Follow-up, 13 days after re-pot. Unfortunately my tree is in trouble again! Less than a week after repotting, the veins of many of the leaves started to turn yellow. The yellow then spreads outwards, and the leaf drops off (see photos in the link below). It looks like the little tree will lose most of its leaves :-( Searching through the forum, I found a thread from a year ago where Mike had a tree with exactly the same symptoms - did you ever find out what was wrong? I hope your tree survived! Do you think it is just a stress response (I pruned some of the roots when I repotted)? It also developed flower buds, which I know can be a sign of stress (I removed most of these to help the plant concentrate strength). I have had it in the shade since the repot and it has only been watered on the day of the repot and once since. I haven't checked the pH of the new soil, but I made it as per instructions (including lime, although perhaps I didn't include enough?). Would it be worth checking the pH? On the positive side, I have noticed a few tiny new leaves forming at the end of a couple of the branches (but not lower down on the branches). Do you think the tree will drop all it's leaves and then recover? Or is it a goner? Yours hopefully, Lindsay PS I have some Foliage Pro due to be delivered next week that I planned to start using, if the tree is still alive... Here is a link that might be useful: New problems with lemon tree

Sean, as long as your Vigoro has micronutrients, that's fine, but I would also hit it with a foliar application of Grow More Citrus Growers Blend. It is something you want in your "citrus arsenal" here in S. California. With all the heavy, cold rains we've experienced in the last 2 years, you're going to run into the same issue I have with citrus in the ground (my soil is mainly DG here in N. San Diego county near the coast): a leaching of micronutrients, especially magnesium. So, start with the Vigoro, but do make a foliar app with some micronutrients. You'll see the difference, promise :-) And Tim's right, no pruning for now. Wait until you obviously need to do some MINOR shaping. Remember, with citrus, pruning equals no fruit. Citrus produce fruit at the tips of their branches, so you're cutting off your next fruit crop when your prune! And Tim's advice about removing suckers is right on. Just break them off if they're soft. If they've hardened off, trim close to the rootstock. Our water isn't too alkaline here in San Diego county - about 7 to 7.6. Fine for citrus. But, for your little guy, acidifying the water with some vinegar and pouring it over the fertilizer may help prevent the micronutrients from getting locked out due to the alkalinity. You guy needs a bit of a rescue. Tim's advice is good. Once recovered, you probably won't need to acidify your water. You can also achieve this with your foliar application - acidifying the water you use to dissolve your Growers Blend in. When you pick up your moisture meter, pick up a decent pH meter (don't buy the cheapest one). It's worth having these in your gardening tools. I've had both my moisture meter and my pH meter for many years. Great tools to have! Patty S.

I decided to leave them out. Just spend a few hours in a still hot sun to position them from the winds. It's just still too mild to wanna move them. At worst in the extended I see temps in the 60's and low in the 50's. And they get unobstructed southern sun all day long. When I move them, they go into a sunny, big garage, but it's hard to keep up with the watering..., bad enough in the winter. I was considering fertilizing for the last time of the season (they haven't been fertilized in over a month), but figured the excessive rains would just leach the fertilizer out. I spent time tilling the soil and introducing more gypsum. I don't use a gritty mix but they get so darn dry in more peat/perlite based soils. Spent time hosing them down well. Been a dry Fall so far so all the rain in appreciated. I do notice that plants seem to respond better to RAIN than water out of a hose. Didn't use to believe this but in my experience tropical plants grow better with regular rain that can't be made up from irrigation. Is it too late to consider fertilizing? (I don not fertilize at all in the winter as they are kept quite cold.)

Oh in the the first picture you can compare with the original post photo. see how the wood has turned dark brown around the lesion. I know you guys are bust me up for this one ;) I scraped off the brown bark around the lesion and ran my lighter over it a few times to dry it up a bit. Sometimes I read things on the Internet and act compulsively. Like repotting to the gritty mix. Anyways I'm down to 18 leaves left on my pink lemon... And I had such high hopes Help Mike