Here's the other tree .

Another I know u want pics

The other side of yard mandarin. Doing well..

If there is one thing a learned here about Meyer Lemon trees from John plus more, is that they are heavy feeders...

He's a pro on this one for in-ground Meyer trees and I am sure or at least hope he sees your request for help..:-)
He grows thousands of beautiful very fruitful trees..

Mike

Grass. Your grass is robbing your Meyer (which is much more demanding of N than many other citrus cultivars) of the needed Nitrogen. I understand you want to be organic, but you're just not giving your tree enough nitrogen. Ironite has essentially no Nitrogen - it is a micronutrient product, mainly iron. First, get rid of MUCH more grass from under your poor citrus trees. Make a very nice, large watering well under your trees, so that the water will pool out at the drip line and a bit beyond (so water doesn't pool up against the trunks of the trees). Put down a high quality fertilizer formulated for citrus. The NPK ratio should be close to 5-1-3. So, a 15-3-9 or close would be what you're after. Be sure it also has the full complement of micronutrients as well. Pick off your fruit - not NEARLY enough leaf canopy to support that fruit. Your poor trees can't do both right now - develop new leaves and support fruit. Citrus should be fertilized 4 times a year. Meyers require more fertilizer than other citrus cultivars I've found, as they are extremely prolific producers. So, I would increase your amount by about 25% to your Improved Meyer lemon. And lastly, we're heading into winter, so don't expect much leaf growth until temps warm back up. Your trees may not show much recovery until spring as well. So, patience if in order until about April :-)

Patty S.

Oh yes..Patty too is a very good one here... Very educational Patty..Thank you

Mike

This post was edited by meyermike_1micha on Wed, Dec 4, 13 at 18:55

Hey Thank you all very much. I dug out larger rings around them, pulled all the fruit was going to anyway last night was first frost. I checked Home Depot, Lowes, Ace Hardware and yanceys and none of them had anything close to those numbers. NPK. They offer afew that don't say what there using special formula. Any ideas? I only need enough for 3trees..

Try a better gardening center, and not your big box store. If you don't have one close by, usually Lowe's or Home Depot carries Vigoro Citrus & Avocado. That's not so bad, and I would put down a very light application now, as you don't want to promote a leaf flush during wintertime, and risk having it get nipped with a frost. Come February, you can then put down a healthy application, and again in April, and June, then the last one in late September. In end of May, if you have some nice young leaf flush, be sure to start treating for Citrus Leafminer (just search our forum, a gazillion posts on how to treat) and treat through October.

Patty S.

I can't add much to what Patty said, except that producing Meyers need an NPK formulation closer to 3-1-2, and a lot of it. Do you know what the pH of your soil and water are?

These trees look to be seriously underfed; and that may really be your whole problem. And not all citrus are the same; example your mandarin... while I would not categorize it as "doing well"; it is better than the others. If you know, or can find out the history of your soil before it became a subdivision, it might help. For example one of my tropical gardens used to be the headquarters of a big coffee farm; so the topsoil is compacted like brick from truck traffic and has layers of brick, cement, etc from the HQ buildings. If you tell us where you live, other than Central California, you might also get better advice from some local folks, or even from a Native Californian agriculturalist like me.

Im from the Bakerfield area so yes, do please let us know i may be able to help you out

I tested the water @6.5 I can't locate soil tester it really wasn't that good ,the tester that is but there r citrus farms all around us I'm between Gustine and Patterson. I see them use a lot of lime and a white power they cover the trees with, once a yr u drive by and theres.a good half mile of white covered lemons, oranges and Mardarins, they grow every thing around here behind us was a bean farmer now turned into fruit trees most around are converting to nuts or apricots. Some wine has showed but mostly nut and fruit thanks for all the help and support. I will go with one of those or right a high n and use my other garden frets to make up the rest.

Okay, I am guessing they are putting gypsum to improve the water percolation in the soil. Next time you are driving by a citrus grove and see someone there, stop and ask them what they are doing/using. CA farmers are almost always willing to help you. I know well the Gustine Patterson area; you can grow citrus there very well, which gets me back to your primary problem being you are just not feeding your trees. Another potential issue in that area is nematodes in the soil; check with your local garden center to see what you can use for that problem. I could tell you what I use on my field Meyers; but I doubt you can get it in California, unless you happen to be a certified applicator.

CentraCADad, did you say you added lime?

Lime actually increases the pH level. Are you sure you're seeing *lime* added to the soils by the citrus farmers in your area? Isn't the soil there already alkaline?

I'm wondering if the bigger issue is that you have alkaline soil and the tree can't take up the nutrients that are available. And adding lime probably didn't help.

I walked across the street and spoke w/ farmer there and he said our soil has more issues with clay, I use a compost that supposed to help breakdown the clay. I got a soil tester the one with the capsules and it read now 7-6ph now I've just added frets so I tested an area a few feet away@6.since 2days of frost and rain the leaves r starting to curl inwards around the edges. I think I've done what I can so far but looking into citrus fert they had low N except tree & shrubs, couldn't find high N alone unless it was a grass fert so I went with citrus avacodo @ 15-4-6 add that to 5-1-1 fish emulsion I already used a month & a half ago and another the other day. So I pretty sure I need to wait to spring and hope for a lot of new leave growth. I thank everyone for their help. W/small section of side yard we grow tomatoes but I turned the soil added potting soil and compost to the already clay area but they've done well mant times what else can I do? The clay seems to wash down and form another clay layer. I've added minerals to the soil as well!,,

The "white stuff" that you thought was lime is actually gypsum; it helps to improve the water uptake and retention in clay soils; the other problem you have in your area is salt in the ground water. If you are irrigating with well water, you may have a problem with that.