That is a gorgeous tree you have there! Congratulations, once that starts producing, you will have tons of fruit. I miss my 6ft tall potted Meyer. It produced well over a 100+ fruits. I was sending friends and family bags of lemons!

As for your question, I would keep my tree indoors once day time temps dipped below the 50 degree mark. Also, if you are having a lot of cold rainy days, I would keep it indoors. You don't want that root ball being saturated for days at a time and being outdoors in cold weather. Your tree would start declining pretty quickly. I also have noticed that the flower buds won't develop very fast in cold weather.

As for your pest problem, I have never tried been. I have used Fish Emulsion, and I like using it. The smell is not too nice but it works really well. I am going to start spraying this week, and continue every 3-4 days for the next couple weeks, until they have to go indoors for good. That way you not only kill the pests that are on your citrus trees, but you also disrupt there life cycle. That's really the only way you can get rid of them completely.

If you want to try been, I would go online and see if you can find a local Lowes or Home Depot. You could type in neem oil in there search bar, and find the name brands.

Good luck, and I hope that helps you!

Andrew

Thanks. I thought fish emulsion was just a fertilizer? Anyone else care to share their preventative measures prior to bringing in their plants?

I sprayed my tree with an insecticide and fungicide along with a very careful visual inspection with 2 pair of 3X reading glasses. The trees get inspected at least once a week. I am thinking of using dormant oil to the regiment. While I prefer to go as organic as possible on my food crops, these trees will not fruit for at least 4 years for the kumquats and 5-8 years for the tangerine. The poisons will be long gone.

Steve

Great ideas!

Andrew, good job as always and thank you Steve for you for your help!

I like to leave my Meyer Lemon trees outside as LONG as I can....So in oder to keep them consistently growing, I like to make sure the root zone is always above the 50 degree mark...

So if night time lows are going below the 50's, I bring them into a heated area...Then I put them back out in the sun by the a.m letting them continually grow...

If you choose to leave the out in temps below the 50's, you risk root rot, tightened new leaf growth, slowed growth and yellowing of leaves...That is in pots...

So it is always a choice for most of us..Do you want your tree to be pristine looking and growing all the time, or do you want them to slow down and show signs of nutritional deficiency as they grow and stop, grow and stop, etc....

As for Neem, at this time of the year I can get away with spraying whenever I want since the sun is much cooler now..But since your tree is in a hot surrounding like that, I would spray at night or very early a.m.

Are you sure you have mites or could of been just a plain ole spider?

Are you sure you have to spray insecticide?

Sometimes a good ole spray of water will do fine..Wash all the leaves well..

F.E is great, because not only is it a natural light oil that does what Andrew says, but it is also a fertilizer...
I fine that all my plants come in bug free up until about mid winter using it..Spider mites will sometimes appear no matter what you do, but controlling them through the winter is key, not total death...I have a hard time believing that anyone who has a mite problem or one at one time has killed every single one of them while the problem occurs indoors.BUt outdoors, it is possible to rid them for good..lol

Mike

i've been keeping 2 seed grown calamondins indoors overwinter for 5 years. i am using bonide indoor systemic on them , 1 application works for 6-8 weeks. i won't be getting fruit anytime soon :) anyway. but it is supposed to be safe. it needs about a week to get absorbed into tissues.
i keep them out until it starts dropping to low 40's at night.
i actually don't mind them going dormant, i keep them drier and under overhang.
i figure the fewer months they are inside, the less chance for bugs to start spreading.
i also spray with insecticidal soap and/or neem - for mites.
i've only had scale or mite problems with them. systemic does not work on mites.
i am just trying to spray with fish emulsion for the 1st time as a preventive once a week.

Thanks all. I don't think i need insecticide (and didn't realize that neem was an insecticide). I will try the FE but am concerned about it dripping all over my kitchen floor and smelling (once the plants are indoors). I will try to pick up some FE this weekend to start spraying. I probably have another month of outdoor time by doing the nightly dance when too cold.

Andrew-
do you continue to spray while indoors proactively or do you wait until you start to see signs?

Meyermike-
i havent seen any mites or mite damage but i don't think it looks like spider webs as they are on a few leafs and are limited to individual leafs.

Queen, can you take a good picture of close of those webs? I have never seen or heard of anyone with a mite issue to the point of webs while any it's outside, although it is possible.

I would not use F.E inside at all...It will stink..

What I did use this past winter on any plant that I found mites on was Rosemary Oil mixed with natural soapy water..It worked like a charm, did not ruin any of my floors, although I put towels down when spraying anything other than in the tub, and smelled wonderful..

Yup, the nightly dance can help you burn calories for sure..lol

All mine are on the porch nice and warm tonight and what a difference it makes to keep them that way until I have to bring them in.

The ones brought in at night are still nice and green and growing, while the ones left outside are loosing their vivid color and not doing much. In fact, any that had new growth coming on the cold has tighten those leaves and I hate it.

Mike

I won't use F.E. indoors as it does smell pretty bad, and the odor is VERY strong! I will switch to rubbing alcohol or insecticidal soap when I do have a spider mite outbreak. Like Mike said, it's pretty much when you have a spider mite break out, not if.

I have used systemics but not on fruiting trees. I don't know if systemics are toxic.

Hi Mike. Thanks for the praise but....it has been you and so many others here that have educated me on becoming successful with growing potted citrus.

Andrew

I won't use F.E. indoors as it does smell pretty bad, and the odor is VERY strong! I will switch to rubbing alcohol or insecticidal soap when I do have a spider mite outbreak. Like Mike said, it's pretty much when you have a spider mite break out, not if.

I have used systemics but not on fruiting trees. I don't know if systemics are toxic.

Hi Mike. Thanks for the praise but....it has been you and so many others here that have educated me on becoming successful with growing potted citrus.

Andrew

I notice that your Meyer has a bit of a "brassy" look to the leaves as compared to a bright, vibrant green. That is normally an indication of Phosphorus deficiency.

What should I add to up phosphorous. I have been using foliage pro about once a month and put in some osmocote plus a while ago.

I don't know about potted Meyers; if it were inground and looked like that, I would add a wee bit of phosphoric acid.