My calamansi plants spent the summer outside, and they loved it. But with the weather turning cooler, I’d been obsessing with how to get them used to less sun, and then coming back inside full time without bringing the bugs with them.
After doing several weeks of obsessive Googling, I finally determined that I first needed to put them in a shadier spot to help them get used to less sun. They spent all of October in that shadier spot. Finally, I attempted to take the much more intimidating next step — giving them a dip in soapy water to rid them of any bugs, dead leaves and to clean their pots to come inside. I bought a large outdoor trash can and filled it up with water and added some of my kids’ baby shampoo — it’s probably not as mild as the soap recommended in this blog post, but I couldn’t find anything milder and was not about to spend $10 for a small bottle of organic liquid soap. Sorry, not sorry.
Each pot soaked for 15 minutes, after which time I went in and strained the excess dirt and dead leaves from the water.
After taking each one out of their bath, I let them sit on the concrete for a minute to drain the lightly soapy water and then sprayed it down with the hose. I used my finger to strengthen the stream a little, to make sure anything clinging to the leaves was dislodged.
Anyway, after the bath (Trinity called it a baptism) and the thorough spray-down, the plants looked all clean and shiny. But that wasn’t the end of it.
I let each plant dry off while the next one did the dip. It was a windy day in Southern California, so that helped the drying process along. After it dried, it was time for the next step — a spray down with an organic pesticide.
This bottle looks small, and cost $12 or $13 — rather pricey (at least, for me), but for every quart of water, it needed half a teaspoon, so it’ll easily last till next summer. I used a dollar store spray bottle, and intend to thoroughly spray each plant — top and bottom of leaves — for the following seven days. It’s probably unnecessary, but I just really want to make sure I don’t bring any bugs into the house. I already have three boys. Bah rump bump!
I had already bought a plant stand earlier this spring, when I repotted them but didn’t move them outside just yet.
So here we are back in the house, after a second day of neem oil spraying. I’m rotating them during the seven-day spraying period, but I’m planning to buy a grow light, since there’s not a whole lot of light coming in my back patio sliding door this time of year. Got any recommendations?
Calamansi growing timeline
- 9/14/2015: I discover a calamansi tree near my work
- 9/29/2015: Germinate my first calamansi seeds
- 10/28/2015: My first calamansi seeds start sprouting in their starter pots
- 4/17/2016: Attempt another batch of calamansi seedlings after moving the first batch outside too soon.
- 12/31/2016: Two calamansi seedlings out of the April batch survive into winter.
- 2017: At some point, I attempt another batch of seedlings, and one survives — the one now spreading wide into three branches.
- 5/8/2018: Plants are repotted from seedling containers to ceramic pots.
- 11/1/2018: Calamansi plants move back in for the winter