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Dwarf Meyers Lemon Tree Needs Help!

14 years ago

Greetings,

This is my first time on this forum, and I guess my first real attempt at having plants. So I bought two dwarf meyers lemon trees, with Monrovia tags on them. I live here in Tucson Arizona. I read in several places that these trees require deep watering once or twice a week. What I noticed was the leaves started curling and the soil was getting a little dry. So I called the nursery where I bought them from and they let me know that they were watering the trees once every other day halfway to the top with water.

So I have started doing that, and now several of the leaves are turning yellow and falling off. Also, several of the leaves have brown tips towards the base. I think that was because they were drying out?

Does anyone have any suggestions for my Meyers Lemon Trees? I took some pictures but I dont know how to post them on here. The Lemon Trees are about 3 feet tall, once of them has two lemons on it and they are in plastic pots. They sit outside on my sidewalk, get shade until around noon and then get plenty of Tucson sun. When I water them, they start draining out the bottom almost immediately.

Hope thats enough info!

Thanks,

Mark

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Comments (2)

fofoca
14 years ago
Mark, I suggest you delve deeper. The fact that you say they drain water out of the bottom almost immediately makes me wonder if the water is just going around the root ball and not really penetrating.

The leaves turning yellow could even be a sign of overwatering.

With your original method, you say the soil got a little dry between waterings, but this is just what is recommended for citrus. They don't like to be continuously wet.

I think it would be helpful to remove the trees from the pots briefly, trying not to disturb the roots too much, and try to see what the soil is like in there. Is it dry as a bone in the center? Is it soggy wet? Are the roots white and healthy or brown and dead? Sniff it for rotten smells. Then you'll have more data to go on.

Let us know what you find!
meyermike_1micha
14 years ago
Also the fact that the water is draining so quickly could mean that there is already too much water in the soil to begin with....

The way they were watering is the worst for any plant!!

Other than this, fofoca has what you needed to hear.

Always check the roots first before you do anything to make sure that they are healthy. That will take a HUGE amount of guess work out of solving your problem...:-)

Welcome by the way!It is always a pleasure to someone here...You will learn so much here from so many kind hearted people!
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