I decided to leave them out. Just spend a few hours in a still hot sun to position them from the winds. It's just still too mild to wanna move them. At worst in the extended I see temps in the 60's and low in the 50's. And they get unobstructed southern sun all day long. When I move them, they go into a sunny, big garage, but it's hard to keep up with the watering..., bad enough in the winter. I was considering fertilizing for the last time of the season (they haven't been fertilized in over a month), but figured the excessive rains would just leach the fertilizer out. I spent time tilling the soil and introducing more gypsum. I don't use a gritty mix but they get so darn dry in more peat/perlite based soils. Spent time hosing them down well. Been a dry Fall so far so all the rain in appreciated. I do notice that plants seem to respond better to RAIN than water out of a hose. Didn't use to believe this but in my experience tropical plants grow better with regular rain that can't be made up from irrigation. Is it too late to consider fertilizing? (I don not fertilize at all in the winter as they are kept quite cold.)

Citrusnut, The pom tree was left outside for quite long, then they are brought inside as the other plants, but with less lights. They shed their leaves and stay bare for the whole winter. The next spring, when the bud breaks, I will do a root prune, the cycle starts. I think you can do it outside in a good ventilated area. Let me know how the coffee tastes, it's hard to beat the commercial though, you never know what chemical or special treatment they did to make the coffee taste better. Yes, the pom is outside for two weeks already, but this year, our weather is horrible as hell. It's wet and chilly, the new growth is kind of stunned and purple. I am just waiting for the nice weather to show, hopefully we can get some warmth before fall is here.

There's a lot of truth to many of the things brought up, and people wax nostalgically about "the good old days" but not many people really want to go back too far. Few will give up their cell phones, cars, remote controls, cable/satellite TV, microwaves automatic washers and the like. I'll admit I sure appreciate a lot of the conveniences but I also enjoyed going "back to nature" at the lake. No electricity out there so you got a taste of what it was like 100+ years ago. And certain conveniences there too. But that's a different topic. And me, I really like a large yard. I don't like being where you can reach out the window and shake hands with the neighbors. One of the reasons I bought where I did. Nice large lawn. I much prefer grass to blacktop or concrete. Healthier too. Trees and grass absorb CO2 and emit O2. It's part of photosynthesis. My dad couldn't figure out why I planted so many trees in my yard. I run the a/c much less because the house is much cooler when it's shaded. With grass rather than blacktop or concrete, it's much cooler in the summer and the smell of fresh cut grass is a nice smell, quite unlike the chemical smell of "mountain freshness" or whatever they call that stench they put in the laundry detergents and softeners that people seem so addicted to. Used to be when the clothes would stink was an indicator it's time to wash the clothes and yes, back when, you could wear a shirt and/or pants more than an hour before changing them. Having lawns instead of hard surfaces also lets the water tables fill up again from the rains and snow. Look at the areas with water shortage issues. Generally they have far more impervious surfaces. We are doing our best to fight Mother Nature and can't figure out why she gets ticked off and gives a little slap on the wrists now and then to remind us to wake up. And FWIW, I haven't watered my lawn for over 25 years and have a much nicer lawn overall than most of the neighbors. The hottest part of the summer the grass will go dormant. When that happens you don't need to mow. If you water it, then you have to mow it! What's wrong with this picture? :) And the one I'll add is how people used to "cook" coffee at home. They didn't have to go pay $5 at Megabucks for coffee with a lot of milk in it! Used a mug or a cup and saucer (how many remember saucer and blow? Course the coffee was much hotter then too because women in those days knew that coffee was hot and not to spill it in their laps and run to a lawyer. You'd fix it rather than just toss it and buy new. And nobody bought all new appliances because the color trend had changed! You could get your appliances in any color you wanted, as long as it was white, possibly with some chrome trim. Home buyers didn't know the phrase "kitchen needs 'updating'"! And for the rare circumstance if the washer quit for good and was unrepairable, you surely didn't buy a new dryer to go with it! And back then if you didn't have that item you wanted needed for whatever, you didn't make a special trip to the store. You called a neighbor or went over and asked to borrow a cup of sugar or whatever. Or you would "make do" without. If clothes went out of style, you wore clothes that were out of style until they wore out. Although few would go back to those days, many sure could learn something from those days couldn't they?

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NOOOOOO I get 3/4 of my growth in the winter time as long as I give them the light and feed Hardy Chicago fig with 23 watt daylight CFL bucket light removed Sunshine winter of 2013/2014 Seed grown Meiwa kumquat beside it's bucket light. 35 gallon trash can light 23 watt daylight CFL Check out my CFL bucket light forum below CFL power 23 WATTS bucket lights