And a final one of the tree. Yes, it is a little wild. This photo is from about 2 months ago, the lemons are still green.

To add, no leaves have fallen off, they seem perky, but more leaves are continuing the brown leaf tip trend.

Also with the water meter readings, a section of the pot is reading "Wet" even though we last watered a week ago.

Please help!! Should we repot to new potting medium asap?

Sorry I can't give you advice about re-potting or "soil" for your container tree; but it certainly looks like salt burn... as in poor drainage, fertilizer build up... although your tree does not appear to be over fertilized.

Maybe the wrong kind of food, wrong kind of "soil", wrong kind of water???

By any chance are you watering your tree with water from a water softener??? you would be surprised how many people make that mistake. Water softeners replace damaging minerals with table salt (Sodium Chloride), which burns plants.

Thanks for responding!

We are just watering with regular tap water, so that rules out the water softener possibility. It seems like it may be the potting soil we used, as it seems like our fertilizer is not the problem either.

Looking at Mike's questions to Gro-nut in another post, here are some answers to those questions which may be helpful:
- House temp is around 68 degrees
- Fertilizer is Growers Secret 5-2-1
- We let the water drain freely, but less than a gallon of water
- Since moving indoors, watering is once a week

Any recommendations if we decide to repot? (We would have to repot indoors as winter has finally hit New England...)

This post was edited by HaroldMeyer on Sat, Dec 15, 12 at 17:35

Most important for a Meyer, change your fertilizer to a 3-1-2 ratio; Meyers are big feeders and the 3-1-2 ratio (I use 18-6-12 for my field trees) is the best for this variety.

Hello..

If you decide to repot, I would use 60% bark, 10& soil or peat, and 30% perlite.
You understand why, right?

I would also agree with John in that it could be some sort of salt burn. Tap water can be a culprit in which it does not easily drain out of the pot rapidly.
There is plenty of salts, metals, chlorine in tap water not to mention salts in fertilizer alone in my area.

I'll bet that if you started using rain water and flushing that mix out, the problem would be reversed.

Spring is best to do a repot, but if you feel it's a must now, use a much more porous mix and you and your plants will be very happy.

Welcome to growing in Mass!

Mike

Hi Mike,

Sadly, most of the leaves have developed brown tips. I'm going to gather some rain water right now. (At least there is something good coming out of these cold, rainy days!) When you say flush, how much water is a good flush? How would I know how much is too much -- especially if this soil mix seems to be retaining so much water already?

So would you recommend flushing and repotting? Or just flushing and waiting to see what happens? If we are to repot, Walmart is selling the Timberline Pine Mulch (looks like the only Pine Bark in stock around Boston this time of year). Is that a good product?

Thanks for helping out! We have been avid readers of this forum since getting the tree (whom we've named Harold). Too bad we're writing our first post when our tree is in its worst shape! :(

This post was edited by HaroldMeyer on Tue, Dec 18, 12 at 1:48

Hey Harold..

It should get better as you use rain water and or once you change the mix to a very porous one.
Once the mix dries, run rain water or distilled water until it runs through the bottom for at least a couple of minutes. You can use tap too, if you allow it to drain for a while. It will still help with any deposits in your mix.
Do you have a shower head?
Sit your plant in the tub and let it get showered for at least 5 minutes. This is good too.

Hold back on fertilizing until the spring, until you are able to water throughly, or until you change your mix.

I would use a wick or two and push it into the bottom of your pot so that any perched water is encouraged to drain out and away from the roots. Let the wick dangle by elevating your pot. This will encourage your mix to dry out faster until you change your plant into a better mix come spring.

Do you have an Agway anywhere close to where you live? I do. They are all over my area. Let me know.

Nice to meet you and please pray for a sunny day soon.

Mike:-)

Sounds good, we'll try the shower head!

This post was edited by HaroldMeyer on Fri, Dec 21, 12 at 18:54

We repotted Harold into the 5-1-1 mix last Friday. Mike, we went over to Agway and picked up 3 cu ft of pine bark mulch... more than we know what to do with! :) But glad there was some in stock.

So far it's looking alright, leaves are still intact and the browning seems to have come to a halt. We showered it for 5 minutes in the tub two times this week. Should the amount of water always be that much or is that just to flush out the salts? The soil seems dry already, after 3 days.

Also, can we start applying fertilizer now?

You know, there is always more plants to be planted in that stuff, once you get addicted..lol

I hope you got the same stuff I was thinking..:-)

Harold, did you use perlite and the infamous peat and lime?

Did you bareroot it or pot up?

I am keeping my fingers crossed that you did:-)
We can talk about that, fertilizing and the watering once I know:-)

Mike

Hi Harold,
The 5-1-1 will seem dry in the upper portion after a few days. It's the root zone you need to keep a check on. The easiest way is a wooden skewer. I got a pack real cheap at Wal Mart in the grilling utensils area for shish kabobs. (sp?)
You get the idea right, I know my spelling stinks! lol.. Josh, are you here to help me. ? ;-)

Insert one into the root zone and leave for awhile then check it. Best way is to press it against your cheek to judge the moisture.

Mike is right, there's no end to what you can grow in it! Almost dangerous stuff to have around, you will always be looking for a way to use it. lol..

JoJo

So we did most things according to instructions, 5 parts pine bark mulch, 1 part peat, and a little more than 1 part perlite, but in our hastiness, we left out the lime... (big uh-oh?)

When re-potting it, we used the same pot, and massaged out as much old soil as we could before planting it in the 5-1-1 mix. I think we did that part right! :)

It's been really easy to lift the plant to and from the bathroom with how lightweight the mix is! Also, when watering, we're adding a teaspoon of white vinegar to the water.

Looking forward to hearing the watering & fertilizing instructions... Many thanks again!

Yes, brown leaf-tips usually indicate brown root-tips.

Given the amount of soil in your previous mix, I would say overwatering/saturated mix.
Fertilizer burn is a possibility, I suppose, but it wouldn't be my first guess.

With recently re-potted plants, it is important to keep the mix uniformly moist -
so don't let the upper layers dry out the way you would with an established Citrus plant.
If you let the upper roots dry out and die, especially this time of year, your plant is
in for a sloooooow recovery....or a hasty decline.

Fertilization should resume 1 - 2 weeks after re-potting. If heavy root-pruning occured,
give the plant the full 2 weeks to get some new roots under it for water/nutrient uptake.

Also, stabilize the tree in the pot - this will help the roots establish faster in the mix.

Josh

Josh is another citrus container success and I am glad he has joined in Harold. In fact, we discuss what is best for our potted trees all the time.

Hey Josh!

We're back and sadly have more concerns to share. While on vacation, a friend was asked to water the tree, but something came up, so the tree was left unwatered for a full week. A good fifth of the leaves had dried up and fallen off.

Harold received an emergency soaking and has not had much leaf drop since, however, most of the leaves remain wilted.

How should we proceed from here? Should we continue on the same water schedule or should we give less water since we've lost some leaves? I usually run the shower for 4-5 minutes and let it drain for half an hour. Watering has been roughly every 4 days since putting in the 5-1-1 mix.

Thanks!! I hope it's not too late for recovery.

Shoot! That stinks Harold.

Typically after a harsh period like that, extreme drought, there is always lot's of root death and die off if the roots which do the bullwork of feeding and drinking.

What you usually experience is leaf droopiness, pest invasion, especially mites, and branch dieback.
Watch for the pests since they can be handled.

The best you can do for it is to treat it as usual. Make sure it's getting good light and don't over or under water.
I would not feed until you notice a difference in leaf health and or growth.

There is always hope it will pull through, and they usually do on themselves, but it may take time. It might even show off during the warmer months especially after being outside. So don't give up.

I have saved a many that have been through this just to end up with a healthy specimen within a year or two with patience. I have bought many from stores that have been through this for a buck or two and glad I did.

I wish your tree well.

Mike

Thanks for the encouragement! We'll keep at it with some TLC. I'm sure we'll give updates over the year!

Back with an update and good news to share!

Summer has been really good for Harold: about two dozen new bright green leaves, a couple flowers (small but with some purple, as opposed to the purely white flowers in the winter), and no browning/yellowing of the new leaves. I'm not sure this bunch of flowers will give us fruit, but we'll know soon.

This photo shows the new leaves above the older ones with the problems. Guess what it needed the most was more sunshine!

This post was edited by HaroldMeyer on Sun, Jul 7, 13 at 14:35

Wonderful news, Harold!
Are you still fertilizing regularly?

Josh

Yes but probably not often enough or not enough quantity each time. New leaves are starting to yellow, so that could be it. Does it need fertilizer each watering in the summer?

Could you post an update?

I found this forum while searching for a reason for my leaf tips turning brown. I have about a dozen ripening fruit on the tree at this point. I live in the Pacific Northwest. Thinking of a name for my tree as I type

If you have a question about the brownING leaf tips post a picture, tell us where you live, is your tree in a container or in the ground, what type growing medium it is in, how do you water it, when was it fertilized last, what type and how often, are you using lights (what kind) or growing in natural sunlight and anything else that can help us help you. As you probably have seen Laura and her children name all her citrus trees. Makes it more personal. Welcome to this group of citrus fanatics.

Cory

I'm so glad to find this site. I'm also having problems with my indoor potted meyer lemon which i bought 14 months ago (Christmas 2015). I live in Anchorage, Alaska. It had been doing pretty well, supplemented with a standard florescent light bulb. Last February (2016), it put on tons of blossoms, many of which turned into tiny lemons, most of which fell off, but 6 remained & have produced nice lemons which are still ripening on the tree. 4 or 5 months ago, as the weather started getting cold, "Lucy" started dropping several leaves a day, from 2-6. I thought the soil might be too cool, as our house stays cool (60F @ night, 66-68F during the day) so i wrapped a large heating pad around her pot & monitored the temperature of the soil, but it did not help at all (she had done ok with these temps last winter). The thing that did help was buying a new florescent bulb which is a 60 watt, full spectrum cfl. That did stop the leaf drop & Lucy started putting tiny new leaves on, but then the remaining leaves & the new leaves as they matured, started turning brown & dry, first at the tips but spreading to involve the entire leaf. There have been almost no leaves on this poor tree for a couple of months now. I had been watering Lucy once a week, especially during the summer (she had to stay indoors, due to moose hazard). Without the leaves, her soil is staying moist longer & recently I have gone 2 & even 3 weeks w/o watering her. i dont believe that she is being underwatered. When she was healthy & at the beginning of her decline, I was feeding her 1/4 cup Jobe's Organic Fruit & Citrus fertilizer, every 2 weeks.

Reading one of the previous posts makes me wonder about excessive salt in the tap water. We have well water & a water softener. Our softener does use salt, but is a newer model which does not use as much as the older model which we had when we first got Lucy. I think i will collect some snow & bring it in to melt & warm & try flushing her with that. I had been thinking of trying to fertilize her again since it has been a while. What do you think?

I hate to even post a photo of Lucy because she is in such sad shape. Any sugestions would be so appreciated!

Definite leaf burn form a build up of high soluble solids in the soil. There are two types of soluble salt stress, osmotic stress and toxic stress. Your tree is greatly suffering from toxicity stress. Toxicity stress is an excessive accumulation of salt ions (usually chloride and sodium ions) in the leaf tissue. In general the damage caused by this build up is an immediate reduction in growth, followed by toxicity symptoms such as "scorching", "firing", and defoliation of leaves, and finally death of the tree. Have you ever flushed the medium with clean clear water in the amount of 3 times the volume of the container to flush out the salts? A container grown citrus tree should be flushed with clean clean water 2 -3 times a year to avoid the build up of salts .. Watering a containerized citrus tree with water from a salt based soft water system is quite detrimental to the tree. It would be best to use rain water or water from melted snow . Wishing both you and your tree the best.

Thank you. I will collect snow & start melting it. I have never flushed the tree with anything other than softened water.

Do you have any where in your yard where you can collect a 30 gallon bucket of rain water when the snow melts off your roof or when it rains?

Next summer, I would consider using a good porous mix so that the salts with not accumulate in the mix in the first place..

Good advice, Mike!

Doris, softened water will not work for plants. I watched a group of beautiful citrus die a miserable death from softened water.

Josh

I slowly (as snow was melting) flushed Lucy with at least 8 gallons (totally lost count) of room temperature melted snow. It was fresh clean snow. Hopefully that flushed any salt accumulation out. What about nutrients? Should i fertilize her since she's been flushed, or wait and see if her health improves some first?

Unfortunately i cannot catch water from the roof as snow melts. The gutters take the water all the way to the ground. We don't get a lot of rain during the summer, but i will try to catch some when it does rain. I can bypass the water softener which would eliminate the salt, but our well water is pretty hard. I could cut unsoftened water with distilled water to cut down on the minerals, or I could use all distilled water in the summer. Using distilled water does get expensive, but she probably won't be drinking as much water this summer until her leaves come back.

Do you think the softened water is definitely the problem? Do you think she will survive if I totally eliminate the softened water? She does keep putting on a couple tiny new leaves & the lemons look healthy.

I really appreciate your help & wish I had found this site sooner. I will keep you posted on how she is doing.

Thanks so much!

Salt based softened water is definitely a problem. Even without softened water the addition of fertilizers can also cause a build up of soluble salts in time, thus the reason to flush the container every now an then. I am no fan of Jobe's Organic Citrus & Fruit fertilizer a 3-5-5 formula. Your tree would be much better fertilized with a conventional fertilizer having a formulation as close to a 5-1-3 formulation as possible. .

Hello!

We are in southern Florida. Purchased a small Myer Lemon tree from Walmart. I have been watering it once in the morning with about 1 gal. and once with about a 1/2 gallon at about 8 to 9 pm. When I first got the tree the heat and sun down here wilted the leaves. It looked real sick. Some one on Youtube stated to put a little epsom salt in the water. I used about a 1 tablespoon to a the gallon in the moring once about every 5 days. I did that just a couple of times. Its been vary dry here. The canals actually dried up. I have been getting odd leaves that turn brown and then fall off. I also had a cat eating the leaves at one time! Had to put some chicken screen around it. It looks generally healthy. It flowered about a week to 2 weeks a go.

The brown leaves appear to be due to the Epsom salts and/or not enough water. If you have well draining soil, water with 5 gallons/day. Use Epsom salts only if there is a nutritional deficiency, which there appears to be none. Clear the grass further away from the tree because it competes with the tree for nutrients and water.

How about watering your tree with air conditioner water? I heard it is free from minerals(correct me if I'm wrong). I use to see my uncle water his tomatoes with it.

Hello all. I'm located in East Central FL Zone 9b and I have a dwarf lemon tree, meant to be kept in a pot as far as the instructions said. Purchased it two years ago. Got four lemons the first year and none so far this year. It gets full sun all day under a lanai covering.

Suddenly the leaves are not looking right but in general the tree does. Am concerned that if I don't take action now, something real bad will happen. I can see several issues.

1- Leaves with yellowing/browning areas

2- One which might be mites?

3- Some leaves -very few- seem to have the veins yellowing up.

4- The tree seems to have consumed the soil... sounds strange but they is how I see it.

I never see soil coming out of the bottom of the pot when I water it thoroughly. about 2 months ago I added some soil on top with worm castings and some Potash. I water it every other day or third day when it does not rain. It can get brutally hot here.

Should I be attempting to gently take it out of the pot, adding more soil at the bottom and putting it back in? What can I do about the yellow/brown spots?

Thank you for any advice you can give me.

I'm not the expert here but seems you need to give your tree in a bigger pot

annbeatriz your tree is quite huge now, it needs more nutrition as it puts on more leaves. Maybe the amount you put on the soil in the past used to be enough but it's not getting enough now. I can't tell if the problem is caused by soil, watering, salts, or size but Susanne is right about putting your tree in a larger pot. Your tree looks great but your pot is too small to let your tree grow any larger and too small to hold enough water for it. It's better to have a ratio of more water than nutrients in the soil for nutrient uptake but I doubt that's possible for your tree right now. Good thing is that your leaves don't look severe. My tree used to have leaves like that and I just lightly bumped up the amount of fertilizer every feeding until I saw a good change in the leaves. Try giving a bit more nitrogen, yellow veins is sometimes a sign of lack of nitrogen. Good luck!

Would love your input on 1. leaf miner, 2. Leaf cupping and/or curling and 3. leaf burn problems I'm facing. Have gone thru your great video on addressing leaf miner issues. Want to be sure it's leaf miner alone or if these three issues need different solutions.
I purchased an owari satsuma dwarf mandarin plant a few weeks ago, have it in a pot and looks like I have a heavy leaf miner infestation. In addition there seems to be tip browning and curling. I live in the Bay Area. Have started a cycle of spinosad every two weeks, alternating with neem oil on the off weeks. Been about 3 weeks and the curling only seems to be getting worse. Plant is south facing with full sun.

Have posted pics at Pinterest:

https://pin.it/t4X73-W

if you could take a look and provide any inputs on what else I should doing will be very much appreciated. I did top the soil with a little bit of chicken manure and the browning *may* have followed that.

At the same link, have also pics of a couple little banana trees that also seem to be suffering from leaf burn. Wondering if the cause is that I didn't sufficiently acclimatize the banana plants in shade after getting it via mail from the nursery. They are potted and placed south facing in full sun.
This is my very first time trying to grow fruit trees (or any trees for that matter) - Thank you for lending a helping hand to aspiring backyard gardeners

Hi kumarbites, it's best if you start a new thread to ask for advice so that people know where to look to read about your trees problems. There is also a forum for bananas that you can ask post on and ask advice for. I'm still new to growing fruit trees myself but the best way to understand the general symptoms and treatments is to research about your plants.

Leaf miner damage usually only affects appearance and doesn't cause much harm to trees. Cupping/curling is usually a watering issue. Either too little or too much water, take a look at your soil to see which of the two extremes it is. I can't access your Pinterest images without logging into Pinterest so I can't see the tip browning but if you create a new thread and post the photo here, people can help guess at the problems. Good luck!

I am so glad I found this thread. I am a newbie gardener growing the dwarf Meyer lemon tree for the past 5 months. It’s a 2 year old plant I got from an online store. I live in NJ. The plant is grown indoors near a south facing window and I maintain 65-70degrees Fahrenheit. In the past 6-7 weeks there has been lot of changes in my plant. The changes in order
1. It started yellowing and dropping leaves.
2. I started giving less water(once a week)
3. Fertilized the plant with Jobe s organic fertilizer.
4. In a week, the leaf drop reduced. From 5-6 a day to 8-10 a week.
5. I started getting buds all over the plant and now it has started blooming too( fingers crossed for them to become lemons :))
6. I see brown/yellow marks developing on my leaves as shown in the picture.

Would like to hear all your expert suggestions on what I should do at this time.

Do not use Jobe s organic fertilizer because organic fertilizers require microbial activity to convert it into a form usable by your trees. Your tree looks fine now but may suffer nutritional deficiencies if you continue using organic fertilizers. I use Dyna Gro 9-3-6 fertilizer.

Hi, Thanks for all the wonderful information. I am growing a meyer lemon in the Pacific Northwest inside. It is also showing some yellowing of the leaves and brown tips. It did have a bout with spider mite last spring, but I treated that and there are no signs of infestation now. It sits inside next to two large windows, one facing east with a porch roof limiting sun and also a window of full south sun for half the day. There is a register near the plant. Do the above suggestions apply---showering and repotting and changing fertilizer? And how much lime should you use in repotting? And I noticed that some put in vinegar, it seems counter intuitive to the lime? Thanks for your help!

Leaves are turning brown at bottom and rolling up. Had some fungal gnats but I think they are gone. Moisture meter is in the middle, been watering once a week. Added some citrus fertilizer a few weeks ago 6-4-6. Not sure if it needs more fertilizer or less, or more water or less water? Any ideas? Thanks.