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Indoor Meyer Lemon Tree, Curling and Falling Leaves

Emmanuel Martinez

9 years ago

Hello all, this is the first indoor tree that I've bought and tried to grow myself. I bought my tree from amazon about 2 weeks ago and when it arrived the leaves were curled up and droopy. I attributed this to the fact that it took about 4 days to arrive at my house and was in a box the whole time. Since then the leaves have started dropping off of the tree and more and more leaves are curling. I currently live in PA and have not taken the plant outside because of the cold which is just starting to break. However i move the plant around about twice a day so that it can get some direct sunlight. It gets about 5 to 6 hours of sunlight a day. I still have yet to transplant the plant from its original container because I'm afraid the plant isn't healthy enough to survive if i do. I have ordered Dyna-GroFoilage fertilizer in an attempt to try and save the plant. Is there anything else you guys can recommend so that this project is a success? Thanks for taking the time to read and (hopefully) reply! Here are some pics so that you guys have an idea what I'm working with

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Comments (2)

Emmanuel Martinez
Original Author
9 years ago

7
johnmerr
9 years ago
Meyer lemons in containers have a fairly well-deserved reputation of being "finicky"... Water them too much, they will drop leaves; let them get too dry and then water, they will drop leaves; change the light conditions significantly , they will drop leaves. I would leave it in the existing pot until you are ready to put it outside; then re-pot it and put it out in full shade; after 2 weeks to partial sun; and another 2 weeks to full sun. When you re-pot it, do not fertilize it until you start to see new growth; the absence of fertility encourages the roots to grow in search of food. First the roots must grow and then leaves and branches will come; and they need food.
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Thanks, John. Would anyone else care to share their opinion as to what's happening with this little plant?. I've looked on this site and couldn't find anything that remotely looks like what I'm dealing with. I thank you all so much :-)
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Thank you for posting the proper link. I haven't watered it in two days now since I wasn't sure if it was getting too much. The top of the soil is dry but if I stick my hand down in there it's somewhat damp. The moisture meter reads 2.5-3, about half to a bit over halfway between dry and wet so I suppose it was getting too much. Even with the daily watering the moisture read the same though. This post was edited by Neurosci on Wed, Jun 19, 13 at 18:21
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Well, if you can provide more (non-sideways) photos of the whole tree, that would be helpful. It looks to me like your potting medium is too wet, and just based on this ONE leaf, I would suspect your roots are suffocating. Please post more photos of your entire tree, and let us know what potting medium you're using, and if you've checked at the bottom of the pot to see how wet the soil is. It looks? like you pot is also sitting in a plastic something? You really need to promote drainage. Sitting in water is sure death for citrus roots. Patty S.
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So there are any holes in your ceramic pot?! The plastic pot is inside the ceramic pot? If so, this is your mistake. The surplus water from every watering will stagnate in the ceramic vase and the roots will develop root rot in no time. Aeration of the soil is also inexistent in this arrangement, so root rot in no time again. To save the tree: remove it's fruits, remove the roots from the current soil, cut away rooted roots, re-plant-it in some soil with at least 50% perlite or other aerated stones, and keep-it on top of the heater so that the soil temperature to be 23-28 degree Celsius. The pot that you will use needs to be smaller than the current one, with many aditional holes on the bottom, each at least 5mm in diameter! Use the ceramic pot for anything else ! Or dispose-it!
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