Ok..First of all, the curse of the lemon meyer!! But have no fear, you can prevail! Immediately, I mean immediately, I would get that plant out of the soil ASAP.... That soil your using, has been the DEATH of all mine when I first began. It holds way too much water, a perched water table which citrus HATE in our growing regions, no matter what the product claims, and it holds way to much residue fertilizer salts that can turn leaf tips brown. Your roots should look a healthy white. Take a peak while you are add it, if not, it is killing your tree fast. Therefore the branches dying..Root rot kills the branches, but first the leaves drop, usually green and or yellow..The leafs drop green if under watered and root damaged has taken hold.. Is there a way you can STRAIN out all the peat moss in that soilless mix you bought? Please let me know..I will give you a great idea? Do you have quick access to good nursery mix? You live in Ohio? You need to keep your tree on the dry side with such a lack of sunlight, and make sure it absolutely needs watering before you do it again.. Let us leave it at here, until you change the soil..Nothing else is going to help it, until you first take this step. That soilless mix is junk! Sorry..:-( Let me know when you have done the first step, and or if you want too.. I will then guide you from there..You NEED to put that plant in a FAST draining soilless mix, that dries out rather rapidly. One that is porous and provides great gas exchange after each watering. One that allows the salts to flush out at each watering. One that allows you to feed at every watering. One that provides oxygen and does not suffocate the roots..Does not take too long to dry out, or compact:-) There might still be hope. How much sun does it get? How are the temps? What size, kind of pot is it in? How long has it been taking the soil mix to dry out? What kind of water do you provide it with? Do you use vinager? What kind of analysis, or how high is the ph of your water? What are your cultural habits in detail.. Mike

Dear Sara, Though I have only had my fruit tree for a few months, I have experienced the joy and disappointment on care for .......a PLANT! Don't know why, but want this one to do well. I too had this sticky white stuff. Here in Seattle, I keep my plant 50% of the time indoors, and 50% out on my southern exposed deck. After reading and inspection, I have discovered that my plant has scale, a type of bug infestation that can present. These insects are very small (my the size of a small bead) and they feed off the plant. They look like small pill (potato) bugs and move very slowly. Subsequently, their poo is the white, sticky substance that is deposited on the stems and undersides of leaves. I read this material can attract other insects (ants) but is not toxic for pets. I was able to catch it early, and washed the plant well. Then, I sprayed it with a combination of Neem oil and diswashing liquid solution (you can buy various preparations) and after a couple of days, washed again. Upon further inspection, I only saw 1 bug that I happily squished!! Must periodically inspect and occasionally wash. I don't know if that is what you're experiencing, but if so, it is much easier to treat when infestation is new (vs established). Good Luck!!

I look at it this way in simpler terms of course..... I am brain dead and bored, so here it goes..lol I if don't make sense, pardon me. If I can't or do not know how to grow anything in a pot with a Perched Water Table, which I mostly do not, then I won't use a soil that encourages it. Using bottom stones, or even water proof packing peanuts which don't weigh the pot down never helped me. By the way, if your determined to use bottom material, this is the way to go. No more heavy pots.:-) I have killed a many plants in the past this way. The bottom roots being wet ,stuck in that PWT above the stones, never drying out while the top half of the roots keep getting watered because I keep watering the top of soil that is bone dry. My roots can be thirsting for water even 4 inches down into my pots from the top, while the bottom half of the roots are in that PWT portion staying wet, never drying out. And rocks on the bottom of any pot does not get rid of that PWT. It just makes it higher. The Perched Water Table depending on the soil you use will be there, and maybe not if you use a wick or a fast draining soil. Of course this is not a concern to me in any pot smaller than 6 inches... They dry out fast, especially if they are in clay. I typically use something other than the gritty soil for these. But when I move up to a bigger pot, I am not willing to take the risk of root rot. Some people here can grown plants in any size pot with a PWT and have sucess. Some in 30 gallon barrels! I am not one of those..:-( This is why I use A'ls gritty mix minus the fines that could settle down at the bottom of pot and stay wet while the top of the soil gets dry. Bonsai have very shallow roots, therefore grown in shallow pots, and this is how a many of my friends including myself have killed our Bonsai. You can have a PWT in soil as deep as one inch. We can't afford to have a PWT at all in such shallow pots! On this we take NO chances. I can not afford to have a PWT also in big sized pots for regular plants. Since they and I changed to Al's gritty mix, we have been sucessful, with no Perched Water Table and bottom root rot, even in rainy everday weather if pots are left out all summer. We just have to water more often when because the soil dries out quicker. :-) Jean, I have done the same thing to most of my pots, especially the ones my Clivias are in. They are thriving!! I even drill bigger holes at the bottom of my plastic ones and hammer out a huge circle hole on the bottom of my clay ones, then use screen to stop the soil from falling through. I can only imagine the roots breathing all that air from the bottom!lol,and the water exchange because of this.:-) I love that Container Soils thread, at least what I can understand of it! One thing I did learn, I never knew what a PWT was until I read that thread. That was the culprit to the death of all my plants! Thanks for that thread Al! Thanks for all the great info everyone! Take care all! Mike

First, Meyer lemon would not be used as rootstock by a commercial grower, so was this tree top-grafted by the previous homeowner? If not, then I suspect the "bitter oranges" you had were actually rootstock that has overtaken the tree. You need to know what branches were each cultivar, and mark them. Photos of your tree would help us determine the health of your tree. Also, photos of the various branches and the leaves will also help us determine if you've got rootstock overgrowth or not, as most likely, the rootstock is some sort of trifoliate rootstock ("leaves of three" a dead giveaway). If so, you'll want to prune out any of the rootstock that has taken over, to allow any surviving grafter cultivars to recover and bloom. Citrus for the most part (except lemons), tend to bloom late winter into spring, then produce fruit starting in early winter through summer (depending on the cultivar, again.) Photos would go a long way for us to help you here. Patty S.