Have to leave it there a while - perhaps as long as a minute - and then you can judge how how it is. If you have to move your hand away in that time then its too close