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Cornucopia - Australia

Dying (?dead) lemon

21 years ago

My previously healthy and abundant 8 year old eureka lemon looks very poorly. I noticed some curled leaves some months back but failed to scrape away some mulch which would have shown me none of the water I was giving it was getting through. I've now cut all the fruit off (some had started to shrivel) but now all the leaves are looking pale, dry and curled. Should I prune (it has some gall so I intended to chop some branches off next month anyway) - or will that place more stress on it? I've now got the water getting through and have given it some plant starter, but.... too late? I feel so stupid that I didn't notice.

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Comments (5)

pepino
21 years ago
Getting some water to it is your first priority. I wouldn't worry too much about it getting fertiliser at the moment. Perhaps trim the branches that are beyond repair. It will most likely be a slow road to recovery, but if it still appears green I think it'll make it. Some Seasol or similar may be added to encourage the roots.

Good luck
DerbyTas
21 years ago
Definitely prune...if the roots have been short of water they will have lost a lot of root hairs and so it will be a difficult job for it to feed all the leaves...cut it back quite a bit and it will recover well
Make sure you replace the mulch but make sure it is porous mulch...lemons have shallow roots and need continuous moisture and lots of organic mulch
Dose it with diluted urine on a daily basis too...works wonders
cheers
Peter
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Well, there's something wrong here. It is simply an undeniable fact that anything with trifoliate leaves is not a true lemon. Now, you may have been calling them lemons, even using them as lemons, but I believe most people could instantly tell the difference between a lemon and the fruit of a Poncirus hybrid rootstock. There is one other possible cause of a sudden change of fruit. That is the fast-spreading citrus disease called 'citrus greening'. That can result in small, hard, misshapen fruits...but it can't make the leaves trifoliate. So, I really think the only explanation is that you are mistaken and that the lemons were produced on an original trunk that died.
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Eamon
21 years ago
Urine? I thought that was an old wives tale, an excuse for grandpa to piss the backyard and not get told off.

Is there really any truth to it?...

Eamon
sarah_may
21 years ago
Lots Eamon, read my reply to your question about horse or cow manure!!!!!
adamus
21 years ago
Urine works really well, diluted of course.
My Eureka almost died last year. I was doing everything right, except keeping the roots moist, they are extremely shallow rooted. I accidentally shovelled some soil on it when dressing the bed next to it, and it responded really quickly. I missed a year of lemons though, poor little bugger just didn't have the wherewithall to fruit.
His name is Lazarus.

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