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emelinegardner

Improved Meyer Lemon losing leaves

emelinegardner
10 years ago

I purchased a 4-5 year old improved meyer lemon tree from fastgrowingtrees.com in mid-August. It arrived looking pretty good, although it had lost a good number of leaves on the journey. I re-potted it in a mix of the recommended "citrus" soil purchased from the grower and miracle grow cactus, palm, and citrus soil from home depot in a 13-inch plastic pot. I did not put any rocks in the bottom for drainage, and I have not fertilized it since receiving it. It sits in a south-facing window in my house and I've been watering it only when it seems dry, maybe once a week. I've had this grow light on it for 10 hours a day:
http://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-FLT24-2-Feet-4-Tube-Commercial/dp/B002JQBQZQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1380232389&sr=8-1&keywords=Hydrofarm+FLT24+2-Feet%2F4-Tube+T5+Commercial+System+with+Bulbs
I came back from a 2 week trip (wherein the light was on a timer and a friend was looking after our plants--I suspect she may have been over zealous in her watering) and the tree was dropping leaves like crazy. Many of the leaves are covered in the yellow spots shown in the photos. I decided those must be the result of spider mites and sprayed every leaf, front and back carefully with dish-soapy water. That seemed to slow the leaves from dropping for a few days, but it's now picking up again. Some branches are completely bare now and others have new growth (shown in photo). Over the last couple of days, I've started misting the leaves (not the soil) with water, and the new ones especially seem to like that.
What should I do? I'm pretty worried about it and I have no prior experience with citrus, so it's tough to figure out how to help it.

Comments (2)

  • Andrew Scott
    10 years ago

    I suspect your soil mix is WAY TOO HEAVY!!! In general, I would NEVER recommend anyone to buy a prepackaged citrus soil mix!!!! Now maybe because the nursery carries it may be okay but I am still skeptical,especially when you said you only water once a week. If it is growing in a healthy mix for the tree, which means a porous mix that rapidly drains the water after you have watered it, should need watering 2-3 times a week.

    Could you post a picture of you tree's soil? I have a feeling this is you major issue. 4-5 years ago, I bought a moro blood orange, and I believe a meyer lemon or a tangerine. Anyhow, I bought Miracle Grow cacti and citrs mix. I potted them up, and put them under my grow light. Within a week, they completely defoliated. Within two weeks, tangerine was dead, and blood orange was barely hanging on. When I knocked them out of there pots, I could smell the dank, rotting roots. Citrus are OVERLY sensitive to wet feet. In the citrus belt, the combo of sun and heat helps to dry out there soils but for people that don't live in sub tropical/tropical regions, it is imperative to have soil that drains efficiently.

    I don't want to go into all the specifics on making mixes but if you search on this site for Al's gritty mix or Al's 5.1.1 mix, it will show you how to make it and also explain why it works so well. Some people, myself included, have had difficulty finding all the components to make it, and I had to substitute certain components for other things. The bottom line is this. Whatever you end up with, when you water, you want to see water flowing out of the drainage hole within seconds of watering! Also, make sure you have a pot with adequate drainage holes(One large hole in the center is okay but personally I prefer several holes. When you have your tree indoors, if you have to we a coaster to collect the draining water, empty it right away. You do not want that water sitting there!

    It took me a year or two to be able to understand what makes citrus trees tick. I won't tell you that I am an expert because I am sure there are still things I could be doing better, and I also know that I will always learn more from reading books, and from learning from everyone here, but in my opinion, it's all part of the fun!

    I am sorry I couldn't fully diagnose your problem here but I feel confident that once Meyer Mike, Patty, John or any of the others read your post, they will be able to help you out.

    One last thing. I was curious about the height of your tree, and did you think the growers price was fair? Not that I am on the market for ordering anymore citrus. I have enough right now.....well?!?!?!

    Andrew

  • johnmerr
    10 years ago

    Your plant is suffering from transplant shock and from significant change in light conditions.
    When you dramatically change the light conditions a Meyer will drop most, if not all its leaves, to replace them later with leaves better suited to the new light conditions. To move a Meyer from outside to inside without the leaf loss, you need to move it from full sun to partial sun for 2 weeks; then to full shade for 2 weeks; then indoors; reverse the process when putting it out in the Spring... and please DO put it out, if you can; you will be rewarded with a happy, healthy plant.
    Second, when you bring it indoors to a sunny window, the plant gets warm; but the roots generally stay cool; and citrus roots don't like to grow into cool soil... the solution is to put some sort of heater to warm the soil, or to put the plant a little further from the window. The thing to remember is first the roots grow; and then the leaves and branches.