I've had my "no idea what I planted" citrus tree indoors all winter (next to the front door), and it's been doing surprisingly well. It looks good with dark green old leaves, and bright green new ones. But as soon as I put it outside, within minutes the leaves start to go floppy and droop. Indoors everything recovers quickly and all leaves are standing up nicely within an hour. I've tried putting it outside 3 times now over the past month.. no luck. It's not very warm (17 Celsius) or windy, and all my other citrus plants are happy outside (and have been outdoors day and night for over a week without droopy leaves). Just to be sure I thoroughly watered it, and put it back indoors for a week. Just put it outside again in semi shade. What is wrong with this tree ?! Do I just leave it outdoors so it can adjust there, or am I stuck dragging it back indoors where it apparently will be happy even though it gets far less sun/fresh air??
It's normal if only the new leaves are droopy. This discussion in an external forum may be of interest.
Thanks! It does seem to be only the new leaves that are drooping/ wilting. They're not crisping up so I didn't know if this was called wilting or not? Other forum says it's the plants built in protection against too much evaporation, and it should recover after a while. I will put it outside again, but this time in the evening so it's got a whole cool night to acclimatize (and stop throwing a hissy fit - I'm still wearing jeans, it's not *that* warm yet!). Also I'll try painting the pot white and see if that helps.
Two things I learned about citrus: 1 - They are worse then Ficus in regards to temperature changes. 2 - They dont like to be thrown into full sun right away Both of these points means that you should be keeping it in shade and away from winds for the first week or two then slowly expose it to the proper conditions. Mine did OK putting it in a shaded greenhouse during the day and bringing it inside when the nights dropped below 10C. I still lost some leaves but nowhere near as bad as I have done in the past.
I put it outside last night, and it's currently very overcast and raining. No droopy leaves so far. And my 'diy' cheap plastic greenhouse arrived today as well - I planned on putting all my tomatoes and citrus in there. (Tomatoes get phytophtora here if they get rained on too often, and I think citrus will eventually like the slightly more warm and humid conditions).
