Whoa, I never expected this many replies so fast. Thank you every one. When you are using the stick to test moisture, do you let it "soak" in the soil or just dip it in then immediately pull it out? Thanks for the advice on the soil mixes too. Since I have three plants coming, I think I'll try each mix on separate plants. Maybe I'll be able to spot which mix works best for me before losing any of them. As for my growing environment... The soil I used for the first citrus was Miracle Grow Cactus and Citrus mix. Since I was afraid of causing more harm than good with the last two, I just left them in the pot they shipped in. I have no idea what soil they shipped with, but it sure looked like the same mix - just without plant food. The actual orange branch on all three plants was maybe 2-4 inches long. However, the rootstock on the last two was around 6 inches tall. With the plants nowhere near fruit bearing size, I figured I didn't need to worry about fertilizing just yet. I'm sure most of you would cringe at my grow lights. They are just a few 13W "energy efficient" full spectrum bulbs - the kind used in modern home lighting to treat SADS - jury rigged to a timer. It seems to work though. I have been able to grow opunta cactii, coffee, allspice, and vanilla among other things. For my smaller plants that need more humidity, I just place the bulbs at the top of my terrarium and use the timer to dial in the amount of light required. I don't have a humidity gauge, so I can't provide specific measurements, but I try to maintain my terrarium at a humidity similar to the feel of a local summer day. I haven't been able to confirm this with any records, but if I recall correctly, our summers are usually at 50-60% - maybe as high as 70%. I keep the temperature at 65 to 75 deg F in the winter. In the summer, temperatures might spike to 90 or 95 deg F. I've not had so much trouble learning to care for my other plants because I always had more of a grace period to figure out what I was doing. With the citrus, it goes from healthy to dead in the space of a week and I never have enough time to observe the results of whatever change I try to make.

My dwarf orange tree is coming back. In 2 months, all leaves have curled, turned yellow/brown, and fallen off. At what I thought was the end, green curled leaves fell off, smaller branches have all turned brown and died. Thought the small dwarf orange was a goner. First, my mistake was I left the soil that was from the original pot around the roots. For some reason, the stuff they used clumped hard, and would just soak all the water in, so in a week it still felt moist. I didn't check till all the leaves have fallen off, and I thought it was too late. I later made my new soil with plenty of rocks at the bottom and used potting soil with the little Styrofoam looking beads mixed well in and moved the tree to a larger pot. I used about 10 drops of miracle grow plant food, and just let the tree sit there for a week, 2nd week I just very lightly watered, barely sprinkled it. 3rd week, small buds and leaves are forming all around again, small flowers seem to be jutting out of branches that I thought were almost dead. So now, i'm limiting my watering down to 1 to 2 times a week and this is just a basic light sprinkle till it re-establishes itself. Then I will start watering it once a week fully as before when the roots start growing more. But so far so good. My lesson? Even in the heat here in LA, these small dwarf trees do not need extra water, if you see leaf curling or browning tips and leaves falling off. Cut back on the watering. this picture is from my cell phone, so not the greatest, but I hope hope you can see the little buds of leaves and flowers starting to jut out. This post was edited by Marky350z on Fri, Aug 16, 13 at 17:24

It doesn't have "tigarbark" like the figus microcarpia has which is why I'm questioning if it's even a fig. I purchased him for $15 end of year clearance sale!! Iv been moving him around chasing the sunlight in my house in fear it's a citrus that needs full light. Hope I'm helping and not hindering it. Here's a few more pictures of the branches and trunk

I'm growing citrus seedlings under T8s. Currently 4 bulbs per shelf. However as they get larger I feel they will need more/better lighting, so I'm getting some narrow profile T8s so I can squeeze more light across the shelf - my current fixtures are about 7" wide so I can only get 2 of them on there; with the narrowest profile I could find, I can easily fit 5 in there for 10 bulbs total across the width of the shelf. I will hang lights vertically along the back as they get larger. A single 2 light fixture will help, but 4 bulbs (or more) would be better. How big are the citrus plants at present? I'm guessing they shipped you something around 5" or shorter? If so you can most likely get by with the one fixture for awhile yet. More would be better. Lowe's carries a 2.75" wide narrow profile double bulb fixture I will most likely be getting several of pretty soon here. Metalux Narrow Profile double lamp T8 fixture It's a tad more 'spensive than some of the Home Despot offerings - $25 compared to as low as $15 for a dual T8 fixture - but it's about half as wide, so I can put up twice as many in the same space. More lumens = more betta happy plants! The bulb also makes a huge difference. Many of those fixtures that come with bulbs are fitted with low-lumen bulbs in the wrong color range. These are the type of bulbs you want. EDIT: Currently the website is showing that light as "no longer available" - something that LITERALLY happened while I was typing this message - but after calling corporate headquarters I was assured that they are not, in fact, discontinuing this light. So if it shows up as "no longer available" when you go look at that link, apparently that's an internet glitch. My local store has 11 in stock and assures me they can order more at any time. So it SHOULD still be available. Here is a link that might be useful: 4 ft. T8 32-Watt Daylight Deluxe (6500K) This post was edited by zensojourner on Mon, Nov 17, 14 at 16:51