Hi barbers, I live two hours south of you... the same thing happened to my neighbors lemon tree last years freeze 09. All the green leaves fell off shortly after the freeze. He thought the tree was dying, but come March/April...new leaves sprouted from the healthy part of the branches and up until this last freeze it had a bunch of lemons on it...Now it is doing the same thing after this recent freeze. He did lose about 20%-30% of the branches but the tree survived..hopefully it will recover again. He didn't do anything special to it...except his sprinkler watered it once a week and pruned the dead branches off in middle of March. He fertilized it around April when the new growths appeared... Good luck!

Hi everyone (including rhizo -- sorry for the mixup!), Thanks for all the helpful tips. The tree has not lost any more leaves since I bagged it and set it well away from the windows. It has already perked up a little and looks like it is on its way to recovery. The tree has to be indoors because, alas, I am not fortunate enough to have any outdoor space. Most of my plants live in the sunny front end of my railroad apartment, which is unfortunately the only good exposure (surrounded by large south and east facing 4th floor windows) and the only place for my living room a/c during the summer. My plants have survived it pretty well, except for root-rot with some of the larger ones (hence the fast-draining mix). Thanks again everyone, and I'll keep you posted as to how the recovery goes!

Thanks all! I did a search of my User Name last night and the original post didn't come up, so I though I had gotten distracted by my toddler and forgotten hit "submit." A common scenario in my house. I'll look for the original post. I got similar advice from the citrus forum folks. The fruit are falling off now, which bums me out. That tree was full of lemons. *sigh*

Mike That's a hard question...If you are using a mix that drains well, it still does not mean it's not holding Perched Water...Using a mix that allows Fungus Gnats to thrive tells many that your mix is holding moisture too long, it's decomposing rapidly, and there is a' PWT', when it should be much more porous than that..Even though you are going 2 to three inches down, there is still a Perched Water Table some where in your pot not allowing the bottom roots to dry out...So in affect, if the top part dries out too much, the top gets dehydrated while the bottom roots stay wet and rot.. What you need to do is use a wick, pot in pot method, or re pot into a mix that dries out EVENLY from top to bottom allowing you to water when the top half dries out..Does that make sense? The 5.1.1 or even the 1.1.1 mix are perfect examples of mixes that dry out evenly and that do not harbor gnats... It's quite possible that your roots are rotting, at least the bottom half not allowing your tree to take up nutrients that would keep the leaves healthy and green.. Why don't you use something more reliable like a 'wooden dowel'? You can push that into the deep parts of the root zone before watering..My concern is that the top roots will dry out and die before the lower roots can dry out. If you are using Foliage Pro and your pH is like that, I can promise you that your roots are being compromised and that it's not the fertilizers fault unless you are not feeding consistently.