Need help with citrus.

11 years ago

My Kaffir lime had some small yellow spots on a few lower leaves for a couple of months. I ignored it since it did not seem to be spreading. In the past week, it suddenly spread very quickly. I bought this plant at a plant show in May, so it is probably just a year old. Does anyone know what this could be?

The first pic was taken about 2 weeks ago and the leaves had looked like that for a while.

This happened in the past few days.

New growth is showing signs of leaf miner? and does the leaf on the left look like citrus greening?

Featured Answer

carolb_w_fl_coastal_9/10

11 years ago

IMPE, fertilizing w/ Citrus-Tone organic fertilizer has helped our trees a lot. I lost a grapefruit to greening, but the others are hanging in there.

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Comments (8)

Michael AKA Leekle2ManE
11 years ago
They aren't just yellowing, but the newer leaves look like they might be deformed. It could be a nutrient deficiency, but to my eye it looks like Greening.
oldmangroot
11 years ago
Could be bugs - aphids, scale, leaf miners, in some combination. I get every pest imaginable on my citrus. What pesticides do you spray/soak with?
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garyfla_gw
11 years ago
Hi

Check out the u of florida site has all kinds of info on diseases and deficiencies complete with pix. All five of my citrus have greening as well as my neighbors.. There are treatments but long and involved and worse mostly ineffective .. Interestingly a grapefruit showed marked improvement over winter and flowered and set right on cue . They are starting to ripen and look really good Why i don't know but this tree was confirmed with greening by a lab around 3 years ago. Hope whatever happened spreads !! It is the only tree in the entire neighborhood with no signs !!!! good luck gary
ibarbidahl
11 years ago
I will reiterate the fertilizer. That looks like a nutrient deficiency. Unfortunately that is the main sign of greening until it gets pretty bad. Feed your baby and keep it in a screened enclosure for best luck.
ibarbidahl
11 years ago
OH! And greening does not happen fast. So that is a good sign
vml68
Original Author
11 years ago
Thank-you all for your responses.

Michael - the new leaves are a bit deformed and I thought it might be citrus leaf miner issues but one of those leaves did look like it might be greening.

Oldmangroot - I moved to FL a year ago and bought my first citrus (the kaffir in the pic) in May. I am not very knowledgeable about growing citrus. So, I have not used any pesticides/fungicides yet.

Gary - I checked out the U of FL site and the spots on my plant did not really match up with the greening pics they have. In fact, it looked closer to greasy spot to me!

Carol, Ibarbidahl - I will try out the Citrus-Tone. I am really hoping it is only a nutrient deficiency. I would hate to lose my very first citrus.

I am a bit nervous about greening since I went on a buying spree this summer and bought 10 different citrus plants. It was a welcome to FL gift to myself that I may end up regretting. LOL!
Audrey Apelbaum
11 years ago
You can do an iodine test for greening. Everything you need is readily available around the house or at your local pharmacy. Thats what my extension agent recommended to me. It basically tests for starch in the leaves as healthy citrus leaves have very low levels of starch, but greening affected plant tissue tends to fil up with it. If you test it and the tree has no starch, you will know it is not greening.

Now, greening is not the only thing that will cause a positive result, a zinc deficiency or wood damage can cause it as well, but if it tests positive for high levels of starch and the tree is not damaged you can assume its likely that it does have greening. Here is a link for the test. Also keep in mind, this test is most accurate when performed between June and November.

http://www.crec.ifas.ufl.edu/extension/greening/PDF/HS37500.pdf