I would remove the ground cover growing under it and water more often. The pot also seems a couple of sizes too small. That should be in a 5 gallon nursery pot.

Oh really? Guess I'll be making a trip to lowes tomorrow for a pot! I wasn't sure if the ground cover was hurting anything but I'm not opposed to removing it. Any particular consistency of soil that carambolla prefer? It gets watered once a day in the evenings when my stepmom waters the rest of the garden.

It's a dwarf starfruit from Logees, if that makes a difference.

Are you in California or Florida? It looks California with the lawn. It still -to me- seems like it could be happier in a larger pot and be able to grow a bigger root system for handling fruits. By keeping it too constrained it goes into survival mode..not growth mode.

Also- outdoor plants need more pot then the same grown in a greenhouse. I grew Starfruit in a greenhouse but in perfect warmth and humidity with timed waterings. Outdoors,you have direct sun,drying winds... a bigger pot is needed to handle all that.

I'm actually in Pennsylvania. I know I'm a bit far north for the tree, but I'm not intending to stay in this area for much longer. I want to move south asap; the less winter the better lol.

The tree is a sort of indoor-outdoor tree. In the summer, when it's warm at night, the tree lives outside. When it starts to get too cold at night, I take it out during the day and bring it in at night. During the winter, it lives in my dad's office with a high-output grow lamp (the same bulb he uses on his indoor tree). The office is the preferred space because he has a number of fish tanks and a crab paludarium so the room is always warm and humid; not as much as appropriate outdoor weather, but at least the tree isn't exposed to the harsh north winters.

I suppose I should have clarified that. Anyway, now that I'm looking at how big 5 gallon pots are, I agree that it could use more space, especially now that it is filling out more. So I'll make sure it gets moved to a bigger pot tomorrow. Again, any type of soil mix I should be leaning towards? Or is standard garden potting soil ok for it??

I went to lowes to look for a pot and the pot I have actually is a 5 gallon. Should it be bigger still??

I removed the weeds from around the tree and watered it. Hopefully that helps, at least until tomorrow when I can take the time to repot.

A 5 sounds large enough Art. Just don't use a heavy mix. Try to blend in lots of firbark to the - I'm guessing potting soils- that are sold.

I would go with a 15 gallon.

Its hard to judge the scale of the plant. 15 might be overpotting. What Art,is the size of the pot its in now?

given the environment and lack of sun, a 5 gal would likely do for a few months

but, long term, i would have to say at least 15 gallon would be needed..

i would use pine bark fines, compost, perlite (or vermiculite) and worm castings. it needs good drainage, but, also need nutrients. Starfruit is known to get zinc, iron, magnesium, and manganese deficiencies unless there is enough good quality organic matter. or if the PH is too high.

Carambola trees are moderately tolerant of excessively wet or flooded soil conditions

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/mg269

Sorry everyone! I went on vacation and lost this thread in the mess of emails. I read all the responses and I really appreciate the feedback; I removed the weeds and it perked up a bit. I'm also going to get it a larger pot and give it a different soil mix and see if that helps.

Also Stan, the pot looks very similar in size to a 5 gallon, although now I'm not sure if it might be something just a tad smaller. It doesn't say how many gallons it is. I'm going to try something around 10 gallons to start.