Okay, that's what I figured, but I didn't want to make any assumptions... So, I have several thoughts/concerns regarding your trees and your fertilizing/watering practices. But first off, when did you buy your tree last year - was it earlier or later in the year? The reason I ask is this: If you bought early last year and have been using the same soil/fertilizer and frequent watering schedule AND your tree has (except for fruit) been otherwise healthy, you may want to continue with your regimen as your tree sounds in fairly good shape. But we really do need a photo to more accurately gauge this. The only thing I would add is that you should use the wooden dowel method to test if you need to water. Basically you stick a wooden dowel or skewer (like wooden BBQ skewers) deep into the soil and feel on the back of your hand if you detect coolness/moisture. If you do, DO NOT water, since citrus do not like to be continually damp and is a recipe for root stress/root rot! If you bought your tree later in the year, not enough time may have passed for you to see any negative effects of a highly water-retentive potting soil and watering schedule that will eventually translate to decreased tree vigor (due to root stress) resulting in leaf curl, leaf drop, a host of other problems, and eventually death. Therefore, a lot of members living in your climate zone bypass potting mix soils altogether and instead use a 'soil-less' mix that lets water drain freely. For the recipes of two soil-less mixes, do a search on this forum for "gritty mix" and "5-1-1". The latter is easier to make, as it consists of microbark, peat, and perlite that you can easily obtain from a nursery. The fertilizer that a lot of us use is a product from Dyna-Gro called Foliage Pro (that you can get from Amazon), which contains everything your citrus requires including all the micronutrients like Fe, Zn, Mg, Mn, Ca, Cu, etc. Finally, don't worry about the absence of fruit on your tree at this point. Besides, it sounds like you have fairly young plants in your 1 gal pots and trees will need to be of a certain age (at least 2-3 years for grafted citrus) before they can hold fruit. The things you need to be concerned about are correct soil environment/watering practices, good light (6-8 hrs of Southern window exposure is best), citrus fertilizer with necessary micronutrients, and vigilence with preventing pests from taking hold on your trees. Couple this with (as John above correctly mentions) a bit of patience, you should have fruit in due time. Best of luck! Tim

Erm, sorry, those instructions are not comprehensive. I didn't talk about particle size or fertilizing or anything in that post as I was just trying to clarify the proportions and make it seem less esoteric for you dsieber. Sadly, I don't know of a single thread or post that gives every detail of the process from sourcing to mixing and fertilizing. I'd edit that to be a complete response but we can't edit. So brkieffner if you are serious about trying to keep an indoor citrus I'd check around for more threads with information on Al's gritty mix. Maybe sometime this week I'll throw all of the information up on an external blog or something that is editable in case I get something wrong or people want to add to it. It would be so much better if we could edit here :( Part of the issue is that there is a lot of variation. brkieffner: I successfully overwinter lots of citrus indoors but I certainly wouldn't call citrus trees "house plants." Do you know if it's grafted? If you purchased it at a big box store in IN rather than a nursery then it might not be grafted. If it isn't then it will get very large in a hurry (for a perennial anyway). The tree won't give off a strong scent unless you cut it as you did (kind of a sickly sweet smell to my nose when you do that), leaves drop, or blossoms open. The open blossoms smell quite nice but on larger trees can get overpowering indoors. I think the gritty mix will be your best bet for keeping the plant indoors but there are some things to consider. The gritty mix is very free-draining - that's its purpose. It's great for the plant but it means that you will need to water more often and that when you do you will get a lot of runoff. Outside this isn't a big deal but indoors it starts to add up quickly and the usual saucer underneath the pot will be full after just a few days. Larger catch basins fill up quickly as well. Since the gritty mix is also physically heavy picking up the plant to empty the basins is more of a pain than usual. Some people use large turkey basters to get in there and suck up the runoff but that gets old very quick. I'd suggest modifying a pot with some tubing and elevating the tree so that you can catch the runoff in something that you can empty easily. Since the gritty mix doesn't wick you will need a way to water it evenly. This means a watering can with a rose or some dispersal mechanism. It's not like an ordinary soil that you can just water on one side and the moisture will move all around for you. Also remember that if you go the gritty mix route you either need to use a fertilizer with calcium and magnesium already in it (rare) or mix gypsum (for calcium) into the soil when you make it and then feed the plant some epsom salt periodically when you water (for magnesium). Don't get confused and use Garden Lime or dolomitic lime in the gritty mix. These would provide Ca and Mg but they also raise the pH and the gritty mix is already about as high of a pH as you'd want to go. Since you're making the soil it will contain zero nutrients so don't be fooled into thinking that a "Citrus Fertilizer" will have everything you need. You will need to provide a complete package of nutrients Major,Minor,Micro which very few fertilizers actually have. Were I you I would mix Osmocote Plus (time-release fertilizer) into the soil when you make it for insurance and then use Foliage Pro or something like it with Ca and Mg. If you don't use something like Foliage Pro then you might want to buy some STEM (Peter's Soluble Trace Element Mix) and then a 3-1-2 or 5-1-3 ratio liquid fertilizer like Miracle Gro and then mix them for your fertilizing. Just remember that straight Miracle Gro or Brand X "Citrus Fertilizer" will almost certainly not have everything that you need. You will need the STEM. Ask if you need help deciding. Particle size matters in the gritty mix so be sure to track down the information on bark size, granite size, and make sure you buy the correct Turface or Axis product (I don't remember which ones you want offhand). There are some substitutes for these ingredients if you can't find them locally but don't assume that because you've seen 1 post where someone is using a substitute that it will work for you. Make sure to ask if you try to substitute. Somewhere Al has a list of substitutes and you can see that it changes the proportions when you do that. I use T5 lights to overwinter citrus and I have all of them either in a sunroom or in front of large windows. If you don't have a large south-facing window then you might want to think about some sort of grow light. Aphids, scale, and mites are a big problem for me in the winter so you might also think about a location where you can spray the plant periodically with your choice of products. If it's still very small you can move it to spray it but once they get larger you will want to be able to hit it with neem or other nonsense indoors and that can be an issue. I'm going to try a much more organized release of lacewings this year to control my indoor issues. That might work for you. If you see ants on or near the plant when it is indoors make sure to kill them with baits immediately. They are farming scale or aphids on your tree and they will cause serious problems. I'm sure there is more but that's all I can think of right now... goodluck

like Steve says, its spider mites that are probably causing your issues. Look for the tell tale veil like webs at the joints where the leaves meet the branches (could be whats holding up that leaf stem). If you have a magnifying glass handy, you can also see the mites on the leaves especially on the underside of the leaves. You can find lots of info on treating them on the forum or google. I don't know anything about that brand of fertilizer but I would not exceed the recommended amount and frequency noted on the bottle. You may also want to hold back a bit with the fertilizer since the tree is in a weakened state. Fertilizing a weak tree sounds like it would help but can actually cause other problems. You may also want to consider switching your soil mix to either the "gritty mix" or the "5:1:1 mix" both of which are almost perfect for potted citrus trees. You can look them up on the forum. There are no good per-mixed potting soils for citrus, even ones that put "for citrus" on the package will still compact too fast and cause root rot before you know it. I know it sounds rough but you may also want to consider removing the fruit since your tree is still very small and very stressed, this will allow it to focus on growing more.

Please show us more than one leaf; I'm having challenges determining what it is that I see. My best guess at this time is citrus leafminer but it's only a guess, not the answer! Please post an image of affected tip growth still on the plant. Also post an image of the tree overall.