Good afternoon All I live in Melbourne Australia and about 8 weeks ago I purchased a Meyer Lemon tree in a pot. It was about 2 metres tall with full growth of leaves and some small lemon (buds). I have been preparing a hole in the backyard of my home for 4 weeks and during this time I have dug up the soil and mixed in Gypson to break down the soil, then I mixed in one bag of blood and boin to provide the soil with ample nutrition, then I mixed in a half a bag of sheep manure... I then removed the lemon tree from the pot andf planed it. I then placed red bark mulch around the tree and left a gap around the tree to allow water to filter through. I have been placing grey water (shower water) on the tree nearly every day but in total less than one bucket of water. It's been 3 weeks since I planted the tree and every leaf has fallen off of the tree. I have read some of your responses to this problem on this web page but I would still appreciate your thoughts as to why the leaves have fallen off? cheers
You need to extract the tree and examine the roots. If the roots are not completely dead, you can replant the tree correctly, and hope the tree recovers. Otherwise you will need to purchase another tree. Best of luck to you and this tree. - Millet (1,119-)
There are some Ag extension services around the globe that still do recommend others use amended backfill in their planting holes. A lot depends on the soil type and how good or bad the drainage is in that soil. Not all of the time is leaf drop due to the roots being underwatered or overwatered. We can get leaf loss from relative sustained heat with transpirational water loss to the leaves, in which it does not really matter how much or how little water we apply that we may see some leaf desiccation and subsequent leaf drop. Too much applied Nitrgoen as an example such as a Urea form of Nitrogen can cause leaf drop even from an aerial spray or from an overhead broadcast boom sprayer. Too much or an inordinate amount of microbial activity in the container and in the ground can cause some leaf drop. Also, a pathogen or two in the plant can cause leaf drop as well. One bacterial pathogen in particular in Citrus can cause the entire tree to shed its leaves - has nothing to do with roots in this case. So, in effect no matter what may have caused the leaf loss, it is due to a stress to the tree and does not have to be a stress to the roots only. Backfill for new plantings are usually not amended but in some areas it may be necessary in areas that have known salinity problems or have drainage issues. A lake does not always form at the bottom of the planting hole if we spend a little care in the digging of that hole. I agree raising the planting to better accommodate for drainage issues is a good thing but in areas that have good drainage and known soil nutrient imbalances or lack of organic matter in the soil that perhaps some amended humus mixed in with the rest of soil after the plant has been placed back in the hole and filled in with natural soil is not out of bounds. I've done it with Citrus in heavy clay loams before. What we do is dig out the soil for the hole. Place half the soil back in the hole, place the tree back in the hole and then use our humus and soil mixed amendment to use as filler to fill the rest of the hole. Gypsum should not be used as a mixture in soil but is better used as a top dress after the tree has been planted and has time to settle in. Animal manure takes time and fundamental de-nitrification to be readily available to the plant. We do not recommend animal manures be applied to Citrus for at least a year after the trees have been planted and then not applied any closer than two feet from the base of the tree. In row plantings animal manures can be applied in the middle of the rows and tilled in just like green manure crops are. Jim