Hello everyone from Illinois. It's midwinter here. We just got about 12" of snow last night into today. I hope you all are staying warm.
My Meyer lemon tree is doing well. I've been alternating it between a south window and using a grow light. I also have a heating pad wrapped around half the pot to keep the roots warm. My question is fertilizer. I have been watering the tree once every two weeks and I use a very small amount of Jacks Citrus Feed on it. Actually 1/2 of a quarter teaspoon, so it is a very small amount. The tree has about a dozen buds right now. Should I keep doing what I'm doing or should I increase the fertilizer?
My second question is regarding mulch. Back in the summer I picked up some nice organic pine bark mulch. I did not use it on the Meyer Lemon but I did use some on my blueberry bush. The problem is after putting mulch on the blueberry bush I wound up with an infestation of fungus gnats. It might be coincidence, but before I used the mulch I had no insect problems. I would like to grind up some of the pine bark mulch and mix it into the soil of the Meyer Lemon but I'm concerned about introducing bugs.
How can I go about doing that without worrying about introducing bugs into my Lemon tree soil? Is it possible to boil the mulch first without destroying it? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.