Unusual Leaf collor and loss on Meyers Lemon

Discussion in 'Citrus' started by Steve777, Jan 29, 2010.

  1. Steve777

    Steve777 Member

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    Unusual for me at least. I'm hoping someone here will recognize these.

    I have two potted dwarf Meyers lemons, and recently they both (although one much more so) began loosing leaves. The leaves turn yellow, generally evenly all over, but with a few "spots" that remain green. The leaves eventually drop off. Hopefully I have attached a couple of pics of this.

    The trees are potted in a mixture of perlite and peat-based soil mix, and were re-potted not that long ago (6-8 months). They were flushed prior to bringing them in in the fall. I water roughly every two days, when the top is dry an inch or two down, until water starts coming out the bottom. And I fertilize roughly once a month.

    Thoughts?

    TIA
     

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  2. Junglekeeper

    Junglekeeper Esteemed Contributor 10 Years

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    This reminds me of the problem I had with a meyer lemon. My description of it appears in this post in an external forum. Is this what you're seeing? I ended up discarding the tree to safeguard my collection against possible infection.
     
  3. Poetry to Burn

    Poetry to Burn Active Member

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    I'm new to citrus plants but this winter i have been watering my plants about every 10 days. They are growing in pots in west facing windows z6-7. They have held all their leaves and are initiating a bit of new growth..
     
  4. Millet

    Millet Well-Known Member 10 Years

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    First, welcome to another Colorado citrus grower. All in all, your tree looks to be quite healthy. I think what is going on with your tree are two things. A small amount of winter leaf drop, and a few of the older leaves, that have out lived their life span, are being discarded by your tree. When a leaf can no longer pull it full weight, it is quickly dropped by the tree, there is no welfare plan for citrus leaves. A couple suggestions:
    1). If you do not have a soil thermometer get one, so that you can monitor the tree's root zone temperature. If you keep the root zone at 64 to 70F, during the winter months your tree should not experience WLD. 2). Your tree's location is not bad, but during the winter it is important that not only is the tree's foliage in the light, but that the container should also be DIRECTLY in the sun's rays. This helps keep the root zone temperature up. I currently have 100+ citrus trees of all different varieties, growing both in the ground and in containers. One half of my containers are painted white, and one half are painted black. During the winter, the black side is facing south toward the sun, and during the summer the white side is pointed south. This alone helps to keep the roots warm. Temperatures at or below 55.4F, citrus roots cannot function, and at temperatures above, but close to 55.4 F citrus roots function poorly. I won't go into all the mechanics of WLD, as you can use the search function on this forum to read about it, if you don't already understand how WLD causes the loss of the tree foliage. Your tree should not have much more problems as the days are getting longer, and spring is near, plus Colorado has very sunny winters. A couple last comments. The two most IMPORTANT needs for containerized citrus trees are a high porosity rapid draining medium, and winter root zone temperatures at a minimum of 64+F. Remember, the medium (potting soil) temperature will always be colder than the room temperature, due to the evaporation from the medium surface. The best of luck to you and your tree. Here is another really excellent web site with a lot of information useful for container citrus growers. http://citrus.forumup.org/ - Millet (1.084-)
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Feb 17, 2010
  5. Steve777

    Steve777 Member

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    Thanks to all. A few answers:

    I water when the soil feels dry 1-2" down. That works out to every 2-3 days unless it is quite cloudy for an extended time. One difference may be that I am in Colorado at 8300' and I suspect it is quite a bit drier and sunnier than back East.

    Millet. As far as the soil goes, this stuff still seems to be draining well (it is ~50% perlite) and is quite loose on top. Loose enough for me to get a finger into test for moisture. But sounds like next re-pot I should try something better.

    Most of the leaf loss has been on 6mos to 1 year old leaves. The ones from last summers growth primarily. This pic shows the whole tree, and you can see a few of the currently yellowing leaves, and some of the branches which have lost maybe 40-50% of their leaves. Some of that back in the fall when they first moved indoors, but about 1/2 or more of the loss was this yellowing over the last couple months.

    These trees were infested with spider mites (and a few aphids) earlier this fall. But I believe that regular spraying has gotten that under control. At least I do not see the webs nor many signs of the mites. Is it possible that there are still damaging numbers of mites without seeing them in great numbers?
     

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