Miniature orange bonsai

Hello, i have a minature orange bonsai that i repotted this past summer in a mix of peat, processed river stone, and large grit turface and the tips of the new growth is drooping. I water and it does not help. I dont know if im watering too much or not enough or if it doesnt like the soil mix its in or what. Theres no yellowing or spotting of the leaves, no leaves are falling off either. Its showing no other signs of distress other than the tips of the new growth are sagging or drooping wich ever you prefer. I use a slow release fertilizer cake i make myself but i doubt that is the problem because i use them on all my bonsai, prebonsai, nursery stock, and even house plants with no ill effects. Its only the new growth too, it didnt do it when i got it but is doing it now. It didnt even do it as a result of repotting. It just happened not long ago. It happened a couple other times but it straightened back out but now its staying this way. I will try to get a picture posted by tomorrow. Oh yeah before i forget there are no insects or fungus either that i can see. Does anyone have exsperiance with miniature orange trees? It may possibly be a calamondin miniature orange. Its has dark green leaves shaped kinda like a ficus leaf with new growth being lighter almost a lime green and the bark is striped in verticle stripes. I always say it looks almost tiger striped. The bark color is dark brown or brown with appears to be tan or light brown verticle striping. The leaves are slender oval shape with pointed tips about 2 inches long or so on the bigest leaves. Like i said they look almost like a ficus leaf but they v in, in the middle. Like it has a crease up the center of the leaf and then the sides v upward slightly. Its too nice of a tree and too old to just ignore. Can someone help me please? Thank you everyone whom may try to help! Jake

P.s. It gets alot of indirect sunlight through a window and i also suplement with floresant lighting once the sun goes down early in the evening until about 9 pm. Thats when the sun sets here in the summer. So i believe its getting plenty of light. I dont understand its ailment!

Since Oranges tend to be thirsty trees, especially the little guys, I wonder if your having a root issue. And as you say the flagging does not respond to further watering. Might pay to lift the tree and take a look at the roots look for rot, bugs nibbling root tips??
-Jay

I'm sure one of the Sunshine boys will know better.

I know little or nothing about Citrus, but the lighting you describe isn't sufficient for much of anything indoors. That supplemental light needs to be on for 12-13 hours a day!

In Ohio, you undoubtedly have central heating on full blast this time of year. Is your tree sitting anywhere within range of a heater vent? The air indoors is likely to be very dry because of central heating. A humidifier close by the plant might help. Misting or a drip tray do nothing, so don't bother.

You should find out exactly what you have. I have grown Calamondin in the past. It is not a particularly good bonsai candidate, although it makes a jolly indoor tree. If you want a true miniature orange bonsai, you need a Chinotto, which you can get from Meehan's Miniatures.
How big is your tree? If you can get the whole tree into a plastic bag, that will tell you if it is a humidity problem. I suspect it may be a root problem from a soggy potting mix. Citrus trees usually survive low humidity in the house in Northern winters, but they need full sun from a south window. Otherwise you need a fluorescent light (2 tube 40 W) right on top of the tree 18 hours a day.
Iris

Too little light, too much water, root rot, dead

Hi Jake, I have some Hong Kong Kumquats and Chinotto Oranges that I'm growing from seed. This fall I allowed them to chill pretty well outdoors before I brought them in for the winter, in fact they got frosted a few times, but never frozen. I set them in a west window in the heated portion of the house and they were not too happy there even with some added lighting. After a few weeks I moved them to a south window in a room that is much cooler in the winter, it's the furtherest from the heating unit at the end of the trunkline, so it stays around 60F in there most of the winter. They are very happy in there, even without any added lights. Your soil sounds a bit heavy for citrus. I use about a 60/40 mix, organic/grit, and I let them dry pretty well between watering to give the roots a chance to breathe, but water well when I do water. One of my chinottos took the cold pretty hard and lost all its foliage, but the trunk is still green at the base and the roots are still white so I'm hoping this spring it will put out some new shoots.

Hi all, Thanks everyone for input! It gets plenty of light. What i meant to say was that i leave the artificial lights on 16 hours a day but the sun goes down alot eirlier this time of year so once the sun goes down about 6pm the lights take over as a main supply of light until about 930 at night. Plus its in a south facing window that gets alot of direct sunlight through the window. I do use a humidifyer but i also had a tray under it until the other night when i read that hunidity does not affect citrus trees at all for the good or bad. I switched the mix to 2 parts turface, one part granite, and one part pine bark fines. Its may have been the peat in the last mix it was in because when i took it out of the pot it seemed pretty damp. so well see if that was it or not. With that peat mix i couldnt tell if it was too wet or not damp enough because of the turface and the pinebark that was on top and the peat sunk to the bottom. Fred from miami tropical bonsai said he used to grow calamondin oranges and he said i should get good growth of roots as long as i keep this mix damp enough. The tree is about 3 feet tall and has about a two and a half inch trunk or so on it. Other than the new growth drooping its in good health. Im hoping it was just a dampness issue with that other mix. Peat is causing me all kinds of problems so needless to say i wont be using it anymore except for with my large nursery stock. Ive found that peat in a small pot gets watered way too much exspecially in summer and begins to break down as fast as in the first season. Once it breaks down into powder wich only takes a couple season in a bonsai pot it gets too dense and stays way too wet and causes root rot wich is what looks like happened with the orange tree. I couldnt see any visual rot but i know there wasnt any new root growth either since the last repot. Again thanks all, the info always helps and brings things to a new light! Jake