Improved Meyer Lemon losing leaves

10 years ago

I purchased a 4-5 year old improved meyer lemon tree from fastgrowingtrees.com in mid-August. It arrived looking pretty good, although it had lost a good number of leaves on the journey. I re-potted it in a mix of the recommended "citrus" soil purchased from the grower and miracle grow cactus, palm, and citrus soil from home depot in a 13-inch plastic pot. I did not put any rocks in the bottom for drainage, and I have not fertilized it since receiving it. It sits in a south-facing window in my house and I've been watering it only when it seems dry, maybe once a week. I've had this grow light on it for 10 hours a day:
http://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-FLT24-2-Feet-4-Tube-Commercial/dp/B002JQBQZQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1380232389&sr=8-1&keywords=Hydrofarm+FLT24+2-Feet%2F4-Tube+T5+Commercial+System+with+Bulbs
I came back from a 2 week trip (wherein the light was on a timer and a friend was looking after our plants--I suspect she may have been over zealous in her watering) and the tree was dropping leaves like crazy. Many of the leaves are covered in the yellow spots shown in the photos. I decided those must be the result of spider mites and sprayed every leaf, front and back carefully with dish-soapy water. That seemed to slow the leaves from dropping for a few days, but it's now picking up again. Some branches are completely bare now and others have new growth (shown in photo). Over the last couple of days, I've started misting the leaves (not the soil) with water, and the new ones especially seem to like that.
What should I do? I'm pretty worried about it and I have no prior experience with citrus, so it's tough to figure out how to help it.

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (2)

Andrew Scott
10 years ago
I suspect your soil mix is WAY TOO HEAVY!!! In general, I would NEVER recommend anyone to buy a prepackaged citrus soil mix!!!! Now maybe because the nursery carries it may be okay but I am still skeptical,especially when you said you only water once a week. If it is growing in a healthy mix for the tree, which means a porous mix that rapidly drains the water after you have watered it, should need watering 2-3 times a week.

Could you post a picture of you tree's soil? I have a feeling this is you major issue. 4-5 years ago, I bought a moro blood orange, and I believe a meyer lemon or a tangerine. Anyhow, I bought Miracle Grow cacti and citrs mix. I potted them up, and put them under my grow light. Within a week, they completely defoliated. Within two weeks, tangerine was dead, and blood orange was barely hanging on. When I knocked them out of there pots, I could smell the dank, rotting roots. Citrus are OVERLY sensitive to wet feet. In the citrus belt, the combo of sun and heat helps to dry out there soils but for people that don't live in sub tropical/tropical regions, it is imperative to have soil that drains efficiently.

I don't want to go into all the specifics on making mixes but if you search on this site for Al's gritty mix or Al's 5.1.1 mix, it will show you how to make it and also explain why it works so well. Some people, myself included, have had difficulty finding all the components to make it, and I had to substitute certain components for other things. The bottom line is this. Whatever you end up with, when you water, you want to see water flowing out of the drainage hole within seconds of watering! Also, make sure you have a pot with adequate drainage holes(One large hole in the center is okay but personally I prefer several holes. When you have your tree indoors, if you have to we a coaster to collect the draining water, empty it right away. You do not want that water sitting there!

It took me a year or two to be able to understand what makes citrus trees tick. I won't tell you that I am an expert because I am sure there are still things I could be doing better, and I also know that I will always learn more from reading books, and from learning from everyone here, but in my opinion, it's all part of the fun!

I am sorry I couldn't fully diagnose your problem here but I feel confident that once Meyer Mike, Patty, John or any of the others read your post, they will be able to help you out.

One last thing. I was curious about the height of your tree, and did you think the growers price was fair? Not that I am on the market for ordering anymore citrus. I have enough right now.....well?!?!?!

Andrew
johnmerr
10 years ago
Your plant is suffering from transplant shock and from significant change in light conditions.
When you dramatically change the light conditions a Meyer will drop most, if not all its leaves, to replace them later with leaves better suited to the new light conditions. To move a Meyer from outside to inside without the leaf loss, you need to move it from full sun to partial sun for 2 weeks; then to full shade for 2 weeks; then indoors; reverse the process when putting it out in the Spring... and please DO put it out, if you can; you will be rewarded with a happy, healthy plant.
Second, when you bring it indoors to a sunny window, the plant gets warm; but the roots generally stay cool; and citrus roots don't like to grow into cool soil... the solution is to put some sort of heater to warm the soil, or to put the plant a little further from the window. The thing to remember is first the roots grow; and then the leaves and branches.
Related Discussions
Improved Meyer Lemon tree losing all of it's leaves
Q
Comments (2)
How is your drainage? Is the soil staying soggy? Don't fertilze it yet; repot it in some African violet soil mixed with course sand and just a little nitrogen and Phosphorous 1-0-1 and a little chelated iron-half-strength, and trim any diseased roots. Trim the blooms; the blooms take away energy needed for recovery. Keep it a semi-shaded location out of the rain and cold. Water just to keep the soil damp as a sponge. Trim as much top growth as you do roots. Don't fertilize again until you see vast improvement, then use a good citrus fertilizer and gradually acclimate it to full sun. Good luck
...See More
Sticky Leaves, But No "Bugs" on Improved Meyer Lemon
Q
Comments (9)
Yes, thanks for your suggestion, I am familiar with what scale looks like. And I just got out the flashlight and magnifying glass again to examine one more time. The leaves look as is they have been misted with sugar syrup. Unless the scale is microscopic, I don't think they are there. I've examined the bark and leaf axils carefully. Since they (scale) don't move really fast I can't see how they could completely pepper some leaves and not others. I'm going to take her to the shower and see what happens over the next few days.
...See More
Help With Improved Meyers Lemon! Dropping Leaves and Blooms
Q
Comments (6)
Hi SeanPez, Are you sure that you're getting enough water to the roots? I'm not familiar with a deep root irrigator and its rate of water flow, but a couple minutes once/week sounds awefully small given what a dry winter we've had this year in CA. Also, did you apply fertilizer at all since planting, or were you hoping to do that during the coming growing season? What fertilizer will you be using and how frequently? Just to give you some idea for comparison, here in SF (where we generally get more winter rains than you guys - though maybe not this year!), the first year I planted my in-ground IML I was applying 5 gal 2x/week by hand. Then the next year, I decreased to 5 gal/week, and the 3rd year (this year) plan to do 5 gal every 2 weeks, with the eventual goal of 5 gal every 4 weeks. Remember, citrus like a DEEP watering with rest in between. My fertilizing regimen is GreenAll Citrus & Avocado fertilizer (which has all necessary micronutrients of Fe, Mg, Mn, etc.) 3 times per year, during Feb., May, and Sept. according to box instructions. During the IMLs' 1st year in the ground, I also applied Miracle Gro's Rhododendron, Camellia, Azalea (liquid) fertilizer every 2 weeks, since citrus are very heavy feeders. BTW, I also noticed that you don't have mulch around your tree. Given So CA's dry conditions, I would suggest doing so; but keep the mulch (2-3 inches thick) at least 6 inches away from the bark. Tim
...See More
Meyer lemon tree losing leaves help !
Q
Comments (4)
Well, you have probably made some of the classic Meyer lemon errors. First, when you dramatically change the light conditions a Meyer will drop most, if not all its leaves, to replace them later with leaves better suited to the new light conditions. To move a Meyer from outside to inside without the leaf loss, you need to move it from full sun to partial sun for 2 weeks; then to full shade for 2 weeks; then indoors; reverse the process when putting it out in the Spring... and please DO put it out, if you can; you will be rewarded with a happy, healthy plant. Second, when you bring it indoors to a sunny window, the plant gets warm; but the roots generally stay cool; and citrus roots don't like to grow into cool soil... the solution is to put some sort of heater to warm the soil, or to put the plant a little further from the window. The thing to remember is first the roots grow; and then the leaves and branches. Now to your current situation... the plant is stressed and "thinks" it is going to die, so it will try to make seeds (fruit). If you take off the flowers, the tree will only make more; so wait until the flowers drop and then take off all the fruit; soon after that, if you treat it well, it will start to make new leaves... and then you should start to feed it. Have patience.
...See More

Improved Meyer Lemon losing leaves

Comments (2)

Andrew Scott

johnmerr

Related Discussions

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US