The Tropical Fruit Forum

I would probably add perlite and sand which will move the needle closer to neutral and improve drainage. I dont know what the ideal acidity is for citrus. They seem to do good in potting soil and sandy soil and potting soil is acidic they dont seem too fussy. They just dont like prolonged soggy roots is the only thing I noticed.

You can go online and order sugar bell. If you sell it a percentage goes to the patent holder. They already crosses sugar bell with a bunch of different citrus and selling those now too.

First photo mites or some bug is sucking the juice out. Spray everything leaves stem trunk with neem oil. After a few days if it doesnt rain start spraying the tree with water because that neem oil will stick to the leaves a long time and it needs to start washing off so it can breathe, greasy spots I dont know looks like black rot but I never saw black rot on citrus. If it is black rot neem oil will take care of that too.

They have a bunch of new greening resistant citrus for sale this year. Most are sold out but may be available next year. Florida peaches are good too and profitable.

Even though cool weather wont hurt them they will slow growth even stop growing or stop photosynthesis. You want temps in the 70s minimum for high temps. You can just put them inside a tent in the basement and the growlight will keep the tent warm.

Even full spectrum bulbs look at the spectrum chart. Most light is in a few narrow spectrums. Get about three different types of full spectrum bulbs at least two and mix them and alternate. That being said my citrus did ok not great indoors I just left it outside most of the year when temps were above freezing. Tropical plants grow better up north in the summer than they do in the tropics. Longer days up north. Then put them inside under a 12 hour light in winter. I also try to utilize window light when possible but in winter there just isnt much sun up north. The light needs are so intense its a waste of money. Herbs and stuff are small enough can grow easily under grow lights. Large trees you need a massive amount of light. But when I used only one kind of bulb the plant didnt do well. I just had two or three different full spectrum flourescent bulbs sometimes mix a regular orange flourescent. The main one plants liked was sun glo reptile bulb it looks like sunlight but this alone wont be enough. Or mix halogen with a flourescent etc.

Then at one point I discovered tiny almost invisible slugs sucking sap had a hard time getting rid of them finally neem oil worked but plants indoors have more bug problems. I had a praying mantis living on my meyer lemon for a year. When I moved it inside he stayed on the tree the whole time. But its just such a pain growing indoors when they do really well outside just have to water them.

But 28 degrees can kill a lemon. They are wimps. Can barely handle 32. So cross sour orange with poncirus until the nasty poncirus flavor is bred out but maybe still more cold hardy than sour orange though neither one of them seem overly acidic not any more than a lemon would be. The flavor is diffetent but its not a bad trade off orange flavor instead of lemon flavor. Though I would just grow in a pot if I were up north I wouldnt even mess with poncirus.

Im saying I dont know why a lemon would be used instead of sour orange. It seems odd that the sour orange makes more acidic crosses or whatever.

The main thing is letting them get rained on, spraying with a hose, or shower. You wont have a problem with regular showers but indoors it may be hard. Neem oil is good though you want to still give the plant an occassional hose down or the oil itself will stay on the leaves and be a problem.

Seems w murcott is a seedling of murcott crossed with an unknown parent. It has less seeds than murcott and slightly better. Tangor is an irradiated w murcott with some mutations including seedlessness.

I never had a problem with pot size though I do rooted cuttings my meyer lemon stayed small in a small pot. The lack of light would cause leaf drop in the winter or using the wrong light. Just leave it outside let it grow back. My lemons did poorly indoors but never as bad as that. I tried to put them near window light and a bright full spectrum white flourescent alternated with a sunglo reptile flourescent. Then put it outside on warm days if possible. I got lemons in the winter time but it was only super healthy when outside. I would water based on how dry the dirt was didnt need much water indoors. Outdoors in hot weather it dries fast. I would spray it with a hose. In winter once in a great while put it in the bath tub for a shower. My meyer lemon did ok it was the bannanas that got real sickly indoors and full of spider mites then as soon as I put them outside and spray them good with a hose they went crazy in the summer but too many pups for container growing.

Beautiful variety definitely unique