weird leaves on my Madarin

11 years ago

This mandarin was also purchased for $5 and as I recall the leaves were normal at purchase but the plants were not in that good of shape as they were purchased at the end of the summer and were a little raggedy and dried out. I purchased several plants and gave them as gifts but kept a lime and a mandarin. The mandarin has done best - it has LOTS of flowers and about 1/3 new growth. But the leaves have been curled since before I brought the plant in doors. I have watered it just like my lime but the leaves stay curled although not as bad at times. Then I noticed this huge leaf that is about three times larger than the normal leaves in the new growth. I can't see any evidence of disease. What cold be causing the leaf curl and what is up with the HUGE leaf?

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Comments (2)

meyermike_1micha
11 years ago
Hello Bibbus...

That condition use to happen to mine for few reasons..

1. If you are watering incorrectly. Yes. letting the soil dry out to much and then watering to much can cause the leaves to tighten like that or curl, that is if you have no past pest damage and or a current one.

You can prevent that by watering more frequently in a very good porous mix keeping the mix evenly moist to almost dry at times.

2. Extreme temperature change...When new growth starts to form, have you ever noticed it starts to grow smooth and flat that is until either the temps rises fast or drops below growth mode?

You should keep your tree at consistent temps as your new growth starts to develop.

3. Use of oils for pesticide purposes. Yes, spraying a natural oil or certain pesticides with some oils have do cause curl or bumpy growth on new or forming growth.

Try to use less of it, less than what the instructions say and if you can help it, wash off the oily sprays in a half hour or so with warm water in a spray bottle or shower it off.

Hope this helps

Mike

This post was edited by meyermike_1micha on Sun, Mar 3, 13 at 12:34
bibbus 7b
Original Author
11 years ago
I usually water when the top one inch of the plant is dry or almost dry and its that way right now. I put the moisture meter in and it stays in the dry to almost moist area. Then I water till there is standing water in the drip pan and I empty that extra water out so its not standing in water. Is this correct or am I over watering?

I do have temp changes when I travel. I turn the heat down from 68 to 65 (daytime and night time normal temps) in my house to 55 degrees but the room with the plants is usually the warmest in the house and at least 3-5 degrees warmer than the rest of the house depending on how much sun we have. Its a sunny room.

I do not use any pesticides.

Its strange because I water the lime and the mandarin the same way. The lime has never had curled leaves and the mandarin always has. The mandarin has more blooms on it right now and the new growth flush is more curled than the older leaves which are mostly flat. Maybe since its otherwise healthy should I just keep doing what I'm doing? I did notice that roots are coming out of the bottom of the pot.

Let me know what you think and thanks so much for being willing to help!
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