Look for scale insects, which ants are also attracted to much like they are aphids (greenfly). Is this plant in the ground or in a container? Have you addressed the soil/water issues?

I´ve had a variety of problems with our citrus trees (lemon, grapefruit and a calamondin). I´ve had great help from the experts on the citrus forum. Some of the problems have been serious and some are just things that we (and the trees) seem to have learned to live with and which have had no long-lasting effect - so don´t be too down-hearted.
Good luck
Almeria

The main problems in California for citrus trees, is due mostly to ants. They carry the aphis to the greener parts of the trees and use them like cows. The aphis attach to the leaves and stems and the ants "milk" them for the juices they extract.

The best solution in my organic back yard, is to use duct tape, wrapped around the trunks of the citrus trees, then a generous layer of a product called "Tangletrap" (or is it Tanglefoot ??), anyway, nurseries carry it. This is applied to the wrapped around duct tape - on top and bottom, to snare any ants trying to carry aphis up the trees. The sticky goo needs to be applied from time to time as ants will bridge over it.

It is the best deterrent that I have found. Also, citrus will benefit from a hard spray of water early in the morning on a day that will dry their leaves before night time. This will wash away a lot of other invaders, like white fly, etc.

These 2 remedies work quite well for my back yard citrus. Of course, if there is an entire orchard involved, then perhaps spraying is the only answer.

Just my 2 c's.

Bejay

I live in San Diego. My lemon tree recently became infested by a new pest to the area called a citrus leaf miner. It is a little yellow worm that embeds itself into the new leaf growth. This causes the leaves to curl up and leaves brown tracks all through the under side of the leaf. The only way to get rid of them (until recently) was to cut off all the infected leaves. They have now come out with a relatively safe product called Spinosad that can control them. I removed all the new growth and sprayed several times with Spinosad. It seems to have worked. This may be at least one of your problems...

I was wondering as yo what is the remedy for the early fruit fall in lemon trees?

Can someone pl. help?

Thanks!

I have a lemon tree and its lemons are green and they are the normal size my poor lemon tree has grown only 1 lemon the was yellow all my others are green what can I do and how can i tell the difference from a lime tree or a lemon tree

The Persian lime is smaller than the Eureka lemon that I'm growing. It can also turn yellow when ripe, although not as pronounced, keeping more egg shape in character.

There is always a bit of orange/lemon/lime drop seemingly natural, as these trees set a lot more fruit than most.

The lemon took a few years to settle down and produce well.

The lime tree took off from the beginning, and seemed "right at home" in our climate, producing heavily this year (2nd), but dropping a lot of near-ripe fruit.

Mandarins also produce heavily and may need some pre-pruning to keep the tree producing bigger ripe fruit, as they can have a lot of little ones otherwise.

Bejay

My lemon tree is infested with scale and I don't know how to fix this problem I have tried removing them by hand which takes aq lot of time, but they always come back. My lemon tree is kept in the house over the winter, as I live in New Jersey. It is in a large pot. I keep the tree trimmed to no more than 3 ft. I am wondering if i can use a systemic treatment to get rid of the scale. My tree is at least 20 years old, and I don't want to lose it since the tree has always produced a lot of wonderful lemons in years past.

my lemon tree is indoors in a container. I've only had it for 6 month. The leaves have started turning yellow and falling off at a rapid pace. I have also noticed sticky sap on the leaves and branches. What do I do???

hi, i have to same problem as 'kas' but my tree is outside in the ground. im not sure how long its been there because we just moved into this rented home. its leaves are curling, its bark on its branchs are spliting and the other lime/lemon trees around it ether have ants and aphids or a wasp infestation.

i know how to get rid of the ants and wasps its just the lemon tree that doesn't seem to have a cause of sickness that im worried about.
please help.

i'd just like to add that i live in Australia NSW.

Our lemon tree is infested with something that is eating the skins off of the lemons while they're still on the tree. Can anyone help us?

The leaves of my lenmon tree are sticky, and so is the floor underneath. Some of the tips of the leaves are going brown. It doesn't look too healthy now but still fruiting. Kept is a conservatory throughout the year in the UK. Any ideas?

I moved into my house in 1988 and had a mature lemon tree that always produced more lemons than we could possibly use. This year we had no crop and now, when we should be getting flours and buds for the next season, ...we are not.

Do you have any idea what could be the problem? There appears to be no disease or bugs, and it's getting the same amount of water as it always did.

I would really appreciate your help with this. I really miss my lemon tree producing fruit.

Thank you,
Cheryl

i have a similar problem as saltl (greece Oct 2005) however i have no ants nor do i have a green fly problem. i have treated the tree with a fungicide hoping that will take care of the problem. this situation began just prior to the growing season beginning before then (2-3 wks ago) i had no problem. i have even considered transferring the plant into another clay pot. any advice would be helpful. thanks!

My boss has a lemon tree that, after 20 years, has sticky sap all over it, the leaves, the limbs, etc. It just drips off. What can we do about this???? He is frustrated!

ANTS
My potted lemon plant used to be covered in ants (lassius niger) but no farmed aphids. SOLUTION: put the pot on stands in a tray of water so the buggers can't get to the tree at all!
This solved some other problems. My leaves and especially stems were covered with a sticky, waxy residue. I believe this was produced by the tree as a defence. This has now stopped.
Where the ants were scraping the leaves, small brown blisters were formed. These just wiped off with a damp cloth, and are now all gone.

YELLOWING LEAVES
See useful discussion titled 'Lemon Tree Yellow Leaves' at http://digitalseed.com/common/common.mv?add

I'm a caretaker, my boss had a lemon tree in the corner of his dining room that is a glassed in green house for a very old grape vine. The lemon tree was too cold and wet so I took it out and recently planted it in a new pot, cut back some branches, have it outside on my patio. The problem is that it has scales that I have been removing with soapy water from leaves under and top side and the trunk and branches. I really want this tree to live and be happy. Any advice on getting rid of the scales?

My problem is the leaves curling, we had 3 lemons, but are down to one. it's been growing since early march and is still green. last year the lemons never turned yellow

My lemon tree of few years is producing good number of lemons. But the fruits split/rupture, if I wait for them turning yellow. As a result I have to harvest them green. What could be the problem?

My backyard 15 year old lemon tree has not had good lemons on it for 6 years. There are lots of very large lemons with extremely thick skin and very little juice.
Some of the leafs,less than 1% curl around like a pea pod.
Others are shriveled and have brown shiney deposits on the underside of the leaf.
Any ideas on what I should do?

I have lemon tree scale. What needs to be done?

For all of you that are seeing sap dripping on the floor from your lemon trees: Look at the undersides of the leaves - there are probably light-brown blistery looking bumps, especially near the center rib. That is scale. The bumps are actually insects. They need to be washed off because they are sucking the sap out of the leaves. You can also spray with horticultural oil. That helps keep the scale from coming back.

My back yard is small, yet it has 3 mature citrus trees: lemon, orange, and tangerine.

Previous years I had problem with little white insects on the leaves. Those trees sometimes have spiders, and I ususally killed them (sorry!). Last year a friend of mine recommended me not to kill the spiders so that they can eat the insects.... This solution seems to work since those white insects are under control, but the spiders are getting bigger and bigger.

My lemon tree shown dark liquid on the branches, I saw so many ants climbing on the tree. Also the lemon became deformed, bigger in the size and has strange look. Anyone knows the problem and how to resolve it.

My dwarf Eureka lemon tree has absolutely no leaves or lemons but is still very green, and I haven't noticed any insects on it. I've been fertilizing it once a month with a special fruit tree fertilizer, but nothing has happened. I live on the central coast of California and bought the tree at a local nursery, so it's supposed to do well in this climate. Any suggestions out there?