The room is humidity controlled. I don't quite understand why you can't grow them year round when they are young if the 'climate' is correct. I have temperature control in the room from around 60F to 85F. The room, by nature, is cool in the winter and I use oscillating space heat to keep the temp maintained.
Based on what you are saying, I need to store them away in the dark somewhere at a lower temperature and let all of the foliage die back?
fig,
As Tom mentions above most of the plants that you intend to put under lights inside will not do well and very well might die indoors. They need a period of cold in order to rest.
This is the natural cycle of these plants and I would recommend that now is the time to put them out, let the leaves drop and then put them in an unheated garage for the Winter months. If, in March you want to bring them into the house to break dormancy early and get an early start, they would do much better for you. If you keep them inside you will see a decline in vigor and health and once it's well into Winter they cannot be put outside because will not be hardened off. They need the gradual cooling that they will get if you put them out now.
About the lighting K, or kelvin temp. Plants don't really care what the K rating is of the lights. That rating is for humans based on the color of the light and what pleases the individual's eye. If what you have is pleasing to you, stick with it until you need to replace the bulb.
But again, use your lighting for "indoor" plants and put the deciduous trees outside where the belong.
As Tom mentions above most of the plants that you intend to put under lights inside will not do well and very well might die indoors. They need a period of cold in order to rest.
This is the natural cycle of these plants and I would recommend that now is the time to put them out, let the leaves drop and then put them in an unheated garage for the Winter months. If, in March you want to bring them into the house to break dormancy early and get an early start, they would do much better for you. If you keep them inside you will see a decline in vigor and health and once it's well into Winter they cannot be put outside because will not be hardened off. They need the gradual cooling that they will get if you put them out now.
About the lighting K, or kelvin temp. Plants don't really care what the K rating is of the lights. That rating is for humans based on the color of the light and what pleases the individual's eye. If what you have is pleasing to you, stick with it until you need to replace the bulb.
But again, use your lighting for "indoor" plants and put the deciduous trees outside where the belong.
Okay, thanks all. I was not savvy to any of this.
One last question...is it okay to leave them in the pots when I put them outside? And can I just leave them out all winter or do I NEED to bring them in once they have dropped leaves and have gone dormant? I don't have a garage - only the room I spoke about and the temp in there will be 70+ all winter.
Does this also apply to my Dwarf Meyer Lemon Tree? We moved from a condo to a house last fall and moved it inside in the new house. It dropped almost all leaves, I suspect, due to shock. The window it was near was uninsulated and the soil temp dropped below 60 (I later found). So I pruned it down and put it under the light all winter and by spring, it was completely rejuvenated to what you see in the picture.
This summer, it bloomed once and then dropped all the blooms. Just about a month ago, it started blooming again and now I have tiny lemons starting to grow. I think citrus need to be kept warm and overwinter indoors. But that is just what I've read and don't really know any better. I'm hoping that I can keep the lemons growing... They are only about 3/8 inch along the long dimension at the moment and there are probably 50-70 tiny lemons all over it. The picture is not hi-res enough to see them, though. But, trust me, they're there.
One last question...is it okay to leave them in the pots when I put them outside? And can I just leave them out all winter or do I NEED to bring them in once they have dropped leaves and have gone dormant? I don't have a garage - only the room I spoke about and the temp in there will be 70+ all winter.
Does this also apply to my Dwarf Meyer Lemon Tree? We moved from a condo to a house last fall and moved it inside in the new house. It dropped almost all leaves, I suspect, due to shock. The window it was near was uninsulated and the soil temp dropped below 60 (I later found). So I pruned it down and put it under the light all winter and by spring, it was completely rejuvenated to what you see in the picture.
This summer, it bloomed once and then dropped all the blooms. Just about a month ago, it started blooming again and now I have tiny lemons starting to grow. I think citrus need to be kept warm and overwinter indoors. But that is just what I've read and don't really know any better. I'm hoping that I can keep the lemons growing... They are only about 3/8 inch along the long dimension at the moment and there are probably 50-70 tiny lemons all over it. The picture is not hi-res enough to see them, though. But, trust me, they're there.
Fig3825 wrote:Okay, thanks all. I was not savvy to any of this.
One last question...is it okay to leave them in the pots when I put them outside? And can I just leave them out all winter or do I NEED to bring them in once they have dropped leaves and have gone dormant? I don't have a garage - only the room I spoke about and the temp in there will be 70+ all winter. I had the idea that I could simply plant the pots into the ground if leaving them in pots above ground is not optimal... That way I can easily remove the pots from the ground in the spring for transplanting at the new house in the summer.
Does this also apply to my Dwarf Meyer Lemon Tree? We moved from a condo to a house last fall and moved it inside in the new house. It dropped almost all leaves, I suspect, due to shock. The window it was near was uninsulated and the soil temp dropped below 60 (I later found). So I pruned it down and put it under the light all winter and by spring, it was completely rejuvenated to what you see in the picture.
This summer, it bloomed once and then dropped all the blooms. Just about a month ago, it started blooming again and now I have tiny lemons starting to grow. I think citrus need to be kept warm and overwinter indoors. But that is just what I've read and don't really know any better. I'm hoping that I can keep the lemons growing... They are only about 3/8 inch along the long dimension at the moment and there are probably 50-70 tiny lemons all over it. The picture is not hi-res enough to see them, though. But, trust me, they're there.
Okay, so the three crepes and the three japanese maples are not planted in my backyard for the winter. I guess I won't really know whether or not they survive until next spring, so now I just need to be patient. Temps in my area area are ranging from 40-50F overnight low to 60-70F for the daytime highs.
On a positive note, when I got the japanese maples from Amazon several months ago, I planted them in a potting soil sand mix and placed them in a window in our kitchen (I didn't have the grow room setup then). The tips of the leaves started to dry and turn brown, but they didn't drop or completely brown. I chalked it up to stress from shipping and planting (they came bare rooted wrapped in plastic and wet sponge). They haven't seemed to change a whole lot in the week I had them under the light. However, when I transplanted them into my backyard yesterday, I did notice the roots had just reached the edge of the soil block that came out of the pot when I flipped them over to break them loose and put them in the ground. I guess that is a good sign...that the roots were growing.
Based on what you guys have written above, I won't see much happen with either of them over the winter.
Also, I did notice the crepe leaves had started to yellow slightly while spending the week under the light. I'd guess that this is either from it doing exactly what you said (dying because it wasn't allowed to go start going dormant for the coming winter) or it's in shock from cutting off the tree and planting or it simply doesn't have enough roots to support growth.
How much should I prune the 'canopy' in order for the small root ball to support what IS there? The remaining two crepes, when cut off the tree and unwrapped, had a similar root ball as the one I initially posted a picture of...?
On a positive note, when I got the japanese maples from Amazon several months ago, I planted them in a potting soil sand mix and placed them in a window in our kitchen (I didn't have the grow room setup then). The tips of the leaves started to dry and turn brown, but they didn't drop or completely brown. I chalked it up to stress from shipping and planting (they came bare rooted wrapped in plastic and wet sponge). They haven't seemed to change a whole lot in the week I had them under the light. However, when I transplanted them into my backyard yesterday, I did notice the roots had just reached the edge of the soil block that came out of the pot when I flipped them over to break them loose and put them in the ground. I guess that is a good sign...that the roots were growing.
Based on what you guys have written above, I won't see much happen with either of them over the winter.
Also, I did notice the crepe leaves had started to yellow slightly while spending the week under the light. I'd guess that this is either from it doing exactly what you said (dying because it wasn't allowed to go start going dormant for the coming winter) or it's in shock from cutting off the tree and planting or it simply doesn't have enough roots to support growth.
How much should I prune the 'canopy' in order for the small root ball to support what IS there? The remaining two crepes, when cut off the tree and unwrapped, had a similar root ball as the one I initially posted a picture of...?
Well, I would have suggested just leaving them in their pots and putting them, pot and all in the garden (if you have one), on the south side of the house or a sheltered area. Transplanting them at this time of year can be stressful for them, but it's done now and they are tougher than you think so they should be OK out there.
Temperate trees rarely do well in the long term in an indoor environment. I brought a couple of my mini crepes inside this past Summer but kept them on a south facing window sill with the window open so they got all the humidity available outside while I could still enjoy them from inside the house. Crepes love lots of light....in fact they will flower poorly if not given a nice sunny location so keep that in mind next Summer.
Again temperate trees go dormant and do practically nothing will in that state so they only need a very occasional watering if in pots while Wintering over. For both the Maples and Crepes I would wait until you start to see the buds swelling in the Spring before uprooting them again for re-potting.
The yellowing you saw was not them dying so much as complaining that their environment was not optimum.
When you mention the "canopy" I'm not sure what tree(s) you refer to, but I would not prune anything that goes outdoors at this time. Let them over winter and post a picture next growing season for advice on how to proceed.
Temperate trees rarely do well in the long term in an indoor environment. I brought a couple of my mini crepes inside this past Summer but kept them on a south facing window sill with the window open so they got all the humidity available outside while I could still enjoy them from inside the house. Crepes love lots of light....in fact they will flower poorly if not given a nice sunny location so keep that in mind next Summer.
Again temperate trees go dormant and do practically nothing will in that state so they only need a very occasional watering if in pots while Wintering over. For both the Maples and Crepes I would wait until you start to see the buds swelling in the Spring before uprooting them again for re-potting.
The yellowing you saw was not them dying so much as complaining that their environment was not optimum.
When you mention the "canopy" I'm not sure what tree(s) you refer to, but I would not prune anything that goes outdoors at this time. Let them over winter and post a picture next growing season for advice on how to proceed.
I have planted them all outdoors. I scrapped the idea of testing one of each indoors over the winter to 'just see what would happen'. I was actually surprised that the crepes turned and then dropped their leaves. I'm hoping this happened because the transplanting actually worked and they didn't just die. The maples leaves seemed to dry out a bit but they never turned and dropped. I might have killed those three. I guess I won't really know until the spring... Wish me luck!
Ok, they should be good to go for the Winter. They are resting and sleeping and will show bud swelling in April or some time close to that. Then they can be lifted and re-potted. After that they will not need to be re-set into the ground unless you will be looking to force faster trunk growth. Just a yearly re-potting will keep them in the Pink.