Well I would water until it would run out the bottem and then make sure that it wasnt "sitting" in any water in the bottem tray. But it seems like its never drying out! It seemed that it was weeks until it had to be watered again! Is this normal? And I had the fertilizer mixed into the soil, should i repot them?

yes, i would take them out of the pot asap. gently remove all the soil from the roots. any mushy and stinky root needs to be cut off. re-pot in soil that has a good drainage (maybe want to look up al's gritty mix) use a wooden stick to test if you need to water. just because it runs out at the bottom doesn't mean that the soil particles don't store the water.
what kind potting soil did you use? if you can not get the gritty mix, look for soil suitable for cacti. avoid any that says with moisture retention. make sure you have lots of draining holes in your pot
let the soil dry out before watering again.
good luck :)

Ok I will re-pot them! I have soil meant for citrus or cacti, so that should work! I also picked up some sticks that tell you when you need to water again. How deep should I put them though to get a correct reading? I don't want them too deep so they dry out, or too high so they get over-watered! Thank you so much for your help!

i just put them deep enough so they reach the root area. i use wooden skewer and never leave them in. just stick in, leave for a couple of seconds and pull out again. is like testing the cake if it is done ;)

And this was the fertilizer I was originally using. Is it bad? I feel like they started doing worse after I added this? Should I use those little sticks instead that are for fertilizing house plants?

Oh, ok that makes sense! Well I re-poted them now. Just hoping for the best! :) Do you have any ideas on the fertilizer? Should I use those little sticks for house plants? Or the kind I was using that I posted above? Or just none at all??

i would use the one you posted.sticks for house plants are useless for citrus.
but wait until you see nee growth before you fertilize again.
how did the roots look like?

They looked pretty good as far as I could see. A little mushy in some spots, but no bad smell!

and this is exactly your problem. mushy roots is root rot from over watering.
i think if you reduce the watering time in between, you might see improvement. will take a while until new roots grow.

it just seems that it takes so long in between watering for it to dry out. its summer now and i have then outside all day, but it still seems like the soil will stay moist for over a week and i dont need to water...?

if still moist, no water. how big is the pot?
the damaged root system needs some time to recover. be patient with the watering. :)

the pot is 6 inches across. plants are pretty small still! i just want them to get better soon! haha

the orange is on the left and the lemon is on the right.

i don't use the outer pots with my trees as the water can not drain there. your orange tree looks a bit not so well too. leave edges are rolled in.
did you cut all the dead roots off?
i would use a smaller pot for the lemon so it can dry faster.

I cut off what looked like dead roots, but its so hard to tell! the pots are a little smaller that theyre in. i have them sitting in nicer looking pots cuz the draining ones are ugly. haha Should i just have the draining pots on their own though?

i think it would be a good idea to just use the draining pots until you have the watering schedule figured out.

ok, so do you water until it runs out the bottem? or how do you know how much to water it??

My dwarf orange tree is coming back. In 2 months, all leaves have curled, turned yellow/brown, and fallen off. At what I thought was the end, green curled leaves fell off, smaller branches have all turned brown and died. Thought the small dwarf orange was a goner. First, my mistake was I left the soil that was from the original pot around the roots. For some reason, the stuff they used clumped hard, and would just soak all the water in, so in a week it still felt moist. I didn't check till all the leaves have fallen off, and I thought it was too late. I later made my new soil with plenty of rocks at the bottom and used potting soil with the little Styrofoam looking beads mixed well in and moved the tree to a larger pot. I used about 10 drops of miracle grow plant food, and just let the tree sit there for a week, 2nd week I just very lightly watered, barely sprinkled it. 3rd week, small buds and leaves are forming all around again, small flowers seem to be jutting out of branches that I thought were almost dead. So now, i'm limiting my watering down to 1 to 2 times a week and this is just a basic light sprinkle till it re-establishes itself. Then I will start watering it once a week fully as before when the roots start growing more. But so far so good. My lesson? Even in the heat here in LA, these small dwarf trees do not need extra water, if you see leaf curling or browning tips and leaves falling off. Cut back on the watering. this picture is from my cell phone, so not the greatest, but I hope hope you can see the little buds of leaves and flowers starting to jut out.

This post was edited by Marky350z on Fri, Aug 16, 13 at 17:24

Marky, I'm in San Diego and have several citrus trees that had the same thing happening to them. Here's what will help you tremendously. Go to your local grocery store and buy a large bag of Epson Salt. 3lbs = $3.00. Go to your local Home Depot and buy a bag of bone meal 3lbs = roughly $7.00. Cut back on the fertilizer unless the middle # is higher than the other 2 #s on the bag because too much nitrogen will stop a tree from blooming. It's the magnesium, calcium and phosphate in the Epsom Salt and Bone Meal that will make those trees grow like they're on steroids. I've resurrected several trees by doing this and in just one week, not only did the trees come back to full life but there were blooms all over them. I use both products liberally. Probably three times the recommended dose but they are loving it. I only use liquid fertilizer once a month, if that. Try this combo and I'm sure you will have some very fast results! Good luck.

BTW, this combo can be used on MANY other types of fruits, vegetables and flowers for super healthy growth.

my lemon trees are dropping leaves and í just notice the tips getting brown...i think it wasn't enough light so i just bought a grow light 2 days ego..i also added some citrus food on the soil....should i wait to see if tha was it....they were growing fine while they were outside, but because of the cold í brought them in about 2 months ago, and this started about 3 weeks ago...í dont want them to die!

Your room definitely looks quite dingy...I would install strong grow lights. Also maybe water less?

I bought a Mayer lemon tree about 2months ago it was doing great but now all my leaves are falling off any idea what's going on

Jessica, that bis a very vague question....

No one is going to be able to help you if you don't give us more details, facts and how you care for your tree...Please give us as much detail as possible and even a pic would help....Thanks...

I would start a whole new thread too so we can focus on helping you and not have to scroll past post from 2013....))