Rob S. aka Blitz wrote:
I bought a lemon, lime, orange and arbequina olive for my patio container area. Since im in zone 6 I will have to bring them inside for the winter. Do you think I can just put them in the garage with just a little ambient light or do they need more sun even though they will be dormant? Thanks for any wisdom anyone can share!
This is my first message on this forum, I just saw all the confusing answers you were getting so I couldn't help but register
I grow various types of citrus (also bananas, and other tropicals) indoors and out in zone 8A (avg lows 10-12F)
I think the reason you are getting conflicting answers about dormancy and care is people are basing their advice on their own zones, temperature ranges,etc. and not yours. IE- in warmer zones or situations- citrus never goes dormant, in yours, it will unless it is in temps average 60F or above.
Citrus goes dormant when the root ball temperature falls below 55-60F for a few weeks generally. Dormancy actually protects the plants from cold damage as normal processes are slowed down and the plants are more hardened off. (like a bear hibernating) A dormant tree is much hardier than an actively growing tree.
So in your garage:
How much light are you talking about?
What will be the
average temperature? What might be the
coldest temperature?
A dormant tree needs not much light because the light is used for the active photosynthesis processes of chlorophyll. A non dormant tree will need more light or you will end up with scraggly weak branches seeking light. ( and a more vulnerable tree)
I kept a variety of citrus in an unheated laundry room one winter. On rare occasions in dead of January, the temp could fall close to freezing in here, but not for long.
This was on the North side of the house and had two large windows.
Everything survived, and stayed exactly the same all winter.
The next winter I decided I wanted the same trees to NOT go dormant, so I put them in my warm living room in front of a South facing window. This caused them to actively grow all winter.
Lemons and limes are about the least cold hardy of all citrus beside grapefruit.
A point someone else brought up also is that many citrus in the Northern hemisphere ripen their fruit in fall/winter. You might have to keep them actively growing to get fruit. The fruit on any kind of citrus will freeze and be ruined before the tree itself.
So there are a number of variables here including the actual varieties of plants you have, the min/max temps, avg temps, etc.
The most important: In zone 6 average lows are 0F > -10F. If your garage gets this cold, your trees will die.