New Additions
I have expanded the ‘tropical Minnesotan attic jungle’ again. I bought six new dwarf citrus trees from Four Winds Growers out in California. I probably shouldn’t have ordered them during the hottest time of the year thus far. The two younger trees arrived looking good. Some of the others seem to have suffered from the heat of being trapped in an unventilated box, inside a baking semi trailer for two and a half days. The little ones are a Valencia orange and a new Kieffer lime to replace My old one that had an unbeatable scale infestation. I aquired a second Improved Meyer lemon tree as well.
Due to many favorable reviews around the web, I also opted to get an Oroblanco grapefruit tree. They don’t get pink/red, but are said to be very pot friendly and unlike most citrus, doesn’t need a lot of summer heat to sweeten the fruit. Sounds like a no brianer to Me.
Then there is the Gold Nugget mandarin orange tree. Which is very bushy and compact, but has been in a state of perpetual drooping since it got here. It doesn’t appear to be dying, but has yet to show Me any signs of changing it’s current mood.
Rounding out the order is a Mexican Sweet lime tree, which does not look the greatest either. All of the most recently grown leaves are curled up really tightly. I am assuming for now that it was heat during shipping that caused these little trees to look so glum. They have been here for 10 days now and none of them look like they are going to die. Maybe they will bounce back after this 90+ degree weather passes. Hopefully I can take better care of these trees than I have with some of My older ones. Having ordered trees from the same grower a couple of years ago and gaining My own growing experience over the last few years, I believe that things should be ok. So long as I can keep the scale away from them.
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Try moving your poor drooping tree to different locations to see if it improves. It may not like where you have it right now.
May 13, 2014 at 5:00 am
Thank You for checking out My neglected blog! Most of the trees have perked up, but the little keiffer lime tree did not make it. This was last year and the pictures were taken the day after I got them. They were shipped from California to My home in Minnesota during a particularly hot spell. They arrived looking this way after 3 days travelling cross country in a semi trailer, with temperatures in the high 90s and no ventilation holes in the boxes they were in. I assume the temperature in the truck’s trailer during transit was above 100 degrees(F), due to the beating sun and these trees were basically being cooked the whole time. Most were fine after a couple of weeks and all the new growth since arrival has been normal, with no signs of heat related stress. Since My thumb is only half green and I live in a region with barely 5 months of suitable weather for them to be outdoors, they aren’t as nice looking as the trees You would see in the south, but are doing pretty well. They reside next to the biggest windows I have, getting a couple hours of direct sun daily and also have a 600 watt metal halide bulb shining on them for 8-12 hours a day.
May 13, 2014 at 1:15 pm