It would stand to reason that growth will stop in a dormant state, but my guess is that the tree will retain the fruit and that growth will resume when normal conditions are restored--resulting in perhaps smaller fruit and later maturation--does anyone have experience with storing trees with fruit in cool dark conditions?

My Satsuma and Kumquat that I overwintered last year retained the fruit. We had lots of ripe Kumquats in march....... The trees didnt recieve much sun during the winter ours, they were basically covered most (but not all I guess) of the winter.

Frank

That is basically what I would expect for trees maintained in a dormant state--later maturity, and possibly smaller fruit--but far less fuss if you have the cool place to store them.

Some pigmented citruses react very positively to that kind of dormant arrangement, sometimes getting better flavored fruits.

I was thinking about this some more today and I think that for most people the difference in lighting efficiency doesn't actually matter unless your whole-room heating system is very efficient and your electricity is very expensive. The waste heat generated by inefficient grow lights just replaces the heat that would have to be generated otherwise to heat the room. I think the most important factors would be the cost of materials and their lifespan.

I have a couple questions about this topic as well. I am planning on ordering my first few citrus trees in the next month or so and was curious about how to make my winter lighting situation work. I am not 100% certian yet but likely leaning towards getting a 2-3 yr old Bearss lime, 2-3 yr old Owari Satsuma, a 1 yr old Eureka and a 1 yr old Tarocco blood orange. I live in a small condo outside of Chicago (zone 5) with a sliding glass door that will require supplemental lighting when I bring my trees inside for the winter (faces East and I have an overhang to deal with that makes me worry about light). I was planning on getting a basic florescent fixture (48',32 watt T8 with 2 bulbs [1 warm, 1 cool]) just to be safe but I have a few complications to worry about temperature-wise. I am aware of the fact that I need to make sure the temperature is lower (750-850 hours below 68F I think i read?) which may be a little tricky in my place. The sliding glass door is in my living room which is also where I keep my bird (shes a 12 week old Green Cheek Conure if anyone cares:) and I'm a little worried about keeping the temperature that low because birds do not do well with temp drops. My heating is electric and the units themselves all run along the same wall as the sliding glass door I would like to put them in front of. So I was thinking plan b would be to try to possibly keep them in a closet? I know I would have to make my move into the closet gradual to not shock the plant but I feel as though it would be easier to keep the temp down. I would prefer to keep them in my living room because they are beautiful plants but I do not know how I could go about keeping the temp ideal for winter growth. This may sound ridiculous but could I put big buckets of ice water next to them every morning/night? I doubt that would drop the temp much (if at all) and they would probably melt quickly during they day, but I am kind of at a loss... Any ideas?

Sorry if this is more of a winter temp question than a lighting question, but one led to the other.

p.s. I know I could just move the bird but my girfriend and I spend much of our time in the living room (only have 1 bedroom) and would hate to make Lucy (my bird) spend so much time alone in the bedroom.

Joe

Hello Joe,
Nice to see another Midwest grower here. There are many here who are experts on this topic but I will toss in my two cents here if I may. I overwinter my citrus in a spare bedroom that isn't used so I turn off the heat in that room and they get what light there is during the winter from the window and do Ok, thinking next winter we will maybe do the garage thing as the temp in there stays acound 50. I decidecd to turn my thermostat down to 65/66 in the house (townhouse) this year to see what savings there would be on costs and it has been great, by the way I have 3 birds, 2 parakeets and a canary and they adapted just fine to the cooler temps so....good luck, Citrus are addicting, you may have to get a bigger condo!!!!

Justjoan,

Luckily the girlfriend and I only rent the condo I thought at first that I specifically only wanted a one bedroom place in an effort to not fill another room with more stuff I really do not need, but I'm not going to lie, it sucks... I want another room at least to use as a plant room solely!
I am also kind of new to birds as well and it makes me very happy to hear I can keep the temp down! I have not ordered my plants yet because I am not sure exactly what 4 to get yet and I would also wait until we get consistantly nice weather around here. Thanks for the advice!

Joe