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citruslover1

Citrus trees in need of help please!!

Citruslover1
9 years ago

Hello everyone. I need some input with my citrus trees please. I have read several forums and have compared them to my problem. But seems like nothing is working. I need to see if maybe I am missing something. I am a new citrus tree gardener. I have followed and read instructions, internet, books on fruit trees.. I have two meyer lemon trees, two navel orange trees, a key lime tree, and last a tango mandrian orange tree. I keep them in containers. Spring, summertime outside and fall, wintertime inside. When temperature drops 30 degrees. They all look healthy in color. Beautiful dark green leaves so I know that I am giving them well enough food. I have been giving them 10-10-10 fertilizer plus citrus & Avocado food citrus tone 5-2-6 alternating jobes fertiziler spikes 9-12-12. I keep them in my basement with a 600 watt hps lamp. They are happy as in I have gotten buds and flowers. Some fruit. one of my lemon tree have given me a lemon. one navel is growing an orange and the tango had four fruit. When I have first bought them in the house I had no leaves falling on them. I started to take it easy by placing them in at night in basement and out when warmer during the day time. so things were going well. this was in September when I started to bring them in. I had little leaf lost. I did notice that i had aphids and scale on them so i bought some bio-neem spray to kill these pests. They had killed off a lot of my buds and flowers. I follow directions to spray once a week. i water once a week too since the lighting gives off good heat. But now my problem is leaves falling off my trees plus on the tango tree i only now have one fruit left from four. Seems like maybe something is eating them. I have set glue traps on the floor for mice. New growth are happening with my leaves. so i don't understand what is making them lose the rest of their leaves. I leave the lamp on at least 6 hrs a day to keep them alive. All the trees had many buds and even opened up into the flower. But then fall off. Please help with any input. I am at a standstill not knowing what else to do. I am not worried about the trees dying because they really look healthy. But i do worry about not getting fruit. Thank you for your help!!

Comments (28)

  • ocelaris
    9 years ago

    What are the temps like day and night where you keep them. What is the soil in your container like? Neem every week or two for 3x should clear almost all issues relating to bugs, but root issues are often the problem. More details about your soil and temps please.

    How big are the "trees" a single 600w HPS would barely be big enough for a single large tree, but if they're little trees may/may not be an issue.

  • Citruslover1
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Thank you for responding. The soil that I use is Farard Cactus and Succulent potting soil. The temperature during the day time in basement is in the 70's. Around 72. And at night it goes down to the 60's. Like 65.

  • jean001a
    9 years ago

    Please post an image.

  • Citruslover1
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    This is the key lime tree. I need to repot and prune this spring.

  • Citruslover1
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    The next two are my navel orange trees. One has orange growing on it. Both have lots of buds.

  • Citruslover1
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Navel orange.

  • Citruslover1
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Tango mandarin orange tree. This had four fruit down to one. And it had aphids and scale. Lots of buds. Lots of new growth.

  • Citruslover1
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Next two are my Meyer lemon trees. One has lemon almost ready for picking. These had lots of buds and flowers. But I think the bugs got them.

  • Citruslover1
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Meyer lemon

  • Citruslover1
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Any help would be greatly appreciated. Being a first time citrus tree gardener really worries me. I hope I am helping and keeping my trees healthy and alive.

  • jrl1265
    9 years ago

    First thing I would do is get them off of that concrete floor. I would also buy a meat thermometer and poke it down into the soil to measure the temperature. Cool roots plus warm leaves invites leaf drop. i would also keep the lights on for twelve hours rather then six. Jack

  • Citruslover1
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Thanks Jack for your advice. I was not thinking about the concrete. The pots are heavy. What I'm going to do is place some heavy rubber mats. On top of mats heavy blankets to block the cold off the concrete. About how warm should the soil be? This makes sense. Thanks again. Hopefully that will help with the leaf dropping.

  • Citruslover1
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    I found some pallets instead and then place heavy blankets at bottom to prevent cold from rising.

  • jrl1265
    9 years ago

    Roots do not function below 55 degrees F so that's the minimum i would shoot for 60's would be better. Jack

  • Citruslover1
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Thanks again Jack. You are a lifesaver. So do you think thats why the buds and fruit on some of the trees fall? My basement stays above 60's at night. During day with light fixture in the 70's. I have a good feeling that this is going to work. I just can't believe I didn't think about the cold floors.. I shall see tomorrow what temperature the soils will be.

  • Jesse09
    9 years ago

    Hey, I know this has nothing to do with temperature, and it may not be any help for you, but we use HB-101 for our citrus trees and it helps a lot. It's not a fertilizer but a vitalizer (as they call it) and helps my trees grow stronger and more tolerant to temperature changes. Maybe something to look into.

  • ocelaris
    9 years ago

    A few things I would recommend for general health, it looks like the cactus mix you have has peat moss in it (according to their website), not sure how much, but the pictures look a little heavy as far as the soil. There are better mixes like the 5-1-1 or 1-1-1 gritty mix that is referenced here often. Also with the fertilizer, definetly stop using the jobes spikes as they can burn. The best fertilizer to use is something in the 3-1-2 ratio or 9-3-6 such as foliage pro at a dilute rate every time. You want to make sure any fertilizer you use has all the trace elements, as any "soil less mix" such as the cactus mix you're using, or the ones reccomended on here have no nutritional value and plants can't survive on NPK alone!

    But honestly, your plants look pretty good to me, it's fine to loose a few leaves here and there when you bring them inside, if the plant was completely defoliated that would be one thing, but at least from the pictures they generally look fine?

  • poncirusguy6b452xx
    9 years ago

    You can aerate the roots by using a vacuum chamber below your tree and use your vacuum cleaner to pull fresh air into your root/soil mix. You can avoid transplanting your trees till spring time. This is when the trees will grow best into a new mix. My trees grew like weeds over the winter with this setup. They doubled to quadrupled in size by spring. They are now to big to baby.

    Setup with trees on top of vacuum chambers below. Then in spring switch over to 5-1-1

  • Citruslover1
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Thank you jesse09 I will definitely kept that in mind with the Vitalizer. Thank you ocrelaris for your advice also on the fertilizer and soil. I will definately try in springtime to find the 5-1-1. Its hard to look for anything like that where I live. I might have to purchase online. I feel great that you tell me my trees look good. That was one of my major concerns. I worry about them and only want to help them grow healthy and strong. And of course have fruit. My mom had noticed that the tango, lime and one of the navel trees are protected from one side by my gaming board. They really do not have leaf loss verses the other three on the opposite side. They don't have a barrier as in wall next to them. So those two lemon and that other navel trees are the one losing more leaves. So I'm wondering maybe they are getting some sort of draft. Once I place the pallets I will be able to tell if that Is helping. Which I hope it will. Because now my navel that had the one fruit had dropped it. Thank you poncirusguy for your input. I will give that a try too. To see if it will help my trees. Right now I just want to help them stop dropping their leaves and fruit. The two so far that have been doing well with holding on to the fruit is the lemon that you saw in picture and my tango with the bigger fruit.

  • jrl1265
    9 years ago

    I have actually kept my Washington naval outside this fall (with lots of protection for the roots) with temps in the high teens with no leaf loss. The canopy is always cooler then the roots which could explain this. Jack

  • ocelaris
    9 years ago

    If it makes you feel any better, my Meyer Lemon and one of my mexican limes dropped near every leaf after doing well all summer. They dropped when they started flowering outside in 5-1-1! They're the most finicky of all at least in my experience. The other 6 citrus have been doing great under similar conditions, so to me it looks like you're doing pretty well! I got mine in the summer and transplanted, which may explain the leaf drop, but now that they're inside they're recovering, albeit slowly, they just won't stop flowering!

    The 5-1-1 is not too hard to make, pine bark fines, perlite, and peat moss. The 1-1-1 gritty mix is difficult to find parts to make, it's 1 part granite chicken grit, 1 part baked clay (I forget the term) like turface, and 1 part pine bark fines. You have to collect all the materials individually, it's not sold anywhere put together. If you live in a rural area with farm supplies it's easier than if you live in a major metropolitan area (like NYC) because the feed supply stores have all of the materials usually (short of the bark which can be had at a pet store for lizards).

  • Citruslover1
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Thanks Jack and Ocelaris for your experiences and advice. It is always appreciated. Do you have pictures you both can show me of your citrus. Would love to see them. :)

  • jrl1265
    9 years ago

    I think if you can grow a Meyers lemon potted as a house plant and keep it thriving you can grow about any other plant there is. :)

  • Citruslover1
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Lol. Thanks Jack. I would definitely love to grow many different types of fruit. I have read in a lot of forums that Meyer lemon are picky and hard to grow. I really haven't had any problem with them except the leave loss. Oh yeah and bugs. But nothing else. I think they are pretty simple. Right now my one navel seems like it's losing more than the Meyer. Lol can't wait til tomorrow to place the pallets and blankets to see how well they do... :)

  • Citruslover1
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Don't understand why my orange navel trees branches are turning brown. I have put them all on pallets off the cement. I have even left the hps light on for 10 hours verses 6.. Don't know anymore. I hope its not dying on me. I'm going to cut off the dying branches. Does anyone else know what's happening???

  • Citruslover1
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Any input would be greatly appreciated. I don't want my tree to die...

  • meyermike_1micha
    9 years ago

    Have you ever once flushed your mix out of disolved salts?
    That is a silent killer of most any plant when potted in very fine mixes..Least to say what comea after that is bugs on weak trees..I would make sure you don't have spider mites which you can not see with the naked eye..

    To me it looks like you have spider mites dropping your leaves with a comb of unhealthy roots in an unhealthy mix for your growing conditions...You must correct all three to spare your trees from twi die back.....Twig die back can be common if the tree decides to shed itslef of unsupported growth due to a lack of full sunlight, which is still possibly another issue..What a pain, right?

    Start with flushing your mixes as soon as your pots dry out..Do not fertilize at all and get rid of those slow release fertilizer sticks or anything adding salt to your mix..
    Then make sure which most people do not , that you don't have any critters that you can't see with your eye buy getting a magnifying glass, a must for any serious plant grower.
    As a precaution, when you flush your mix, at the same time make sure to wash off all your leaves and then treat accrodingly.

    See if that helps..One thing at a time, but as far as I am concerned, I would start with what I told you.

    MIke

  • Citruslover1
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Thank you Mike for your input. It is a pain but so worth having my own fresh fruit. I'm sorry I'm a new tree grower. How can I flush the mix?? Never done that before. And what kind of soil do I mix then?? I have only bought premade soil of cactus and succulent soil from fafard.. I was going to do the 5-1-1 pine bark fines, perlite, and peat moss. But do not know how much to mix in of all. It was recommened by another person. If I have spider mite shouldn't the bio neem that I have been spraying on my trees kill it??? Thought it would.. Thanks again for your help.