I’m looking to grow a citrus tree in a pot that I can bring indoors for winter by a window and bring back outside in spring.
I know someone who grows a Meyer Lemon tree by a window in their house year round. The tree doesn’t thrive but it survives and produces about 1 lemon each year.
My thinking is that I could do this but put the tree outside during the growing season so I can get more fruit.
However, I don’t like lemons, so I want to grow something else. My ideas so far are Nagami Kumquats, Calamondin Oranges, or Satsuma Mandarins.
Would these varieties (or other citrus) be able to overwinter indoors by a window without grow lights and stay in a 10 gallon pot so that they’re light enough to be moved indoors and outdoors as needed?
I prefer sweet citrus like clementines, so I’m looking for something like that which can grow in the conditions outlined above.
It’s tough to get sweet citrus to tolerate that much stress and fruit well. I’d lean toward more what you said with the smaller more sour fruits like calamansi
i got a owari satuma and mineola in 10gal.that fruit indoors over winter in a south facing window without lights. i get about a doz fruit on the mineola and 20 on the satsuma. they are a little smaller than in ground grown fruit but still taste good. im new to this so i havent dialed in the fertilizer and soil yet. i also have a salavaski pomegranite but its young and hasnt fruited yet. i spray with a insecticide/ fungicide before bringing them in from my deck in fall. visitors are suprised when they see oranges in my windows in the dead of winter when its -20 out..
I am fortunate enough to have a greenhouse here in Oregon and have grown sweet citrus both in and out (during summer) for a number of years..
Pot size is critical to production amounts … The bigger the pot, the bigger the crop to the point of having to thin the crio for size … So get a tray dolly for each plant & leave it on it with a water tray …
There is nothing like a good crop of Sumatra Mandarins & Sumo Honeys in Winter..
Do you cross pollinate your mineola? Or do you use GA3? I was always told they were mostly self-incompatible and not very compatible with satsumas as well.
it must be self pollinating as i havent introduced any other pollen and its in a separate room from the satsuma. i do take a flower from it and use it to pollinate the other flowers. almost all get pollinated.
Thats interesting. I wonder if its minneola or a seedling or a different type of tanglo. Or it could be that with hand-pollination, they just set fruit better.
How many hours of direct sunlight do they get? And which do you find to be sweeter and/or taste better? I was originally thinking of growing calamondin orange because they are commonly recommended as container citrus, but I’ve read that they are quite sour. I’d prefer to grow something sweeter as long as it can overwinter indoors.
they are both sweet but i like the acid tang of the mineola better. the satsuma is a more compact tree. i have to prune the mineola every few years to keep it in check.
here are my lemon, lime and satsumas that i brought inside to a corner in the basement last fall. my temp sensors show the overnight lows from dec-now have only been around ~60F and briefly dipped below that in recent extreme cold. they are also only under a single 40w shop light:
It sounds like the satsuma may be more appealing to me. About how many hours of direct sun does it get indoors in winter? My sunniest window probably doesn’t get more than 4 or 5 hours of direct sun a day. I hope that’s enough for it to get by on until spring.
How long do you leave the light on each day? I have a few 40 watt grow lights I could use but I’d prefer to just use window light if they can get by on it in winter.
Wow your leaves are so dark green and lush for indoors! I’m using significantly more light, misting often and mine look 50% worse. What fertilizer do you use?
mine push out lime green and become darker green over time as they mature. i gave them one or two applications of osmocote plus, once when they arrived and i potted them and a second time in the summer i think. since they were brought indoors in the fall ive just been trying to use up this with a half to quarter strength on every watering:
Sage
where theres a will theres a way.