firstly you are in all likeliness watering waaaaaay to much. daily? far too much. maybe too much with the fertilizer too. dont always trust the water meters - the chemicals in fertilizer can throw them off so they cant always be trusted. i use a meter, but my finger also. you will be able to tell if it is dry or wet by sticking your finger 2 or 3 inches down and checking how damp it is. unless you live in a very very hot area, i think you may be over watering. maybe cut back on the fertilizer too, with the days starting to get shorter.

to my knowledge, citrus dont drop leaves to make room for flowers. the flowers will just grow somewhere else. i would check the roots personally. if they are rotting from too much water, the tree will drop its leaves and shoot out flowers in a last ditch effort to spread its dna and continue the line. roots should be clean and a light browny-beige creamy colour, not dark and mushy.

have you recently repotted? can you say what type of potting mix it is in? if the roots are in poor condition, let the soil dry out, and withhold from fertilizing for a while. others may be able to suggest more detailed instructions for root rot if that is the culprit.

mist the leaves daily to help keep humidity up - it may not be near heat but the air in houses is often dry! i always mist mine and they really seem to appreciate it!

has the plant moved recently, from another part of the house or from outdoor to indoor? a change in environment can cause citrus to drop leaves. it may also be as simple as dropping leaves because of shorter days and winter approaching - how cool is the room its in?

really do check the roots and re-address your watering methods. citrus should be left to dry out quite a bit without stressing the plant before watering again, and that should be a good, full drink they get with water coming out of the bottom of the pot and all of the potting mix being saturated.

what type of pot is it in? i keep all of mine in terracotta - its not hot in england, and if they go in plastic the potting mix stays wet too long!

i hope some of this helps, and i really hope everything turns out ok. i have two calamondins and theyre a couple of my favourites :) post a pic if you can, always nice to see plants :)

dan

How large is the plant and what size pot, did you repot it after buying?, do you use any fertiliser?

Strange question.... bought from ebay in june, it wasnt packed in a box full of shredded paper was it?

Is it just now its started? , if so its probably just winter leaf drop due to the cold

Dont believe the water meter! , i used one at one time and plants were ill, i still use it every now and then to poke into the center of a pot to see the difference between the top, bottom and middle, you need to let the top 2 or 3 inches turn very very dry before soaking no matter what the meter shows

Most calamondins seem to be potted in clay/sand when bought,generaly in a pot that is too small, this can meke it rootbound due to needing repotting, but worse the hard sand/clay can not be tested to show how wet it is as it is too hard,also the water meter does not pick up the moisture in it well either

Kaz, daily watering isn't a good idea. Instead, give a hearty drink, until water runs through drainage holes. When watering, do so in a circular motion, wetting all sides.

Weekly feeding? Do you use full strength, or divide by four? Which fertilizer do you use? Chemical or organic?
Too much and roots will burn, especially with checmical types.

Some leaf drop is normal this time of year, but foliage isn't falling for the sake of flowers. Flowers/fruit forms on healthy growth/branches.

Was your Calamondin indoors during summer, or did you recently bring it inside?

Withhold fertilizer until spring, and change watering pattern.
If possible, place tree in the shower or sink and spray..Remove damanged leaves. Shake the tree to dislodge lose foliage. Last, inspect for insects.
Everyone has their own way of caring for plants..I'm a firm believer in daily misting. Give it a try.

It was a good idea setting your tree away from heat. If your house is dry, buy a humidifer. If possible, run a rotating fan a few hours per day. If outside temperature is warm, keep a window opened.
Good luck, Toni

Hi everybody,
thank you to all of you for answering so quick...ive printed it all off for reference. firstly an update on the situation...in the last 37hrs ive only had a few leaves come off which is hopefully good news.

when i got the tree it was absolutely jam packed with leaves so it still has a good amount of leaves on it. i have checked the roots and they were a yellowy orangy sort of colour but not dark and i dont think they were mushy. while checking the roots i decided to put it in a new bigger pot as i didnt repot it when i got it, the pot was a small pot and i noticed roots starting to come out of the top of the soil which had already made me think is it big enough. i dont know what it was potted in but i dont think it was clay based it seemed to be soily. it is now in homebase organic compost which seems to be ok with my other citrus trees. on changing the soil was very wet deep down however i had given it a real good soaking before the replys so this could just be due that hopefully but hopefully the compost will now be dryer.

its now in a 3lt pot and the tree is approx 12inch high and 10-12inch wide. the original pot was only about 5inches across

i have noticed this week that the temperature has now really changed and we had the heating on a few nights ago so hopefully this maybe triggered it off...i shall now keep a spray by it and if needbe move it to a cooler room.the tree has always been indoors and in the same position however i dont know where it was kept before i had it so im even wondering when the leaves became loose and whether they had been sitting loose for a while being held in by the fact that the leaves were tightly packed.

i was using chempak citrus summer but i have recently given it its last feed of that as it will now be on a winter citrus feed. this was mixed according to instructions and used over more than 1 plant. since the demise of summer i have actually been trying to water less but then i decided to check with the water meter which then made me think oh no im not watering enough. in future i shall give a really good water and then leave for longer to dry out.

no it wasnt packed in a box of shredded paper and i think it was someone selling a one off rather than someone selling loads.

well fingers crossed that i havent started to kill it!!

Kaz

i might be a little wary over the pot size. in general only pot up one or two sizes from the original container, and a jump from 5inches to 10inches may be a little large. only my opinion though, some people get away with potting much larger. i know some think they are doing the plant a favour by giving it more room but this isnt really the case with citrus.

what kind of potting mix is this one that its in? is it all compost? or does it have bark/perlite/sand in it? it is extremely important that it isnt just soil or peat. it needs plenty of drainage aids, so bark and perlite would be great. i use 1 part ericaceous acidic compost, one part perlite, 3 parts bark chips. they drainage is fantastic! you dont want the soil getting waterlogged if it lacks the bark or perlite or other materials, and this may be a concern if the pot is a little large also.

i know what you mean about roots popping out of the top. many citrus i have bought are in that condition, and are housed in woefully inadequate pots!

keep the humidity up. i mist mine several times a day, but with winter coming im going to get some gravel trays. ever heard of superthrive? i am experimenting with it at the moment to see how effective it is, but i know a lot of people who love it. its not a fertilizer. its a blend of vitamins and hormones that is particularly good for stressed, or freshly repotted, plants. again, just an option, it has good and bad reviews! if used properly, it wont hurt your plant even if you dont think it works, but if it does it would be great :) and can be used with every watering, unlike some fertilizers :)

im sure once everything is settled it will be fine. citrus tend to be fickle sometimes, but they seem to have an alarming ability to bounce back! have read a lot of stories when people were just about to give up hope and throw them away then they burst into life again. Just make sure the mix is ok and the pot isnt too big :)

The compost appears to have loads of bits in it and seems to drain quite well on my other plants-i also added some stones to the bottom of the pot which i had done with my others which i noticed hadnt been done with the original pot. as for the pot size it appeared to be the correct size for fitting the roots in and allowing for compost around them-i may have got the sizes wrong as i didnt measure them it was a guess. anyway still no more leaf drop so hopefully the panic will be over.

just been and measured the pots-the original says 15cm on it and the new pot is 19cm/3 lts, i dont know how many litres the original is.

cool thats a good size to repot in to. however, the theory that stones in the bottom of the pot help drainage is a myth, and they can inhibit drainage quite a bit. if they're necessary for stability in windy weather it might be ok (though most just place the smaller pot into a bigger one) so just keep a watch on the moisture levels :)

glad the leaves have stopped falling. if you're like me you will spend so much time watching over the plant when its a little under the weather that when new leaves begin to form you feel genuine excitement. sad, i know lol

you are so right...ive been watching all my plants like a hawk. funny thing is there is probably still more leaves on this plant than my lemon which hasnt lost any leaves!! 2 more leaves were off this morning and i then gently agitated leaves with my fingers to see if any more were loose which resulted in about 10 more coming off but these looked less healthy than the remaining leaves which appeared to be fine so im hoping no more will come off now! still it has probably got more leaves than my lemon tree so although to me it appears to have lost a lot in actual terms of % its probably not as much as it seems especially if leaves have come loose over a long time but then have been held in place by splinting from other leaves. i would imagine that when it was posted out some leaves must have been ready to drop from that. fingers crossed!!

Kaz, do you know how to convert cm's to inches?
Also, you mentioned liters. Isn't liters for volumn? I'm totally confused what volumn has to do with size of pot. lol
I think 15 cm's equal about 6", right? If that number is correct, what is 19 cm's in inches? lol..sorry.
Aesir mentioned 5-10".
5-10" is quite an increase, but considering your tree is a foot/12", if there's not too much space between rootball and inside of pot, and if you're using well-draining soil, it should do fine.

Shake Calamondin to release loose foliage. Might as well toss detached leaves. If several fall, so be it. But if by chance more leaves drop, you'll know they haven't been spliinted by neighboring leaves. It's better knowing than wondering.

Keep watch, but don't pamper..remember, too much TLC works against a plants health..like overwatering.
Ever read threads from people who buy a plant, the plant either loses leaves or looks sad, so they add a ton of water or worse, fertilizer! plant dies, the end. Toni

hi toni. the 5inches to 10inches was just an example of how bad it would be to jump to too big a pot size. 15cm is 6 inches, and 19cm is about 7 1/2 inches. i think some people work with volume because it indicates the space inside the pot to show how big it is, both in width and depth.

you're right about the tlc lol. and the over-watering! what i find even more disturbing is that some people go back to the nursery for help when their tree isnt doing so great, which should be a good thing to do, but the nursery say water, more water! water every day! its unbelievable! the nursery employees who give such bad advice should be trained better lol.

aesir is right 19cm is about 7.5 inches. 3lt's is just what the pot says...when i bought some pots of this size i noticed that of course you can get different depths aswell as widths so i guess this just shows how much volume it holds in total.
Kaz

3L sounds right for that size, i would have gone for 5L and very good drainage compost or chc ,
you need to be sure the pot has good drainage on the bottom, its usualy best to add extra holes around the bottom edges on the outside edges of the pot so that the drainage holes are not trapped underneath and air can get to the compost

with pots its best to use volume as the volume is more important than the width, its the volume of compost that prevents it drying out well,
a wide pot is better than a narrow one of the same volume, due to the air contact with the compost it can dry out more evenly throughout and most cirus only need shallow pots

Kaz, have you ever seen Azalea pots? Azalea pots are shorter, and come in various widths. They're sold in clay and plastic. Toni

Hi Toni, i havent seen azalea pots...i looked on ebay to see if i could see any but no luck. anyway had no more than 1 leaf per day come off and keeping an eye out to know exactly how many and how often. been misting it regularly aswell and have been keeping an eye on the room temmperature to ensure it stays under 20C & got a bowl of water on the rad and on the windowsil. I bought a satsuma tree on ebay just before the issue with this which i started to wonder had i done the right thing if i have started to kill the ones ive got already but however when i picked it up from the guy who has grown them for 15yrs he demonstrated when to water by showing how dry the soil should get and showed the leaves drooping and the fruit softening so now i have a visual idea of when to water, so if the worst comes to the worst i shall just start again!!