Hey everyone, I hope someone will be able to come up with a solution to my problem. I bought last summer three "Variegated Pink Lemons" of a nursery in my town. Unfortunately, all my citrus trees are dying. Their leaves are all fallen, some of their branches have died and the earth seems littered with centipedes and tiny tiny little beetles. I really don't know what to do to save them. More information: I live in Montreal, these citrus trees are grown indoors in my apartment with a room temperature of 22 degrees Celsius. I'm watering 1-2 times a week and I let the earth dry between waterings. Another of my plants had cochineals, but my lemons don't seem affected at all. As advised by the nursery from which they come I have given them a 15-15-15 fertilizer, but when they got sick I immediately stopped. I really do not know what to do! Please help me!
A few questions: Do they continue to develop new growth? If so, does it appear healthy? What kind of light do they receive? Are they directly behind a window? What direction do they face? Do you have low humidity levels in your apartment? I'm not familiar with cochineals but according to Wikipedia the "insect lives on cacti in the genus Opuntia". Do you mean regular scale insects?
Do they continue to develop new growth? If so, does it appear healthy? -Not really, one of them developped one new growth but it fell off yesterday. What kind of light do they receive? Are they directly behind a window? What direction do they face? -The plants are located at the corner of two windows, one facing south and the other facing west (little light from the west). They are a little more than 30 cm away of each window. Do you have low humidity levels in your apartment? -I have no instrument to measure humidity in my apartment unfortunately Do you mean regular scale insects? -Sorry, Im speaking french first, so my translations are maybe not the best, but yes I was meaning scale insects (the white ones). I so much appreciate your help, sincerely, thank you!
whenever i purchase any plants from any nursery, i always remove and toss out all the soil, washing any off the roots as its usually contaminated. most nurseries have indoor/outdoor or greenhouse their plants until ready for sale, this is ok, as long as they will be outdoor plants, but if you bring them indoors, you are bringing in all the bugs, eggs, bacteria etc into your home, which is prime conditions for an infestation. usually most trees will experience some leaf loss when being brought indoors, but its hard to diagnosis without pictures. remove all the soil from your plants, all of them, toss it out!! do it now! the new potting soil should be baked in the oven at 450 degrees, and for a min of 4 hrs to kill any unwanted guests. ( unless you buy your soil from a hydroponics shop, which guarantee clean soil, or you can sue them for the loss of your plants,then there is no need to bake it.) cross contamination of your plants 'issues' is best to be avoided. lights can be purchased here in canada for indoor growing, at any home hardware store for about $5.00 and should be on for 18 hrs min. until new growth is present. i wouldn't recommend feeding your plants until new growth is present. one other problem i find with my lemon trees, as i have about 15 of them, (outdoor mostly, as i live on salt spring island bc, really warm here) is they are food hogs, and the nurseries use soiless mix, which has no actual soil to hold and feed the plants! so i have to feed often with a lemon/avocado food, and used coffee grounds, they love the coffee grounds mixed into the soil. soiless mix drains fast, is very light, encourages root growth but has no nutritional value, so if you are a control freak like me, you can tweak your plants as you like. depending on how often you feed your plants, will depend on the amount of light they have, and they just won't grow in low light. good luck!
I lost a calamondin under similar circumstances (i.e. leaf loss with dieback and aborted new growth) that I suspect was caused by low humidity levels. (I've not had a problem ever since the humidity in the room was raised.) On a related note, are the trees exposed to the drying effect of drafts from heating vents or radiators? Pictures of the trees may help in diagnosing the problem. Please post some if you can. A few more questions: What condition were the leaves in when they were shed? Have the trees always been kept indoors? When did you first start noticing a problem? Was the decline sudden or gradual? Did it coincide with an event? You may have mealybugs if the scale insects are white as you described. They should be dealt with if that is the case. Have you inspected the root systems for their presence? An inspection would also tell us the condition of the roots. Centipedes, in small numbers, do not pose a problem. Not sure about the beetles though; they need to be identified.
