Oh thank you all so much!! Miss sherry, I only have one citrus tree actually planted in yard so far, it was here already and it's a Washington navel dwarf, and thought it was dead after all the freezes last winter and all the cats eating leaves,but recently a few shoots of new leaves started growing out from root, original tree (it's tiny) is all dead wood so idk what's going on with the new stems popping up, they are kind of on side right next to the "dead" stems. I need to plant something and get it established before I get bombarded with eggs next summer! Thanks for the coffee suggestions!! I always have coffee around so will try tomorrow!! Thanks again everyone!! So far looks like all of the cats are okay with the lime, had a few that wandered around for a few hours, I guess looking for lemon leaves. Lol, I had one 5th instar a while back, moved him indoors to feed him older satsuma leaves and leave new growth on lemon for the little cats, he had just molted into last instar, and anyway, moved him in, he didn't eat satsuma leaves or the orange leaves I tried and then he made his sling and pupated, never even purged, never ate one bite after molting last time, but he eclosed just fine and flew right off after a couple hours!! Guess he just didn't like change! �;-) I swear there must kit be a ctrr

MDCitrus, I grow a number of citrus indoors here in Connecticut, and never use artificial lighting. If you have a south or west-facing window with good direct sunlight that comes through for several or more hours a day throughout the winter and early spring months, you should be fine. My trees came inside in mid-October, which, in these warming times was actually still a couple weeks before the first killing frost got the tomatoes. They will be back outside by the end of May at the latest. 60% humidity is a possibility if you have baseboard heating, at least in my experience, especially if you have a small room with a good number of plants in it. The plants act as natural humidifiers. If you only have a few plants, or they are many but small, the humidity problem will be greater. I must admit that I am not that picky about potting mix: I typically just go down the local Home Depot and pick up a big 40 quart bag of whatever houseplant mix they have available. Mixing your own may be fun, or more economical, but you also are exposing yourself to dust from the perlite and vermiculite, which isn't good for you in the long term. If you worry about such things, a cheap, disposable dust mask would be a good idea (I never used to, but my ceramics hobby has made me a bit more aware of the hazards of long-term exposure to such stuff). As far as drainage is concerned, the mixes I have used have all worked fine: every once in a while I do overwater, and then I have to drain away the excess from the oversize saucers I use. You can do this with either a siphon tube (if the saucer is elevated above the ground level by a few inches or more), or a sponge. Once or twice a winter, I actually deliberately water to the point of having quite a bit of water come out into the saucers in my citrus, because doing so allows me to gauge how much water the various plants need when dry. For example, a lemon in an 16 inch container may need a gallon and a half of water when really dry to be well-watered. Knowing this helps avoid overwatering and underwatering. Hope this helps, Don

You are on the right track. Since you invest heavily already to complete your mission add sand preferably coarse sand and perlite. Don't use pure miracle grow potting mix as it will compact in no time and it is soggy most of the time and citrus don't like soggy soil. Mix half potting mix, 1/4 sand, 1/4 perlite and mix thoroughly to the mixture 2 tbspn osmote for every gallon of soil mixture. Water thoroughly the first time and forget about it with your lights on at least 10 hours a day. You take away less the hours it is on sunlight. And you should have a nice plant soon. Keep your

Here's my old tree today.Here this year's seedlings in bark mix with slow releaseIn previous years have seen yellowing of new growth during hot/sultry weather which has not arrived yet for us. This is also influenced by rainfall which for us has been TOO MUCH of a good thing so far. What will happen to the foliage in July/August only time will tell.