Leo in N E Illinois
The Professor
- Messages
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- Reaction score
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- USDA Zone
- 5b
First, welcome to Bonsai Nut. And to a life long hobby. Do edit your profile to include your location for future posts.
Okay - I will work within the restrictions you outlined. Indoors, period. That is okay.
Looking at the view from your window, you have a large window there, with no obstructions. That window is brighter than most windows, because of its large size. You might do okay, or good enough with this window, without adding grow lights.
The moisture meter has me concerned, my concern is for accuracy. The most accurate moisture meter ever invented is the human finger. Just dig your finger in to at least bury your finger nail into the media. If it feels wet, don't water, cool and moist, - still don't water. When it feels just barely damp, it is time to water. If it feels bone dry, you should have watered yesterday. Each time you stick your finger into the mix, check your meter. See what the meter says. If the meter agrees across the range from wet to dry, then you can trust the meter. If the meter and your finger disagree - trust your finger, not the meter. Without spending thousands of dollars, moisture meters are notorious for being wildly inaccurate. Don't waste time on gadgets.
Each time you check the moisture with your finger, also pick up the pot. Note the weight of the pot. In very little time you will "calibrate" your sense of weight, a dry pot will be light, a wet pot will be heavy. Soon just picking up the edge of the pot, you will know just how wet or dry it is by weight alone.
Now - when you water, pick up the tree and walk it over to a sink, or even the slop sink in the janitor's closet, water by flooding the surface of the soil with water. Flood, then let drain in the sink, then flood again, let drain again. This repeat flooding makes sure there are no dry pockets of media in the pot. It also lets you observe your drainage. Once the tree has drained enough to not be dripping, Return it to the windowsill to grow. Just dribbling a little water into the pot while it is on the windowsill is a recipe for disaster, because bonsai media in particular, but many soils do not wick water around. so one side of the pot will be dry, the other might be wet. This is an unhealthy way to water. So always, pick up the tree, walk it to the sink, flood it with water, at least 2 or 3 times. Let drain. Return to the windowsill. Proper watering is key to success indoors.
If you can not bring the tree to a sink, bring a 3 gallon bucket of water to the tree. Dunk the pot into the water. Hold it while it drains, dunk again. Let drain. Return to the window. You can put a dilute dose of fertilizer into the bucket of water, and get your fertilizing done at the same time.
The single most important gadget you can buy is a fan. Yep, just a cheap 4 inch, to 9 inch fan, for less than $20, maybe less than $10 on sale. Set the fan either on the windowsill to one side or the other, and have it blow continuously 24/7 at your little tree. You can turn it so it just barely makes the leaves wave, but the leaves fluttering would be no problem. I have multiple fans in my grow areas, no matter where you look in the light garden, the leaves are waving at least gently. This will keep the air moving over the soil, getting air to move into your soil, the air across the leaves will cut down on insects like spider mites. The list of benefits are huge, just get a little fan, even a little one meant for cooling a laptop will work.
Last, those white dots on the undersides of your leaves. Take a good look, I think they are one of the many mite species (8 legs) or possibly leaf miners (6 legs). You need an insecticide, not a fungicide. There are many from the big box stores that will work. make sure you read the label. It must list that it is for indoor houseplants, and the label must say it is effective against mites and insects like thrips and leaf miners. The pesticide will be more effective if you turn the fan off. Spray, then turn the fan back on.
Notice, I haven't said anything about "doing bonsai", all of this is horticulture. Let's just keep this lemon growing for a year, before worrying about turning it into bonsai. If all goes well, you will have more branches to choose from when it does come time to turn this into bonsai.
