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meyer lemon tree leaves yellowing

11 years ago

I have a meyer lemon tree and I brought it in for the winter, put it under a 60 or 80 watt grow light and it did great for the first few months.Lately it's been dropping leaves, with them getting yellow from the outside and slowly dying. I've watered the plant since than and it seems to be thirsty, but I've usually been light on the water. I put in another of the fertilizer pods we got with the tree, even though the previous one wasn't fully dissolved. I'm just wondering if there is something else I should be doing. I could put in a 10-10-10 fertilizer if that'd help.Thoughts? The soil is a bit basic I think, but the reader is a bit all over when I put it in for a reading. I could get some coffee grinds I guess if I need to drop the acidity.here's a picture

Comments (6)

  • 11 years ago

    Yes, it most likely does need fertilizer.

    You say "fertilizer pods" - is that a spike or tablet, like the Jobe's product?
    If so, get a spoon and dig out any remaining portion of the tablet. They're an awful product that doesn't distribute well and can cause fertilizer "hot spots" that burn plant roots.

    Much better to use a slow release like Osmocote, and then a liquid with a favorable NPK ratio and micronutrients. I, too, am a Foliage Pro user.

    Josh

  • 11 years ago

    It's also a possibility, if the 2nd (middle) number of your fertilizer's NPK %s (phosphorous) is/was higher than the 1st or 3rd number, you're seeing the effects of P being present in the soil at toxic levels, inhibiting uptake of Fe and Mg (iron and magnesium), which can cause chlorotic foliage.


    Skip the coffee grounds - they make more issues than they remedy. If you need to acidify the soil, get some pH paper or a pond test kit. Add enough white vinegar or citric acid to a gallon of water to bring the pH down to about 5.2-5.5. Each time you water or fertigate, use the acid treated water.


    Make sure you're not over or under-watering. That would be the first thing I'd want to check off the list as not causal.


    Al

  • 11 years ago

    To second Al's comment, coffee grounds have been shown to be nearly neutral -- they do not acidify soil so there is no point in adding them for that reason. They are better used as compost (i.e. not in containers).

  • 11 years ago

    FWIW, I have had a small kaffir lime and each winter it puts on new growth and flowers when I first bring it in (an effect of the long day cycle under lights? or the warmer temps?). By late winter I see some yellowing and it drops some of the older leaves. It seems to bounce back in the spring once it gets outdoors.

    Al, could this be stress from flowering?



  • 11 years ago

    Agree with previous posters - dig out those spikes/pods and use a good quality citrus fertilizer. Sounds like you might have been underwatering. We have aMeyer lemon that we have growing in a pot at our zone 6b Massachusetts home. We bring it in before the first frost and put it outside again on the deck in spring. Around this time of the year it does the same thing.... I think it's because of a lack of bright enough sunlight, even though we winter it in front of a bright palladian window,. Ours, too, will bounce back as soon as it's back outside.

    We thought that dryness of the air might be a problem and put a humidifier in the room but that did not make any appreciable difference.