Lime tree losing leaves after scale infestation and clean up
Laura O (8a Dallas)
5 years ago
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jaydub83
5 years agoken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
5 years agoRelated Discussions
Key Lime Losing Leaves
Comments (10)Hi, Linda - what is meant by "I have added stones so I am thinking the roots not showing is the problem, I scooped out excess dirt, hopefully this is the cure"? Something is amiss, but with more info from you, we can probably figure out what it is. Adding "stones" to the bottom of a pot might or might not be a bad idea. If the grow medium you're using supports a layer of 100% saturated soil that defies gravity by refusing to exit the pot (a perched water column/ table), stones used as ballast can be your plant's best friend, because the stones displace a volume of medium which would otherwise be saturated with water; however, stones used as a drainage layer serve only to elevate the perched water table's position in the pot. These pots are full of grow medium and the shaded part represents a perched water table (PWT). The maximum ht of the PWT in any given medium that supports PW is a constant, no matter the size or shape of the pot. In the case above, the PWT is 3" tall, and you can see it remains so in all 3 pots. In the middle pot, the water "perches" (like a bird on a wire) just above a 2" drainage layer of small stones, making the distance from the pot bottom to the top of the PWT 5" instead of 3". So this would be one of those EUREKA moments when you might be discovering you've shot yourself in the foot. Large stones would be no different than bricks or empty soda bottles (caps on) and would be considered as ballast as opposed to a drainage layer. Remembering that the ht of a PWT is a constant for a given medium, adding stones as ballast does not raise the ht of the PWT. It simply displaces a fraction of the medium equal to the volume of the item used as ballast, reducing the volume of soil capable of holding perched water. With a bit of planning, ballast can eliminate more than 90% of the medium capable of holding PW. It acts passively and only needs to be done once. In figure D below, an over-turned pot is employed as ballast, and my guess is it would eliminate about 80% of the medium capable of holding perched water in this example. But, back to the original issue. How long have you tended the plant? What do you do insofar as a fertilizer program? Have you ever repotted (includes bare-rooting, root pruning, and a change of soil) or potted up (to a slightly larger pot)? I would suggest you ditch the "moisture meter", which isn't very accurate at all, as it measures electrical conductivity, not moisture. Clean the probe and insert it into a cup of distilled water and watch it read "DRY". Using a wooden "tell" to "tell" you when it's time to water does a much better job. Using a 'tell' Over-watering saps vitality and is one of the most common plant assassins, so learning to avoid it is worth the small effort. Plants make and store their own energy source – photosynthate - (sugar/glucose). Functioning roots need energy to drive their metabolic processes, and in order to get it, they use oxygen to burn (oxidize) their food. From this, we can see that terrestrial plants need plenty of air (oxygen) in the soil to drive root function. Many off-the-shelf soils hold too much water and not enough air to support the kind of root health most growers would like to see; and, a healthy root system is a prerequisite to a healthy plant. Watering in small sips leads to avoid over-watering leads to a residual build-up of dissolved solids (salts) in the soil from tapwater and fertilizer solutions, which limits a plant's ability to absorb water – so watering in sips simply moves us to the other horn of a dilemma. It creates another problem that requires resolution. Better, would be to simply adopt a soil that drains well enough to allow watering to beyond the saturation point, so we're flushing the soil of accumulating dissolved solids whenever we water; this, w/o the plant being forced to pay a tax in the form of reduced vitality, due to prolong periods of soil saturation. Sometimes, though, that's not a course we can immediately steer, which makes controlling how often we water a very important factor. In many cases, we can judge whether or not a planting needs watering by hefting the pot. This is especially true if the pot is made from light material, like plastic, but doesn't work (as) well when the pot is made from heavier material, like clay, or when the size/weight of the pot precludes grabbing it with one hand to judge its weight and gauge the need for water. Fingers stuck an inch or two into the soil work ok for shallow pots, but not for deep pots. Deep pots might have 3 or more inches of soil that feels totally dry, while the lower several inches of the soil is 100% saturated. Obviously, the lack of oxygen in the root zone situation can wreak havoc with root health and cause the loss of a very notable measure of your plant's potential. Inexpensive watering meters don't even measure moisture levels, they measure electrical conductivity. Clean the tip and insert it into a cup of distilled water and witness the fact it reads 'DRY'. One of the most reliable methods of checking a planting's need for water is using a 'tell'. You can use a bamboo skewer in a pinch, but a wooden dowel rod of about 5/16” (75-85mm) would work better. They usually come 48” (120cm) long and can usually be cut in half and serve as a pair. Sharpen all 4 ends in a pencil sharpener and slightly blunt the tip so it's about the diameter of the head on a straight pin. Push the wooden tell deep into the soil. Don't worry, it won't harm the root system. If the plant is quite root-bound, you might need to try several places until you find one where you can push it all the way to the pot's bottom. Leave it a few seconds, then withdraw it and inspect the tip for moisture. For most plantings, withhold water until the tell comes out dry or nearly so. If you see signs of wilting, adjust the interval between waterings so drought stress isn't a recurring issue. Al...See MoreProblems with my Citrus Plants, Scale, Crinkly Leaves and Die Off
Comments (18)Hey Toni, thanks for your complements on my plants. Beleive it or not, all of my plants with the exception of the Aussie FIngerlime have been grown from seed. As a matter of fact, the Grapefruits were personally selected and liberated by me :) . I was out in AZ at the end of 2001, I was out for a evening drive with my wife and sister in law, we went to the highest point in Phoenix, then on the way back I passed a former manson with a radio station billboard on it with some sort of event going on at the grounds. It had a semi circular driveway and the entire very large front lawn was fileld with quite old Grapefruit trees, all seemingly the same type. When I went 3/4 of the way around I stoped said what the hell, jumped out looked at a nice looking tree and picked 2 grapefruits off the tree, the biggest and best ones I could find, and tossed them into the car. I had to wait 1.5 months for the box for some reason to come back to NY that I shipped em in but they were intact and whole. I had the seeds of one of the grapefruits planted for me by a friend and co-worker, since he had better facilities and room for that. Once they gre we split up the bunch. I kept 3 seedling and the other 2 went with him. I think he has one tree left. The other 3 have been growing with me ever since. Grapefruits #1 & 2 were so close together that I decided no to seperate them, they seem sto be doing great otherwise so it has never been a worry. The Key Limes were a bit simpler. Basically I bought a bag of "Susie" Key Limes in 2004, made a key Lime pie, saved the seeds, 15 seedlings grew. I lost 10 of them when I went away for 5 days and the pot they were in was not watered while I was gone. I planted the remainnig 5. One died in a month, another died suddenly of mysterious leaf loss the next year. Now of course I had a Key Lime almost die of the same mystery. The Lemon was planted September of 2005. I palnted 6 seeds,only 1 came up. I thought I had a second plant but it turned out initally to look like a weed. I figured I would let the weed keep the lemon company for a while. I was almost ready to pull the weed and then it flowered, then about a month later I found a whole bunch of small thai peppers growing on it...lol. It was a seedling for when I planted some in the same pot 2 years previous. As you can tell I just stuck the seed in existing dirt. The Kumquat I bought at the local Stop and Shop in December of 2005 and got 2 seedlings from that. I will be transplanting them soon. The Aussie FIngerlime I bought from a place in South Carolina. I will be looking up the name of the place when I get to work tomorrow. Anyway that is my story, so no grafts except on the Aussie, all is from seed. VTY -Mark...See MoreBearss Lime Tree Leaves Looking a Little Dry
Comments (10)Never cut distorted leaves off. A young citrus tree needs those for photosynthesis. They're not causing an issues, like the spreading of disease, so leave them on. If they are beyond repair, the tree will eventually drop them, and replace them with a new flush of leaves at that node. Not your water causing this either. But, I would find it surprising if your municipal water's pH is that high. Inexpensive pH meters are notoriously inaccurate. Call your municipal water district and ask them what the average pH is of your water. You'll find it's probably around 7.0 to 7.3 or thereabouts. The potting mix you've used could be problematic. You're better off with a more porous mix. You can search the forum for "Gritty Mix" or "511 Mix" to find home made mix recipes that our citrus container experts like MeyerMike use with a very high degree of success. Or, you can try to find Fafard's Heavyweight Professional Mix #3 or Heavyweight Professional Nursery Mix. Both have the right combinations of ingredients and the correct size of fir bark fines. I cannot find it near me, unfortunately, so I have had to use EB Stone's Cactus Mix, which is more dense than the above mix, but not too bad. You may also be able to use this mix successfully, as you are in an even hotter and drier area of the country than I am. Our container citrus will dry out much, much faster than our friends on the east coast, where their relative humidity during the summer is significantly higher than us here in the southwest. You also need to fertilize with a good fertilizer about once a month. Many folks here like to use DynaGro, or DynaGro in combination with Osmocote Plus (the Plus contains the micros, and the NPK ratio is pretty close to exactly what a citrus requires). Do not rely on fertilizer added to a potting mix, it will not be nearly enough for citrus. And, I wouldn't worry about the few leaves that show damage. It could have even happened to the tree before you purchased it. Keep it outside with lots of sun, and some afternoon sun protection and protection from high winds, which citrus hate. Lose the stake. Patty S....See MoreTreating scale infestation on an already stressed phal
Comments (25)@Kauaiguy, I second what Alexandra said. There is no way you've been taking care of orchids for so long and not become an expert. I certainly value your perspective and thank you for the advice. I am here to learn, after all. Speaking of which, I should probably stop claiming I've figured out what kind of buggers I have because I obviously haven't. If I sound too sure about things, it's only because I am trying -- and failing -- to be brief, not because I actually know what I am talking about. So here is my dilemma: I think I need to know what bugs I am dealing with so I can decide on the right intervention. But I don't have any actual bugs on the plant to identify -- the ones in the pics were in the humidity tray, not on the Phal, and they were found before the last repotting when I soaked the mix and the roots in Physan 20. Most instructions for any treatment I have seen include a step where you decide whether it's helping or whether the bugs have come back which I can't do as is. Would it be a good idea to get some sticky traps and place them around the plant to hopefully capture some culprits? The alternative would be to go in blind with some sort of nuclear option which scares me because my first priority is the health of the orchid. Oh, and I am dropping out of the see-my-garden arms race. I am just not worthy. Yet! :)...See MoreAlanna Migliacci
5 years agotapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
5 years agomyermike_1micha
5 years agoSilica
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoVladimir (Zone 5b Massachusetts)
5 years agotapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoSilica
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoSara Malone Zone 9b
5 years agoVladimir (Zone 5b Massachusetts)
5 years agotapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoVladimir (Zone 5b Massachusetts)
5 years agoPacNorWreck
5 years agotropicofcancer (6b SW-PA)
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoSilica
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoLaura O (8a Dallas)
5 years agoLaura O (8a Dallas)
5 years agoLaura O (8a Dallas)
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agotapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoVladimir (Zone 5b Massachusetts)
5 years agoVladimir (Zone 5b Massachusetts)
5 years agoSara Malone Zone 9b
5 years agoSilica
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoMonyet
5 years agotapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoMonyet
5 years agoSilica
5 years agotropicofcancer (6b SW-PA)
5 years agoSilica
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoMonyet
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agotropicofcancer (6b SW-PA)
5 years agoMonyet
5 years agoSilica
5 years agotapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoSara Malone Zone 9b
5 years agoSilica
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoLaura O (8a Dallas)
5 years agotapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoMonyet
5 years agotapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agotropicofcancer (6b SW-PA)
5 years agoSara Malone Zone 9b
5 years agosunshine (zone 6a, Ontario,Canada)
5 years agoSara Malone Zone 9b
5 years agotapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoMonyet
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoSilica
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agotropicofcancer (6b SW-PA)
5 years ago
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