What are the temps like day and night where you keep them. What is the soil in your container like? Neem every week or two for 3x should clear almost all issues relating to bugs, but root issues are often the problem. More details about your soil and temps please.

How big are the "trees" a single 600w HPS would barely be big enough for a single large tree, but if they're little trees may/may not be an issue.

Thank you for responding. The soil that I use is Farard Cactus and Succulent potting soil. The temperature during the day time in basement is in the 70's. Around 72. And at night it goes down to the 60's. Like 65.

Please post an image.

This is the key lime tree. I need to repot and prune this spring.

The next two are my navel orange trees. One has orange growing on it. Both have lots of buds.

Navel orange.

Tango mandarin orange tree. This had four fruit down to one. And it had aphids and scale. Lots of buds. Lots of new growth.

Next two are my Meyer lemon trees. One has lemon almost ready for picking. These had lots of buds and flowers. But I think the bugs got them.

Meyer lemon

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Being a first time citrus tree gardener really worries me. I hope I am helping and keeping my trees healthy and alive.

First thing I would do is get them off of that concrete floor. I would also buy a meat thermometer and poke it down into the soil to measure the temperature. Cool roots plus warm leaves invites leaf drop. i would also keep the lights on for twelve hours rather then six. Jack

Thanks Jack for your advice. I was not thinking about the concrete. The pots are heavy. What I'm going to do is place some heavy rubber mats. On top of mats heavy blankets to block the cold off the concrete. About how warm should the soil be? This makes sense. Thanks again. Hopefully that will help with the leaf dropping.

I found some pallets instead and then place heavy blankets at bottom to prevent cold from rising.

Roots do not function below 55 degrees F so that's the minimum i would shoot for 60's would be better. Jack

Thanks again Jack. You are a lifesaver. So do you think thats why the buds and fruit on some of the trees fall? My basement stays above 60's at night. During day with light fixture in the 70's. I have a good feeling that this is going to work. I just can't believe I didn't think about the cold floors.. I shall see tomorrow what temperature the soils will be.

Hey, I know this has nothing to do with temperature, and it may not be any help for you, but we use HB-101 for our citrus trees and it helps a lot. It's not a fertilizer but a vitalizer (as they call it) and helps my trees grow stronger and more tolerant to temperature changes. Maybe something to look into.

A few things I would recommend for general health, it looks like the cactus mix you have has peat moss in it (according to their website), not sure how much, but the pictures look a little heavy as far as the soil. There are better mixes like the 5-1-1 or 1-1-1 gritty mix that is referenced here often. Also with the fertilizer, definetly stop using the jobes spikes as they can burn. The best fertilizer to use is something in the 3-1-2 ratio or 9-3-6 such as foliage pro at a dilute rate every time. You want to make sure any fertilizer you use has all the trace elements, as any "soil less mix" such as the cactus mix you're using, or the ones reccomended on here have no nutritional value and plants can't survive on NPK alone!

But honestly, your plants look pretty good to me, it's fine to loose a few leaves here and there when you bring them inside, if the plant was completely defoliated that would be one thing, but at least from the pictures they generally look fine?

You can aerate the roots by using a vacuum chamber below your tree and use your vacuum cleaner to pull fresh air into your root/soil mix. You can avoid transplanting your trees till spring time. This is when the trees will grow best into a new mix. My trees grew like weeds over the winter with this setup. They doubled to quadrupled in size by spring. They are now to big to baby.

Setup with trees on top of vacuum chambers below. Then in spring switch over to 5-1-1

Thank you jesse09 I will definitely kept that in mind with the Vitalizer. Thank you ocrelaris for your advice also on the fertilizer and soil. I will definately try in springtime to find the 5-1-1. Its hard to look for anything like that where I live. I might have to purchase online. I feel great that you tell me my trees look good. That was one of my major concerns. I worry about them and only want to help them grow healthy and strong. And of course have fruit. My mom had noticed that the tango, lime and one of the navel trees are protected from one side by my gaming board. They really do not have leaf loss verses the other three on the opposite side. They don't have a barrier as in wall next to them. So those two lemon and that other navel trees are the one losing more leaves. So I'm wondering maybe they are getting some sort of draft. Once I place the pallets I will be able to tell if that Is helping. Which I hope it will. Because now my navel that had the one fruit had dropped it. Thank you poncirusguy for your input. I will give that a try too. To see if it will help my trees. Right now I just want to help them stop dropping their leaves and fruit. The two so far that have been doing well with holding on to the fruit is the lemon that you saw in picture and my tango with the bigger fruit.

I have actually kept my Washington naval outside this fall (with lots of protection for the roots) with temps in the high teens with no leaf loss. The canopy is always cooler then the roots which could explain this. Jack

If it makes you feel any better, my Meyer Lemon and one of my mexican limes dropped near every leaf after doing well all summer. They dropped when they started flowering outside in 5-1-1! They're the most finicky of all at least in my experience. The other 6 citrus have been doing great under similar conditions, so to me it looks like you're doing pretty well! I got mine in the summer and transplanted, which may explain the leaf drop, but now that they're inside they're recovering, albeit slowly, they just won't stop flowering!

The 5-1-1 is not too hard to make, pine bark fines, perlite, and peat moss. The 1-1-1 gritty mix is difficult to find parts to make, it's 1 part granite chicken grit, 1 part baked clay (I forget the term) like turface, and 1 part pine bark fines. You have to collect all the materials individually, it's not sold anywhere put together. If you live in a rural area with farm supplies it's easier than if you live in a major metropolitan area (like NYC) because the feed supply stores have all of the materials usually (short of the bark which can be had at a pet store for lizards).

Thanks Jack and Ocelaris for your experiences and advice. It is always appreciated. Do you have pictures you both can show me of your citrus. Would love to see them. :)

I think if you can grow a Meyers lemon potted as a house plant and keep it thriving you can grow about any other plant there is. :)

Lol. Thanks Jack. I would definitely love to grow many different types of fruit. I have read in a lot of forums that Meyer lemon are picky and hard to grow. I really haven't had any problem with them except the leave loss. Oh yeah and bugs. But nothing else. I think they are pretty simple. Right now my one navel seems like it's losing more than the Meyer. Lol can't wait til tomorrow to place the pallets and blankets to see how well they do... :)

Don't understand why my orange navel trees branches are turning brown. I have put them all on pallets off the cement. I have even left the hps light on for 10 hours verses 6.. Don't know anymore. I hope its not dying on me. I'm going to cut off the dying branches. Does anyone else know what's happening???

Any input would be greatly appreciated. I don't want my tree to die...

Have you ever once flushed your mix out of disolved salts?
That is a silent killer of most any plant when potted in very fine mixes..Least to say what comea after that is bugs on weak trees..I would make sure you don't have spider mites which you can not see with the naked eye..

To me it looks like you have spider mites dropping your leaves with a comb of unhealthy roots in an unhealthy mix for your growing conditions...You must correct all three to spare your trees from twi die back.....Twig die back can be common if the tree decides to shed itslef of unsupported growth due to a lack of full sunlight, which is still possibly another issue..What a pain, right?

Start with flushing your mixes as soon as your pots dry out..Do not fertilize at all and get rid of those slow release fertilizer sticks or anything adding salt to your mix..
Then make sure which most people do not , that you don't have any critters that you can't see with your eye buy getting a magnifying glass, a must for any serious plant grower.
As a precaution, when you flush your mix, at the same time make sure to wash off all your leaves and then treat accrodingly.

See if that helps..One thing at a time, but as far as I am concerned, I would start with what I told you.

MIke

Thank you Mike for your input. It is a pain but so worth having my own fresh fruit. I'm sorry I'm a new tree grower. How can I flush the mix?? Never done that before. And what kind of soil do I mix then?? I have only bought premade soil of cactus and succulent soil from fafard.. I was going to do the 5-1-1 pine bark fines, perlite, and peat moss. But do not know how much to mix in of all. It was recommened by another person. If I have spider mite shouldn't the bio neem that I have been spraying on my trees kill it??? Thought it would.. Thanks again for your help.