I'm new here. Pretty inexperienced, but learn fast. So I jumped head first into citrus. Now that it is winter here (Portland OR) Everything needs to come inside. I don't have much space in my 900sqft house, but my basement is pretty much empty. So,

Upon the advice of a few friends I purchased 2 shop lights at home depot , 2 full spectrum 40wbulbs and two aquarium/plant lights to put in said shop light fixtures.

I have 3 meyer lemons, 2 bearss, 1 tangerine and a cara cara.

I realize now that I just do not have the right light set up, and the wrong temps in my basement. It runs about 60 degrees down there.(I can only imagine how cold it will be in the dead of winter.) I have a space heater but it's only bringing the temp to 65.
I don't have the funds to buy the light set up that I want at the moment.

How much will this harm my plants?
I realize that's a hard thing to gauge, but do you guys think I can pull through the next month, if I am extra careful not to over water?

Thanks for any support & advice!

Linda

Linda, I don't think you will have much of a problem, if you keep the tree in balance. By balance I mean a balance between the foliage and the root zone. When a citrus is growing in high light with warm conditions, the root zone needs to be warm (75-85F). If the tree's foliage is cool and in low light, the root zone can also be cool 55-60F or lower). What you don't want is high light and cool roots. Below is a copy of a 2005 post by Citrange, a long time knowledgeable member of this forum. His posting concerns trees in much the same environment as you are talking about.

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A few years ago, I was visiting France in late February and stayed in an slightly run-down chateau. I was surprised to discover a very gloomy basement - almost a dungeon - containing four enormous pots with mature citrus trees in them.
The owners told me the trees stayed there every year for three months with no attention apart from just a few waterings, there was no light except from one small high-up window, the basement stayed just above freezing on the coldest days, the normal inside temperature was around 40-50F. The trees were brought out in March, showed little leaf drop and immediately started flowering.
Now, many people would say the lack of light should cause leaf drop, but it didn't.
Millets theory fits this perfectly. No root activity, no leaf activity and the plants are virtually in suspended animation. ................