StressBaby... I'm not so sure about tha causes of citrus leaf drop. I have 5 or 6 citrus, a couple of mandarin oranges, a couple of grapefruit and a couple of I-forget-what-i-planteds. The oranges tended to get infested with spidermites over the winter so a few years ago a decided to toss them in the garage for the winter as i just didn't want the mites spreading to other plants. My garage walls are insulated and i do have insulated doors, but there is no addotional heat. All heat is from the windows (I have 3 large south facing windows), what must leak out from the house (insulated 2x6 contruction) and whatever heat comes from the engines. I am in zone 5, massachusetts. I do occasionally get ice on the floor if the outside temps stay below zero for a few days. That first year, i did get the leaf drop you describe. I really thought i had lost them all. One lost about 90% of it's branches, the rest lost most of their leaves. But come Spring, they cam back to life and recovered fully. The following year, i decided to take better care of them since they deserved a bit of credit. I made sure i stuck to a weekly watering plan and that was enough to prevent almost ANY leaf drop. I did get a bit of freeze damage on one tree closet to the doors. This was closer to the springtime when they had started sending out new growth. SO i have now overwintered the in the unheated garage for 3 winters. Temps have been as low as -19F at night outside, and i hardly get the leaf drop. I am of the mind that it was completely due to my neglect that first winter and the lack of water. This winter i plan to put a themometer in the garage so i have an idea of what the temps actually are, but i am pretty much amazed they do so well. Poppa

I had a similar problem with an area that was in shade all morning, and then baked in the mid-day sun. I couldn't grow things directly on the block wall fence as the west side was fully exposed to the afternoon sun (I'm on the east side of the wall). What I did was take redwood 4x4 posts and sunk them in the ground spaced ten feet apart. Then across the top, I put more redwood 4x4's so they formed a solid run all the way down the fence line atop the 4x4 posts (connected the whole works with Simpson "T" brackets painted with a hammered copper spray paint). I then found some cast iron corner brackets with a grape motif, painted them copper, and put them up in each corner. I now grow my grape vines up the posts and across the top beam. They fill out to provide enough shade underneath in summer, and since they're deciduous, I get plenty of winter sun. The whole works is actually above the fence line, so it gave me the effect of a taller fence and more privacy when the grape vines are leafed out. And since they grapes aren't actually growing on the block wall fence, they don't bake nearly as badly. I'll try to post some pics after work so you can make sense of it all.

Congratulations. You might want to consider propane instead of kerosene unless you have a really good ventillation system. Pea gravel works very well for the flooring and the T5 fluorescent lights are great because they don't generate heat and can be kept a short distance from the plants. HID lights are great but generate a lot of heat and need to be kept at least 4' away. Enjoy your new greenhouse. Lets see how fast you fill it up. lol

I'll check it out Rosepedal. I have been lurking over there for a while now and got discouraged when I saw how much it was going to cost to build. When I remembered we had this thing and we put it together I was thinking this would be doable for a lot cheaper than building one out of wood or getting a greenhouse kit and much bigger for the money. I had to put it on the credit card to get everything I needed. I didn't realize until I got to Home Depot all the little things were going to eat up my money I had to spend on it and didn't consider the electric stuff and the plumbing stuff or that you can only use clear 100% silicon which was really expensive nor did I realize how much a roll of plastic for the sides was going to be do make it double thickness and that since the poles on the frame are round like chain link fence posts I had to buy a bunch of special stuff to attach the wood to it with and special screws for the polycarb panels and the list went on and on. Thank goodness I have a friend that is a manager at HD and he helped me find all the stuff and have me a discount on 10 of the sheets of polycarbonate since they edges were damaged but they are going to overlap anyway so it didn't matter. For all the electrical, plumbing, wood, plastic and panels it was about $800 for a huge greenhouse so I don't think that is bad at all. I saw a neat solar power exhaust fan that I want to get someday. My credit card bill will be a little higher but what the heck. I'm tired of doing without to save for it and something else always coming up and taking the money. Now its just got to get put together. They are running the trenches for the water and power lines tomorrow and it has to pass the pond so can tie in an outlet there for it and not have to look at extension cords all over the yard anymore either. Yippee! I am tired and haven't started yet. Patty was going to help me start building it tomorrow but I don't think John trusts us. He who refuses to check things for plumb and level, lol. At least will try to make it straight. Don't know yet if we will start tomorrow or wait until this weekend when Patty and JD can come over and all of us work on it. It would have been much easier if it was a normal carport structure with flat metal, lol. Oh well we will make it work. I have a thermometer someplace that you can read what the temp is outside from in the house. Gotta look for it. It doesn't have an alarm. That would come in handy if it got too cold in the greenhouse during the night. Well I'm going to bed. If we don't do it tomorrow I guess I will start getting my SS package ready. I have to dig up some things and wanted them fresh dug when they are sent, lol. I have to stay home tomorrow anyway waiting on the blower for the heat and a/c. Its supposed to be in tomorrow.