On Sun, 22 Mar 2015 18:27:37 +1100, "David Hare-Scott"
wrote:



Right now the citrus trees have dropped all of their leaves, I guess
from being in a cooler green house and the light cycle being the
winter cycle. Does it matter if he sprays with the oil spray as it
begins to leaf out, or should he try to get that done before it leafs
out?

Your citrus are very sick. They should NOT drop their leaves. You say
they did this last year but recovered, this is not a good sign, they ought
not to do it any year. There are many causes for this including under and
over watering, over fertilising, lack of sun and freezing. An adult orange
will stand a light frost, a tahitian lime will not be happy with any frost.
They will be more suseptible to insect damaged while stressed for whatever
reason.

The further out of its comfort zone you try to grow a plant the more skill
and effort it takes to compensate. If you have neither the right climate
nor the skill and time you are not going to have happy trees.


Growing out of comfort zone is the specific goal of many a specialty
gardener.

Surely it takes care and is best left to someone who understands
specifics, but there is a learning curve in any endeavor.

Here in northern NJ, I have grown potted and tubbed citrus for many
years, mostly successfully, but there can be fatal problems with *any*
sort of planting, indoors or out, native or exotic. We do our best,
read up, ask advice online, from libraries, nurseries or extension
services. Such is the delight and adventure of gardening and
maintaining houseplants. Sometimes it works really well, sometimes it
doesn't, but that does not mean anyone should ever be discouraged from
trying. These aren't puppies...they are plants.

I take as a challenge all the attempts to grow out of clime. I am
sure there are few here in my area that can harvest olives in the fall
or have kefir lime leaves whenever the recipe calls for it or have a
indoor bottle brush tree that blooms in January. I have a lot of fun
with a full assortment of fresh herbs in my kitchen all winter and
they look so good among the orchids.

One can have citrus come back from scale and almost total leaf loss.
It can happen.

Boron