Greenhouse zone 6B.

Meiwa seed grown

Mature New Zealand lemonade grafted to New Zealand lemonade seedling from fruit of Parent New Zealand lemonade

Seed grown Fukushu kumquat tree.

Seedling Fukushu kumquat

close up tree is a seedling Meiwa kumquat.

Fukushu kumquat grafted to sour orange with a Poncirus Trifoliata interstem.

Fukushu on C35.

Fukushu on Flying dragon.

Hey steve!! Wow thanks for showing me your setup! you seem to know a lot about root stocks i’m going to restart my collection by getting a bunch of cuttings from a friend starting with the new zealand lemonade any tips on rootstock? my seville sour orange survived though and it is fruiting would that seedling be a good rootstock?

Your sour orange seedling would be excellent rootstock. I don't know whether the seedling NZL roots will be good. NZL trees are susceptible to lower light sickness and need to be in bright light ll day

 Need to put it in a greenhouse on one of them and save the rest for root stocks  keep one  branch to make cuttings from to propagate into rooted  cutting for the rest of your collection

Howard; I have all the citrus I want

 Iwas responding to the one that had the fire

It is a battle against low humidity here. Once the radiators go on I will close in this corner with a clear curtain and squeeze the rest of my citrus in.

So sorry to hear about the greenhouse! Here are a few of mine:

Passion vine hung with fruit and nagami kumquat. Ignore the yellowed leaves, winter came early and it's a bit cold already. The passion vine always yellows a bit when the cold hits and loses some leaves, then comes back with a vengeance after I trim it come spring. I always want it to go a little dormant so I can trim it back by at least a third if not more, otherwise I would have no other plants in that window. The nagami has fruited for the very first time since I've had it and has some real healthy growth. It's been a battle against many problems and I finally think I have all its issues solved. I didn't remove all of the nursery soil when I bought it and left some in place, turns out it was literal clay and hardened over the roots. Had to use a pick and hammer to remove it and then soak the roots earlier this summer. My lights are natural spectrum LEDs. No heat, but plenty of very bright light.

My little rangpur lime who finally took off this summer. This little guy is seed grown and had a rough beginning. I think he's finally out of the woods though! You can see more of the head on these lights and their srands in this photo.

When I get a chance I might post some of the fukushu. All mine are grown in place under lights and in their window which is in my living room by the couch. My fukushu actually overhangs the couch so you sit under it if you sit there and read. (It does get cooler there in winter since the house heating system doesn't really reach that part of the house). Definitely my favorite room in the house.

Through happenstance I found a product to heat my garage this winter and I am really pleased with the results. It is a 500 watts - low wattage convection heating that doesn't dry out the air, won't trip the breaker but is still powerful enough to heat a 130sf to 150sf room. The product is an Envi 120v Plug-in electric panel wall heater -3rd generation (LE5012P). Made in the USA. There are no fans. A plate is heated and natural convection raises the temperature. It was designed for applications such as baby nurseries so it is super safe to use. The gentle convection and gentle radiant heat were a win-win for my citrus tree which really like it.

https://www.eheat.com/envi-120v-plug-in-electric-panel-wall-heater-3rd-generation/

Experimenting with this waterfall this winter to raise humidity. Will keep you posted.

Citrus, Cacti, Succulents, Photography · More Info

Adding CO2 this year.

I used to use those back in my pot growing days, we called them $hit bags, cause that's what the mushrooms grow on. They worked in small airtight gardens like hollowed our refrigerator, but wouldn't do a thing in anything bigger. CO2 tanks work much better. Do you have a CO2 meter?

Hi Ken, I have ordered a Temptop M2000 2nd. Thanks for your feedback.

I would LOVE to have a water feature like Lemon Lime's waterfall....even having indoor plants but, alas, I actually use dehumidifiers in the house and in my garage to keep the humidity down. It's often 75-95% humidity outside and I try to keep it below 50% inside for the sake of mildew suppression.

I have wondered if I could put something like glass marbles on top of the soil in containerized plants to reduce the amount of moisture lost into my home from the pot. Perhaps the leaves transpire way more moisture than the soil in the pot.

Hi John, the tiered waterfall looked great on paper. A lot if water was splashing outside the catch basin so I return it.

Unfortunately decorative water features like that do little to nothing in terms of raising the ambient humidity. Even a humidity tray is only effective within 12 inches and only adds 3-5% humidity.

Benefit depends on the temp and humidity the room has naturally. See 3rd paragraph.

https://www.watergallery.net/humidifying-homes-with-indoor-fountains/

I use to use lava rocks when I grew indoors. Like HCM said I found they made a minimal difference. Nothing comes close to misting. Looking for a smart mister that can be programmed or controlled remotely.

My sister is in the plant business. She got divorced so I told her she needed a smart mister next time. Her original mister was not to smart.

Loll poncirusguy. In my experience, manual misting is effective but only raises the humidity for a few minutes so you need to do it constantly. A humidifier is better, and enclosing the space to make it smaller work well. I just wish I could automate it all to monitor and maintain a good VPD

Hi HCM. I have everything monitored and recorded in real time via a Sensor Push HTP.XW with their wifi gateway. It graphs with extreme precision (made in the USA) the temperature, humidity, VPD, and Dew Point. Your data is saved on their server and they don't even charge you for it. I get alarms on my phone in real time and than can control lights, humidifier, dehumidifier and fans over the internet. You have to find wifi appliances or ones that work with Google or Apple Home.

When I was growing in my living room I had to work with a fixed temperature and was working with a VPD between flower and high stress. That was brutal on new flushes and blooms. I used a combination of humidifiers and misting was the only choice I had in that grow environment to keep flushes alive. Each plant had its own micro humidifier.

As HCM said misting is short lived and needs to be repeated frequently over and over Some situation you have no choice. If you can use a humidifier in an enclosed space it is always much easier.

No longer growing indoors because I couldn't get the tree through the door. Bought this reptile mister today and are very please with how easy it was to set up. Easy to program.

Citrus, Cacti, Succulents, Photography · More Info

Valentine pomelo on Seville sour

Fukushu kumquat on FD

My outside LITTLE greenhouse.

Meiwa on Flying dragon

inside bucket.

 How many Meyer lemon varieties is there

Just 1

Hi Laura. I am glad to see you here. Hope all is well with you and yours. I, too have reduced my collection but now have about 50 fig trees.

All of my citrus are in my basement under lights at about 60 - 65 F (but it will get colder as the winter progresses).

Has anyone tried overwintering citrus in total darkness at temps of 40 - 50 F? I have read on the Internet of people who have done that with some plants.

Jan, HUGS HUGS HUGs!!! I will be back soon. I can't wait to see who's here and what you have been up too.

Hey Jan, just got over the Covid virus. Was not pretty and I was extremely tired.

Jan, how in the world did your greenhouse catch fire???? Oh my goodness . I am so glad that you are ok. I can not even imagine...

How are you doing now. I am so sorry Jan. It was such a beautiful thing you had going. I hope you can build again(?

What will you do? You can still ok with trees in the home you know)

How's the greenhouse these days?

Hugs

I have been thinking of Brian too. I wonder how he is doing. You were missed and Brian still is.

Laura, your trees are amazing as usual!!! :) . I am curious which ones did you decide to keep?

Mike! oh my goodness!! I had the covid virus last year and it was terrible!!! Sending prayers of wellness to you. It just knocks you out the virus i've never experienced anything like it where I slept for most of the days and nights. You know Mike it was the rats!! we had a back neighbour that was a very run down house and it got demolished so I suppose all the rats got loose and it bit on some wiring inside the greenhouse and it sparked and caught aflame. It was such a big commotion with the fire trucks and all. The fire got to about 15ft high it was just a huge ball of flames and it is barely standing now! We are very very lucky it did not travel to the house with flames that big. I actually am thinking of rebuilding with a 13x16 greenhouse from janssens! all the citrus in there have burnt and died so I am restarting my collection Mike at first i was so so sad as some of those trees had been with me for a while but you know it has been fun dreaming up of new varieties to get and really narrowing down which ones I would like! Mike at the top of my list is the variegated minneola that Brian was raving about remember? Anyways I will take pictures of the limes I got this last week and post it here soon. How have you been? I am sorry I have been off and on this forum it's always something and the fire definitely made me avoid citrus for a while and before that of course the passing of my dog and several family members during covid. Mike how are your trees? I would love to see pictures. Have you heard from Amy? I guess Brian hasn't been back either? I hope to hear from you soon HUGS HUGS HUGS my friend! :)

Lemon lime thanks for that tip on the heater I was just looking for one to put into the new greenhouse!

Mike, this is the greenhouse I plan to get but they are so pricey! saving up for it for next fall hopefully :) . And just for a change of scenery it will be a white colour this time!

Steve, how is that valentine pummelo? I have that tree it was not burned in the fire thankfully! it is still tiny as I just got it last year. Is it worth keeping?

It is Flowering now. No fruit yet

Steve they look so large! Did you graft this one yourself? They must be very fragrant. Just for those blooms alone I think I will keep mine :) thank you for the pictures

All this rain and darkness and cold had me bring in the one tomatoe and Valentine Pomello. I try to put them outside in the sun in the afternoon…. when there is any. I bought a Glow Lamp and a thing to screw it into. What I don’t know is how close to put the bulb to the plants. ? It says the intensity is 14.2 PAR/PPF. Can anyone make a suggestion? And, above, on the side, where to put/aim said light?

The tree pictured above I grafted to Seville sour orange rootstock. It is 2.5 years old. It is 57 inches tall by 30 inches wide. This is my second tree. The first tree grafted by Tom mysteriously died. I was able to get a few buds from it and 1 graft took.

This shows the state of the original tree when I took the 2 buds. Two trees died late last winter

Kate; Pictures of trees and light would help

They don't seem to mind living by my front door.

I have mine about a foot away from my plants. Mine are 9 watt daylight LED flood lights that put out 700 lumens They are not rated for PAR/PPF but I suspect that they are different by a small amount. You can get them up to a couple of inches but then the other leaves won't get light. Ill do that when I only want the top buds to grow for height.

Thank you! I'll figure some how to do this. Today will be rainy and cold again, so I need to get this set up and running.

I bought this all from an Ag store, so all application is written for hort. professionals. 🙄

 CA Kate z9 even though I'm no expert  try about   4 or 5 feet above the plant

Howard

 Jan, there is at least on or two bright sides  here no more rats  and gave you a chance to update the tech kbnowledge that u use and  and updating the greenhouse and home wiring  for better results 

. Howard

lol you're right Howard! The next will be bigger and better :) Happy new year!