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dannybrake

Meyer lemon tree losing leaves help !

10 years ago

Hi everyone this is my first post on here ! I am new to the hobby and don't really know much. So this summer I purchased a Meyer lemon tree. The tree was great all summer, it was full of little lemons but most never got big enough and fell off. I live in Toronto and its around 0 c here so I brought in the tree in early nov. the tree kept blooming with flowers and little lemons but they always fell off and never got to a substantial size. 2 weeks ago I found some mites little white things and some webbing around. So I bought some insecticide soap sprayed it and then wash it off in the shower. Well 2 weeks later about half the leaves have fallen. Some leaves are yellow and green and the top leaves are green. There is still a few little lemons but I don't know if this plant will make it.


The

The soil is what it came with and I never fertilized it either, so it's how it came.


Includude some pictures hopefully one of you pros can help . Thanks everyone


Comments (4)

  • 10 years ago

    Well, you have
    probably made some of the classic Meyer lemon errors. First, when you
    dramatically change the light conditions a Meyer will drop most, if not all its
    leaves, to replace them later with leaves better suited to the new light
    conditions. To move a Meyer from outside to inside without the leaf loss, you
    need to move it from full sun to partial sun for 2 weeks; then to full shade
    for 2 weeks; then indoors; reverse the process when putting it out in the
    Spring... and please DO put it out, if you can; you will be rewarded with a
    happy, healthy plant.
    Second, when you bring it indoors to a sunny window, the plant gets warm; but
    the roots generally stay cool; and citrus roots don't like to grow into cool
    soil... the solution is to put some sort of heater to warm the soil, or to put
    the plant a little further from the window. The thing to remember is first the
    roots grow; and then the leaves and branches.
    Now to your current situation... the plant is stressed and "thinks"
    it is going to die, so it will try to make seeds (fruit). If you take off the
    flowers, the tree will only make more; so wait until the flowers drop and then
    take off all the fruit; soon after that, if you treat it well, it will start to
    make new leaves... and then you should start to feed it. Have patience.

    dannybrake thanked johnmerr
  • 10 years ago

    Along with Johns comments, I'd like to know how much you water and how often? How do you know when to water? How long are your watering intervals inside?

    Your tree is being attacked by mites, and the fact that you got webbing tells me that tree was further stressed quite a bit...

    Once you keep the mite population under control, that means spraying ever few days until they are gone. Once you figure out how to water correctly in that mix and how to prevent a 'PWT' from happening this time of the year and once you follow John's advice, that tree just might settle down and respond very well)

    Nice to have you


    Mike


    dannybrake thanked myermike_1micha
  • 10 years ago

    John ...

    Thanks for the advice , next summer I will take your advice and move it out slowly . I don't have a heater I can put so I have moved it a little bit away from the window and have also picked off all the little lemons like u suggested. I didn't know it drops its leaves like that for new ones, I figured it was on its way out. I will let you know what happens . Thanks for the advice !



  • 10 years ago

    Mike ....

    In the summer I would water once a week or twice depending on the weather. Since its been inside I do the same about once a week and when I sprayed it last week with that soap I washed it off in the shower and soaked it. As for when I water again I usually just water let's say every Monday about a glass and a little , then wait for it to drain in the tray if any and dump that water out. I will continue to be spraying it every few days like you said hopefully it clears up. Also what is a PWT ? And how can I prevent that ?


    thanks Mike for the response !