I was given three trees. Two Flame Red Grapefruits and a lemon of indeterminate name.
I've never had a citrus tree before!
I have a basement apartment with no large windows for natural light, so I have a growing set up in my utility room. I have two shelves with led and florescent tube lights for my succulents and starting seeds ...These trees are all too big!
The grapefruits are five feet tall and the lemon is a couple feet...but I might prune it because its very sad looking.
So I know I need to rearrange to make room. Anyways...will one double fixture about four inches above the grapefruit leaves be enough? Should I hang two double lightbulb fixtures there? The lemon tree is short enough to go next to my micro tomatoes I'm growing for winter so that spot is alright...just need to shuffle things around.
They all had aphids, spider mites, some curling leaves, and were very dried out...the dirt has what looks like chunks of salt!
So I gave them each a shower with warm water and a gentle soap on the leaves and branches and a long soak until the pots were heavy and water ran out the bottom.
Tomorrow I will take them outside and repot them with fresh dirt and some organic fertilizers...should I rinse the root balls off? Make sure there are no creepy crawlies there too?
Any recommendations for a soil mix? I have bagged mix that's for palms, cactus, and citrus, I have pine bark and peat moss, I have organic and regular potting mixs, I have seed starting mix. I also have gravel. I was planning on just using the citrus bags...unless something else is better.
What can I do about the apparent salt build up (besides not using the blue stuff to fertilize
)?
What are the curling leaves a sign of? Just the bug damage?
Help me save my new babies! I already named them: Bert, Ernie, and Oscar the Grouch.