overwintering citrus and lychees in NY

16 years ago

I live in NY but for some reason think i am entitled to try and grow citrus and other tropical fruits in NY.

i bought a washington orange and a tangerine tree two years ago. last winter i brought the trees indoors, with a cheap fluroscent grow light and placed them next to a window which got about 3 hours of light a day. Having the trees in our living room and having the light visible from outside annoyed my wife, and the trees were not too happy with the mediocre light situation either- plus they were also attacked by some type of gross white wooly squishy pesticide resistant bug (which i think arrive via a gardenia plant). By the time it was warm enough to take the citrus back outdoors, they had lost most of their leaves though they still had about 3 fruit on the trees which were promptly eaten by the local squirrels. not sure if the trees lost their leaves from inadequate lighting, the bugs, or the frequent bouts of pesticide or some combination of all 3.

so this year i bought a proper 800w super spectrum lighting system and have turned a small room in the basement into a greenhouse of sorts.

dont know whether it was a concidence or not but within a week of bringing the trees indoors and placing them under the superspectrum lights, one of the 2 citrus trees began an incredible growth spurt and has about 200 blossoms on it. the second citrus tree, about 2 weeks later, is also just beginning a growth spurt, though it looks like it will not be quite as energetic and i cant tell yet whether it will include blossoms. here are some pics. the other plants in the pics are a long suffering camelia plant which has spent several years in NY winters that almost kill it each year, and a young lychee tree which i bought last year and since losing all of its leaves on arrival via ups, has grown a new set and is doing nicely under the grow lights.

ive forgotten which of my citrus trees is the orange and which is tangerine, so if anyone can identify that for me, it will save me waiting till the fruit begin to ripen.

lychee tree

citrus blossoms

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indoor greenhouse

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citrus blossom- orange or tangerine?

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citrus tree- orange or tangerine?

a zillion blossoms

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Comments (4)

shrubs_n_bulbs
16 years ago
Have you got citrus varieties which don't need cross-pollination? I guess you must have since you are getting fruit set. Or are they pollinating eachother?

I'm not an expert on this group of trees but I believe that some form of temperature stress is needed to stimulate flower production. Your plants probably think spring has come early. Just be careful not to shock them when you transition back outdoors.

Leaf loss in winter can be caused by overwatering, cold draughts, and obviously by a major pest problem. Overwatering and cold shouldn't be a problem under the lights, but keep checking for pests because they will multiply fast in those conditions.
monarda_gw
16 years ago
Wow! Generally I find the discussion here a little hard to follow, but pictures can be worth thousands ... Light and plenty of it is the panacea, all right.

Those plants sure look happy -- almost too happy. Just hope they don't burn as they grow closer to that powerful light. Have you considered putting the light on a moving track?

You may have to pollinate the flowers by hand with a soft brush to get fruit. I generally do this with my lemon tree.

Myself, I have not had luck with citrus other than meyer lemon and calmondin. The lemon gets scale, which I can control, but the more desirable (and expensive) kumquats and tangerines trees I have purchased seem to immediately just wilt and die right away of fungal (or other) disease that I don't know what to do about. But hope springs eternal. Seeing your beautiful pictures is a motivation to get my own light setup up and running.
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so, does it smell wonderful or does it smell wonderful? Also when I'm actually near a citrus tree I like to snap the leaves in half and smell the citrus smell from there. Up here in NJ I can only do that with lemon balm in the spring/summer. Maybe you could convince your wife to let you keep the tree in the living room as an amazing air freshener. Don't forget to hand pollinate if you want fruit.
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Hello, since it was in 2002, I am wanting to know how your Lychee tree is doing? By the way my name is Angie. As of now I have 20 Lychee seedlings planted. At different intervals of course. After soaking them in water for 3 days, that includes changing the water daily. I did mine by keeping them wrapped up in a paper towel and keeping them moist. When they started sprouting I planted them. I did it that way so that I knew the roots started growing. I couldn't just plant them, due to the fact I wanted to make sure they started sprouting. I started mine in styrofoam cups. Yes I put holes for drainage. I made a makeshift greenhouse for them. It's working good for keeping it warm and moist in there. I still have 5 more I'm waiting to see if they start germinating. When your seedlings sprouts enough you replant it into a 3 gallon pot with drainage holes of course for all pots. The following year, transplant it into a 7 gallon pot. Again the following year a 15 gallon pot, then a 25 gallon pot after that. Then you'll get a 5 year break from all the yearly transplanting. They say after 5 years in the 25 gallon pot it should be ready to be planted in the ground. Just think, I have a total of 25 to do. I hope I helped a little. Please let me know how your Lychee tree turned out. Thanks Angie
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wow- so im no longer the only tropical fruit freak in NYC!!!!! WELCOME- GREAT PICS- we have many identical plants- i also have maha chinook, sweetheart, and tangerine and i used to have a guava. please keep us posted as o your progress. also highly recommend you buy a mauritius lychee. those mango buds look like leaf buds and not flower buds to me but hopefully im wrong (Harry?). your sweeteart is a really nice size for a 7 gal and is starting to flower very heavily just like mine. interesting how your brewster is several weeks ahead of he sweeheart even though it ripens several weeks later. I would recommend using a pair of tweezers to surgically excise the male flowers and then rub them directly against the appropriate area ( i forget the biological name) of the female flower- turns you into a pimp but cuts out the middleman brush. i posted some pics of me doing this a couple years back on this forum- if you search for lycheeluva and tweezers it should come up. also if you still have brewster flowers around when the sweetheart flowers are around, i would cross pollinate do you buy lychees and rambutan fruit in the summer? if yes, whats your source?
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Epi's are easy to winter over inside. Just make sure they don't get too much water. The lychee tree will be a bit more difficult. You need more humidity and light. I winter most of my tropicals over in a greenhouse and also use HID grow light systems. The lychee will likely drop foliage when moved indoors. As long as it's kept alive thru the winter it will rebound when it's moved back outside next spring. The only bug issues I've ever had with epi's is scale and it's pretty easy to remove by hand. The lychee is susecptible to more sucking insects, especially spider mites. Keeping the humidity up will help discourage them.
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lycheeluva
Original Author
16 years ago
I ROTATE THE PLANTS EVERY COUPLE OF DAYS SO THAT all the plants get a shot in the spotlight, and also, im hoping to prevent burning the leaves that way- i pretty much inspect the plants every day or every other day and if i start to see a sign of wilting or burning, i will adjust.

not sure if the citrus are self polinating- the first year i bought them, they both already had fruit on them. the second year, if i remember correctly one of the tree set a few fruit which i think were eaten by the birds when i took them out for the spring.

hopefully, if they do need pollination, the fan that i have on in the room for air circulation will blow the pollen accross the plants. they are shoulder to shoulder.

any advice as to the pollination requirements will be gratefully accepted
shrubs_n_bulbs
16 years ago
You would need to know the variety names of your plants. Many citrus species are self-fertile and will pollinate fairly well without any insects, although often fruit are bigger with insect pollinations.

But many orange varieties are not self-fertile. Mandarin types are particularly likely to need two different varieties to get good fruit. Some like Clementines will set seedless fruit without pollination, but lots more fruit with seed if pollinated.

I'm not sure I can give you any general rules, not sure I would even be able to tell you if you knew the variety names. You could ask at the citrus forum. Definitely something to bear in mind if you get a lot of flowers but not a lot of fruit.

overwintering citrus and lychees in NY

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overwintering citrus and lychees in NY

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