I live just north of Panama City a few miles, but our wintertime nightly lows can be as much as 10-15 degrees less than those on the coast. I have several citrus trees, some in pots and others in the ground, and I have to do some serious winter-protecting. To grow citrus in this climate, especially a Key lime, you really have to keep an eye on the weather. Key limes are among the most sensitive to cold, and require some form of protection below 35F to avoid damage. The easiest method for you would be to string mini-white Christmas lights (indoor/outdoor) through the branches, and leave them in place year 'round. Since each string of 100 lights puts out 40 watts, a tree the size you described would require the addition of another string or two. Then, when cold weather is forecasted, all you have to do is plug in the lights and cover with a frost cloth. I highly recommend the frost cloths specially made for this purpose. (If you have the thorny-variety, you may want to throw a bed sheet over the branches first. Frost cloths don't handle thorns too well.) I bought a case of the 10x12 size and use them liberally. Make sure the cloths go all the way to the ground, and hold down with bricks. Two or more frost cloths can be joined with clothes pins, or even hemmed together if you want to make them stay in place more securely. If it's windy, lash the cloths with lines tied to stakes. We are relatively new to this area, but people I've spoken to agree that this winter has been colder than others. You may have been fortunate enough the past couple of winters to avoid damaging cold temps enough for your tree to get some size to it. But, you should plan on at least one sub-freezing spell (and possibly more) each winter. Whether or not your Key lime made it I can't say. Don't bother pruning yet, and certainly don't fertilize. You should begin seeing some recovery in a few weeks, if there's still life in it. Keep in mind that if you have a grafted Key lime, it's possible the root will come back but not the graft. That, of course, would not be the tree you want in your yard. Hope this helps. Bruce C.

Melanie, Thanks. I've been surfing around looking at ideas to help him deal. Do you re-pot often? Do you prune roots? I'm guessing my pot is probably 20-24 inches across. I put him right in there when I got him. Decided to go with a larger pot from day one, because I'm scared to re-pot him. Mostly, I'm afraid of the thorns. I'm hoping to keep him from getting any taller than about six feet so the majority of his leaves are at the height of my South windows for winter. I'm sure I'm concerned about this far too early, but eventually I will need to re-pot him and maybe prune some roots. Thanks for the info, Much Obliged. dave

It doesn't look like anything TOO serious. Some citrus leaf-miner damage I think, so remove leaves with the little mining trails. Some of the misshapen leaves are just damaged through contact damage which is quite common - unsightly but not detrimental. It looks a little under-nourished. I would give it a good watering, then give it a good fertilizer with some added epsom salts and iron. A regular fertilizing schedule will bring it back to health after a while. Slowly introduce it to some good light, and make sure it stays warm enough with good humidity and it will be fine :)

Again, check the soil way down at the bottom, Mile High. You made up your own mixture, and believe it or not, it may still be retaining too much water at the bottom of your pot. Cactus mix and perlite will still retain too much water. Especially when you bring your tree inside for the winter. Which is why Mike shared with you using the 511 mix. O don't even use cactus mix and perlite in S. California, where it is almost as dry as Colorado, and I can keep my trees outside all year. My customized 511 mix is 3 parts bagged mix (usually MiracleGro Vegetable Soil), 1 part perlite and 1 part small bark chips (usually reptile mix or coarse orchid mix). I think the issue you're having is from past and possibly continued root damage, some of it a delayed response, and possibly some of it a response to continued root damage. I think the roots are damaged enough that the plant cannot sustain growth at the apical ends of the branches, and they are just dying back (called Die Back, interestingly enough). So, I would make absolutely sure you're not continuing with more root rot. I think the chlorosis you're seeing being caused by inadequate root growth, not inadequate fertilizer. If the roots are so damaged that they cannot take up nutrients, you'll see chlorosis, despite fertilizing. Your best bet? Re-pot now, with 511 mix. Trim off any dead, rotten roots. You may even have to flush the pot with a weak bleach solution to stop the root rot (I think Mike has had to do this in the past, so search the forum for the bleach to water ratio, you don't want it to be too strong, or you'll kill your plant). Then, once re-planted with a properly porous mix, start fertilizing with 1/2 strength Foliage Pro until you start to see some recovery. Once you do, you can move up to full strength Foliage Pro, and add some Osmocote Plus time release fertilizer (please do not use anything else, many of the time release fertilizers have too much urea--based nitrogen, which will burn the roots, and also do not contain micronutrients, as Osmocote Plus does). Patty S.