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California Gardening

Citrus leaf miner, help!

16 years ago

This nasty thing is on my lemon, lime and orange trees. The trees are young dwarf varieties in large pots on my back patio. First saw leaf miner last year. I tried every product my local Armstrong sells, first the organic stuff and then anything as I got more desperate to save my mini orchard. Nothing really worked. I now go out daily and cut off the infected leaves to stop the spread! My trees are alive but not growing as all the new leaves are getting infected. I need a new plan of attack. Does anything stop this??

Michele

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Comments (4)

jean001
16 years ago
Here's some information from the University of California.

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r107303211.html

Here is a link that might be useful: management of citrus leafminer
skrip
16 years ago
I had the same problem last year. This is what I did:

Waited for spring when the new growth is developing. I think it was around May. Usually there aren't really leafminers yet. But I sprayed the tree with a product called ORGANICIDE that I bought from Lowe's. It is supposedly safe for fruits and citrus. I sprayed alot of the new growth and it worked. No leafminers. But you will ALSO have to spray sometime in the summer, around July. If you wait til August, the leafminers seem to come out during this time and it will affect more new growth. The good thing is all the new growth you sprayed in the spring will become older and not affected. SO at least you wont lose so much of it. The key is to have unaffected older growth. Leafminers only like new growth. They don't touch the older leaves.

For now all you can do is cut the infected leaves, or just leave it and wait til spring.
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I support the do nothing approach. Any treatments are short-term and generally only effective after damage is detected. Most pests are attracted to flushes of growth. On fruiting trees this is most prominent on water sprouts (non-fruiting). Remove the water sprouts and any vigorous growth located blow the graft union (undesirable fruit any way). Limit pruning to once per year and leave damaged leaves in place since still feeding the tree. Avoid excess nitrogen fertilization which contributes to the flush. Select companion plants that host beneficial insects. Review the soil analysis to ensure balance and that there is suitable availability of micro and trace nutrients. Good luck.
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Budd, can you post a pic here, too? Do you see LM'ers on leaves? If so, can you send me a pic of one..I've never seen lr'ers, not even in plant books..I'm sure one of my books have a description, but honestly I haven't looked hard. What type of damage do they do to the leaves? How big are they? What color? What indicates they exist? Thanks, Toni
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Perhpas the folks on the Citrus Forum would be of help. It's at http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/citrus/ Here is a link that might be useful: Citrus Forum
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Comments (12)
Steve, thanks for the encouragement. I guess it is just pride, as I know the experts suggest leaving them alone if not severe- which it is not. I truly prefer to use as few chemicals as possible because I want to eat these blasted fruit! They have been my pride and joy in my front dooryard, so I notice every little critter and am frustrated that these clm are tiny little guys that are so small I can't seem to do much about them! I'm going to try the neem oil in the soil that Hobby suggested. I got my two meyers trees from an internet supplier and they were unblemished for months, so I felt I had escaped it. I notice that almost every lemon at the local nursery has citrus leaf miner already! (asia is the hotbed for it). So when I buy any more, I am definitely going back to the internet supplier, so I don't introduce more to my garden. On another note, I repotted my lime tree, with 4 nearly ripe limes on it, and I was so happy with how the 5-1-1 soil released without a struggle. And, I found a pot full of white, healthy roots! What a welcomed relief. I had suspected it was making roots because it had not had any new leaves or shoots until just this month. Thanks so much for all the help I've received from you and all the folks on the forum. Getting through my first citrus year has been suspenseful but full of joy, too! Couldn't have done it without the team here. Now if only I can get them through the winter months outdoors . . . .
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jean001
16 years ago
It was said:
"For now all you can do is cut the infected leaves"

Please note that the blurb the University of California suggests this:
"Do not prune off leaves damaged by citrus leafminer because undamaged areas of the leaves continue to produce food for the tree."

Retaining the leaves will be important for young trees and those with relatively few leaves.
skrip
16 years ago
My trees are older so the majority of the leaves are not infected, so if I take some of the infected leaves off, they are not a problem. I pretty much leave them though, it's mostly cosmetic if I do it.

I wasn't sure if michele's trees were young or old. But it seems like she was doing that anyway.

Interesting though, good for people to know that.

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