Growing Indoors - Any Guides Available? [how can I wake up a dormant tree?]

[Maltrease]

I'm looking for information on growing tropical plants indoors with grow lights.  I have found a good amount of information about planting them in containers and wintering inside your home or garage.  I haven't been able to find much information about keeping them growing through the winter or having some plants inside through the whole year.

I've found this video which is very inspiring - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0h79QNk838  The author shares some good information and tips in the comments. He pointed me to this forum and here I am.
[edit - he has a thread with additional information here - http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=8861.0, I'd recommend reading that and the YouTube comments to get the most information]

In May 2015 my wife bought me a 1-year old Meyer Lemon tree. I've always loved citrus and wanted to grow my own, but I didn't really think it was an option in Ohio.   I set the tree outside for the summer, checking it almost every day but it didn't really thrive.  It might have grown an inch but didn't sprout any new leaves or branches.   I brought it inside as the temperatures started dropping and set in front the window in my office. 

Unfortunately, the tree wasn't getting enough light.  We don't have any good southern exposure windows so I went to the local hardware store and asked for a plant light.  I came back with blue tinted incandescent bulb and a reflector.  Set that up on the tree and it loved it.  Everything perked up and I think it actually looked better than it did outside.  I did some research on grow lights and discovered LED.  I bought a $30 bulb from Amazon and combined with the other light the tree started growing new leaves and even flowered.

I loved bringing the tree to life and helping it thrive.  I wanted more!  Fast forward a few months and now I have:

A happy Meyer Lemon
3 Figs Trees (Turkey, Little Miss Figgy and everbearing Italian)
6 Pomegranites, all 3-4 years old (Angel Red, Grenada, Sweet, Utah Sweet, White and Wonderful) - All bareroot arrived last week of Nov.
Garden Prince Almond - 3 years
Bonanaza Dwarf Peach
Pineberry
Miracle Berry
Cavendish Dwarf Banana
Tangerine
Valentia Orange
Arbequina Olive
4 different Rasberries
7 different Blueberries

My growing setup is now my office closet wrapped in mylar with a 150 Watt hanging fixture and 4 of the $30, 6 Watts.  I have a 150 Watt CF plant light from Appollo arriving next week.

I'm currently battling fungal gnats.  I ran across a lot of tips on the internet but nothing as comprehensive as this one - http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=16330.msg208015#msg208015.  Earlier in the week I did the first Neem Oil treatment which seemed to help.  The order of beneficial nematodes arrived today and I'll be applying those tomorrow evening.  I'm happy to be armed with many other great suggestions in that post if I need them.

So far things are going pretty good.  The fig trees, pineberry, banana and Meyer Lemon are all actively growing.  Everyday there is something new happening to them.

The Tangerine, Orange, Olive and Miracle berry plants are surviving.  They look good but I haven't noticed any new growth yet.  They are recently repotted so I'm hoping they just need more time to settle.

Everything else is dormant... which leads me to the main question I'm trying to answer. 

How do I wake them up?  Is there anything I can do?  Or do I just have to wait until Spring next year, move them outside and let nature work its magic?  In particular, I want to wake up one or more of the Pomegranate trees.  Watching them come back to life again is going to be a lot of fun and help me get closer to the day I'll get to pick and eat my first one.

I'm eager to learn more.  What is the optimum amount of light for the Lemon tree to grow vs. the figs?  Can I trick the Blueberries into fruiting at different times of the year?  The questions and opportunities are endless and I'm amazed at how little information I can find.  If I was growing Marijuana then there are encyclopedias of information available... why not for a Pomegranate?

[Tomas]

Hello Maltrease,

I cannot comment about artificial lighting because I don't know much about that. But I have grown plants indoors for a few years now. Some plants grow carefree and healthy inside with no extra arrangements except from some window light, even in winter time with the dry air from the heater. There are plants that are totally oblivious to that. For some odd reason black sapote is one of those plants. 

I see that you grow fig and almond. Do they grow well inside in low humidity?

Tomas

[Maltrease]

The fig plants are all doing great.  They are my favorites to watch because of how fast they grow.  So far the winter in SW Ohio has been mild so we haven't gotten the low humidity air.

The almond arrived just a few weeks ago and came bare root so I don't know what it likes yet.

[pitbull-rus]

I grow fruit trees and shrubs,also indoors.I think such plants as figs,pomegranates,be sure to give a couple of months of rest.To reduce the temperature to 10 degrees Celsius,less water and less light.Then after the rest of the plants will be stronger and better to grow.Lighting you think is very good,I unfortunately these lamps are not.

[fruitnut]

For led light, hit up coplantnut.  He will be able to help you with LED lighting.  Three of my lemons fruit indoor under LED lights for 9hrs/day.  My lisa spadila are able to flower under the same condition. 
How warm does the closet get and how long is the light on each day?

[Maltrease]

@pitbull-rus,  do pomegranates and figs require the dormancy period (or chill hours)?  All the ones I purchased are compatible with zones 9-10 where they wouldn't have much of a winter or reach 10 degrees Celsius.

@fruitnut, Thanks, I'll do that!  It turns out coplantnut is the one that referred me here.

I'd estimate it 75-80 degrees Fahrenheit, the LEDs don't put off much heat.  I bought a temperature/humidity reader but haven't installed it yet.

I have the lights on about 16 hours per day.  Before I had the closet setup I had lights on the Meyer Lemon tree 24/7 for about a week and it seemed to do great.  As I researched further it seemed most people recommended a cycle so I stopped the 24/7 lighting.  If I had more room and 2 Meyer Lemons I'd tried one at 24/7 and the other with a day/night cycle to see what happens.

[pitbull-rus]

A couple of months off,lowering the temperature and lighting.

[Radoslav]

I see totaly no reason to grow subtropical plants like lemons, tangerines, pomegranates and figs  in conditions like this.
Those conditions are for tropical plants. Subtropical plants can be easy overwintered in dormant, it means without artificial light and with temperature within 0 to 10 celsius. And I think, they like it. What you are doing is something like pushing subtropical plants to tropical area. When it comes to citruses, they strictly hold balance between light and temperature. So if you will not provide them with optimal number of light hours compare to temperature, you will kill them. So higher temperature means more light hours, but for example it they are grafted on poncrus they prefer rest period during a year. And you will fight endless fight with scales and mites if you want to hold plants indoor year round.

[Maltrease]

@radoslav
That is definitely a fair point and at this stage I know just slightly more than nothing about all of this.  The part that confuses me the most is that if these plants were growing in Zone10 it wouldn't have a winter and I'm assuming wouldn't have a dormancy period.  I believe only the Meyer lemon is grafted and I have no idea what root stock.  I definitely intend to give almost all of the plants time outside in the Summer and simply do to space limitations many of them will probably end of going dormant in the winter. 

Some things I'd like to explore are having Pomegranate and Fig trees placed throughout the house and non-dormant so they look nice.  For example, I was wondering if weaving LED strip light would provide enough supplemental light in addition to the tiny bits they would get from the window and look nice enough that my wife would be happy. 

Another idea is if can I get figs & other fruit for longer periods in the year vs. when they would be available within the normal seasons. 

The one thing I didn't expect when starting this was dealing with pests.  I mistakenly assumed that growing indoors would specifically mean I didn't have to deal with them.  I've gotten rid of spider mites once with neem oil and have a longer term battle with fungal gnats.  I spread around beneficial nematodes on every plant 2 days ago and I'm hoping that will minimize my problems. 

@pitbull-rus, I'll reply in the other thread where you provided more details.

[Tropheus76]

Would have figured being way up north you wouldn't have much of a pest issue inside or out. I am thinking of a bank of LEDs hanging on a frame in my garage for when the weather finally decides to cool down and I need to bring my tropicals in. Seeing as the news said today was a perfect beach day I really wonder if I even need to worry about it this year.

Any suggestions for heat? I can build the frame for one or two banks of LEDs and put them on a timer, not so sure on what I can do for heating my garage up to an acceptable level without risking a fire.

[Radoslav]

@radoslav
That is definitely a fair point and at this stage I know just slightly more than nothing about all of this.  The part that confuses me the most is that if these plants were growing in Zone10 it wouldn't have a winter and I'm assuming wouldn't have a dormancy period.  I believe only the Meyer lemon is grafted and I have no idea what root stock.  I definitely intend to give almost all of the plants time outside in the Summer and simply do to space limitations many of them will probably end of going dormant in the winter. 

Some things I'd like to explore are having Pomegranate and Fig trees placed throughout the house and non-dormant so they look nice.  For example, I was wondering if weaving LED strip light would provide enough supplemental light in addition to the tiny bits they would get from the window and look nice enough that my wife would be happy. 

Another idea is if can I get figs & other fruit for longer periods in the year vs. when they would be available within the normal seasons. 

The one thing I didn't expect when starting this was dealing with pests.  I mistakenly assumed that growing indoors would specifically mean I didn't have to deal with them.  I've gotten rid of spider mites once with neem oil and have a longer term battle with fungal gnats.  I spread around beneficial nematodes on every plant 2 days ago and I'm hoping that will minimize my problems. 

@pitbull-rus, I'll reply in the other thread where you provided more details.

Mites love fig trees and scales love citruses. The only real way how to expel mites is the air humidity, but I do not expect, that you will have  90% humidity  during winter indoor.
Yes, there are citruses, or figs in tropics  but as I said, they do better in cooler climate, when it comes for example to taste or colour of the pulp or skin , except typical tropical zone citruses, like for example pomelos.

[greenman62]

its been very warm here in New Orleans (zone 9b)
over 80F the other day, maybe today as well.
i have a couple of POMs that lost leaves, and the rest did not.

i have 2 varieties of mulberry that still have most of their leaves
and one that lost them all.
both figs still have some leaves, but lost some.

i have to think it is light-hours related, and not temp related
for that POM anyway.
length of day still changes, even if the weather does not.

So, it seems to me, different plants see it different ways
some may go by the number of daylight hours
while others go by temps ?
or, maybe by both ?
you may have to figure out what triggers each species.

part of me wonders how much it has to do with soil temps
as opposed to air temps also...
containers will be much closer to the air temp
and when talking chill hours, im guessing it means air temps below 45F
even if the plant is really looking at the soil temps
and if your in a container... well... another monkey wrench in the works to figure out.

[fyliu]

As another member said, for deciduous plants, I'm not sure that keeping them active all year is good for them. Some of them require a dormant period before making the big push in spring.

For Anna apple, you can probably keep it fruiting the whole year. For some other stuff, it could confuse them enough that they dont grow or fruit correctly.

For tropical things like pineapple, they'll keep growing all year if the cobditions allow.

[Maltrease]

I wanted to give an update.  I put 2 of the dormant Pomegranate trees into the grow closet where they get a lot of CF and LED light about 18 hour/day.  They were there for about a month without any visible growth.  In the mean time one of the other Pomegranates I had in front of a window did wake up.  This was a younger tree, 1-2 years old vs. all the others that are 4-5 years, not sure if that matters.

I took the dormant tress out of the grow closet and moved the waking up one into it.  It's been there for about a week now and growing quickly.  Here is a time lapse video showing 5-6 days - https://youtu.be/-E4wSMOSf8M, behind the pom is a Barbados Cherry which is also doing well.

The next thing I'm going to try is putting 2-3 of the still dormant Pomegranates outside when the weather will stay above freezing.  Since I'm in SW Ohio they will be moving in/out a lot through February and March.  I'll compare the results of these vs. the remaining dormant ones sitting inside next to a window.