First (almost ) year of Lisbon lemon from seed
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tcamp30144(7B N.ATLANTA)
9 years agoRelated Discussions
60's ranch - first plantings in almost 50 years
Comments (12)The house faces West - so afternoon sun. I should have included that in my first email. The house faces west, and the busy street i'm concerned with borders my house on the north. There's a good sized side yard and a brick wall. So, it's angled, and we don't need the whole wall. It's just hard to visualize without the Photenia's! Thanks for the note on the Photenia's! That's exactly the kind of advice we need. Could you explain what you mean by curve the bed near the street, so it's deeper? I'm trying to visualize and having a hard time. With the photenia's gone, I'll have a semi-circle to work with. You're suggesting a more random smattering of bushes, with ground cover in front and back? If I'm in the street looking at the house, I see ground cover, then shrubs -- behind that is the drive way, and on the other side of that the tree on one side and crepe myrtle on the other. God thought on the planter boxes. There are a lot of creeping/spreading plants that would go perfectly there. Do you think I need to build beds out in front of that, then That's where I really get confused, planning multiple levels/layers. The way the planter boxes are situated, they're nearly full sun with the roof extending completely over. I can have something that drapes over the front but doesn't get much height, so as not to cover the windows. Thanks for the door comment - we do in fact have white sheets (no rod on the bottom), but we're still looking at curtain fabrics. So, there are white sheers with nothing in front of them - and you still wonder about dark windows. That says something about my shade situation! It's definitely brighter with the live oak. How does the tree look otherwise? Your root flare question concerns me. I've raised the soil level perhaps 1-2" in aggregate. I lost a lot of soil over the summer during a series of rains between the house and the tree. My gutters weren't functioning properly, and I ended up with a small stangnant lake between the base of the tree and the house. I had some guys move soil from the front to the back, which helped some, but with rusty gutters, there's only so much you can do. I've been reading up on soil amendments and plantings, and have added compost and expanded shale and topsoil down 6", and mulched over. Net result is more soil around the tree, but every rain since then has taken more away. I was hoping that the wintercreeper would creep out and work to contain the soil. Alternately I've considered building a brick border around the 'bed', to act as a mini retaining wall. the bed is big and I'm not sure I like seeing no break from house to driveway. The circular driveway splitting my yard into thirds is really throwing me off! Thanks for your great tips. K...See MorePollinate First Flowers on Lisbon Lemon?
Comments (3)Even though bees like to visit citrus flowers, the citrus trees don't need the bees to set fruit. There's a word for it, can't remember right now, but it means each flower can set a fruit without any help from any other flower's pollen, it's own is enough. So don't worry about that. Don't pull off the flowers, they will tend to just make more flowers. Instead wait until the baby fruit is starting to form, then remove the fruit. I do think it's a good idea to remove the first year's crop to let the tree concentrate it's energy on growing larger. The crop after this one, I'd leave about 20-30% of what sets, and more the years after that. Except for the first year or so, you usually don't have to thin citrus fruit. You'll find after the first few weeks or so after fruit set, the tree will drop a lot of the baby fruit, so it will self-thin. So folks do thin a bit more to get larger fruit, but you don't have to....See MoreHelp save my potted Lisbon lemon!!
Comments (3)like Steve says, its spider mites that are probably causing your issues. Look for the tell tale veil like webs at the joints where the leaves meet the branches (could be whats holding up that leaf stem). If you have a magnifying glass handy, you can also see the mites on the leaves especially on the underside of the leaves. You can find lots of info on treating them on the forum or google. I don't know anything about that brand of fertilizer but I would not exceed the recommended amount and frequency noted on the bottle. You may also want to hold back a bit with the fertilizer since the tree is in a weakened state. Fertilizing a weak tree sounds like it would help but can actually cause other problems. You may also want to consider switching your soil mix to either the "gritty mix" or the "5:1:1 mix" both of which are almost perfect for potted citrus trees. You can look them up on the forum. There are no good per-mixed potting soils for citrus, even ones that put "for citrus" on the package will still compact too fast and cause root rot before you know it. I know it sounds rough but you may also want to consider removing the fruit since your tree is still very small and very stressed, this will allow it to focus on growing more....See MoreNeed help with Lisbon Lemon tree (pics)
Comments (18)Hi Meyermike, Thanks for the ideas. Something is certainly wrong. My citrus in the raised planters are very healthy looking right now, even though its 110 here. This is not a potted citrus, though. In the ground, and not moving, unless I end up having to take it to the compost. "/ The leaves are not really dropping. They are pretty much turning crispy on the branch. To answer some of your questions... dug down and the limited roots I saw seemed fine. But it was already pretty dry in the top soil profile, so I think more frequent watering (until established) is a good idea. Your thoughts? The soil here is clay, and slightly alkaline, which is a challenge. The planting pit was amended. 3x the size of the root ball, 60% native soil, 40% mixture of happy frog, and some citrus mix from the nursery. I should probably look into coffee grounds or some pH reducer. I also need to get some mulch down, but this area is still in "renovation". I think there are a lot of factors to overcome... hot fence, direct mid-day and afternoon sun, poor soil quality. I will look into the soil pH, and water frequency, and keep checking back....See Moreponcirusguy6b452xx
9 years agotcamp30144(7B N.ATLANTA)
9 years agoKelley_GA8a
6 years ago
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liamkelly Zone 6b Rhode Island / 5b MassachusettsOriginal Author