Variegated pink lemon tree gumosis after switch to gritty mix

10 years ago

Hello I repotted a few of my young bare root citrus trees into the gritty mix. I did this in November and will never repeat this mistake again. The trees are in my closet under five 24" T5 floresent lights and one 48" T5. The timers set for 9 hours a day and ill switch it when the days get brighter. I spritz them with water couple times a day. Started using FP when I switched to the gritty mix. I completely removed all the dirt from the roots and I will admit i was not as gentle as I should have been. The calamondin appears to be doing fine. The pummelo dropped a few leaves and has yet to put out any new growth or flowers. Now the variegated pink lemon and a rooted cutting off my 4 year old dwarf meyer are not doing good. The meyer clone has dropped 10-15 leaves. The pink lemon has dropped 15-20 leaves and is producing a pink sap from beneath the first limb. Hopefully not gumosis... Could this be due to my poor choice of repotting before winter? Should I quarantine this tree to avoid any contamination of my other varieties of citrus? Is this much sap normal? I fear I have been overwatering as I have yet to get a feel for the gritty mix. I just watered the pink lemon after a week and a half and it dropped two healthy leaves the next morning. Is three weeks in between watering normal in the winter? I usually stick my finger in to detect moisture and it seems the first inch dries out quite quickly. I removed some soil off the top to bring the soil level just above the roots. I grow in plastic pots could these have any effect on my plants?

Thanks so much and I would appreciate any advice or info
Mike

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Comments (11)

greenman28 NorCal 7b/8a
10 years ago
You just watered after a week and a half?

Recent re-pots need to be kept more evenly moist than established trees. And spritzing or misting the trees isn't advised at all, unless you're treating them for pests.

Three weeks is far too long to wait to water.

Josh
bgtimber75
10 years ago
With as frail as every pink lemon I've had has been I would never dream of bare rooting in the fall. That said I've never even gotten one through the winter so what do I know.
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citrus_BC
Original Author
10 years ago
Is misting citrus trees with water to raise the humidy not a good practise?

I am trying a vaporizer and a fan is that not advised either?

thanks
mike
meyermike_1micha
10 years ago
Hi Mike..

The humidity will only raise for as long as it take for the leaves to dry off, only a few minutes making it futile..
Misting will as Josh says' clean of dust and bugs..

You could raise the humidity in the area of your plant with a humidifier, a huge pebble tray or grouping plants together....A fan always is a good idea when humidity is high or leaves wet..

Mike
citrus_BC
Original Author
10 years ago
Thanks for the tips guys my meyer looks like its pulling through. My varigated pink lemon is still dropping leaves and pouring sap from a lesion below the first limb. I pulled out some mix to look at the roots and saw some little white waxy looking bugs crawling below the trunk and what looks like a nest.

Mike
citrus_BC
Original Author
10 years ago
Nest ?
citrus_BC
Original Author
10 years ago
Nest ?

{{!gwi}}
citrus_BC
Original Author
10 years ago
Mealybugs?
citrus_BC
Original Author
10 years ago
Mealybugs?

{{!gwi}}
citrus_BC
Original Author
10 years ago
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
citrus_BC
Original Author
10 years ago
Any idea what these little white bugs in the roots are?
The tree was doing so poorly I repotted again into some fresh gritty mix this time implementing a wick into the mix. I rinsed the root throughly so Im hoping I got them all off. Whatever they might be. 14 leaves left.