Pictures

I have no way of looking at the pics(

How often do you change your mix out and what kind of mix do you use? What is your watering schedule like? Do you water your potted trees just until enough water comes out from the bottom? How often do you feed? And, you are sure it's getting enough sunlight and warmth? How much sun, how long?

Ok, that's most likely a watering issue and that mix looks way too dense for anything I would grow mine in....Please, answer my questions above and other will help too)

One of your leaves (the lighter one) looks nutrient deficient. The other looks sunburned. Taking the tree from indoors to sunny quickly can result in sunburn. The nutritional deficit can be caused my your mix and potential root rot if you do not have it in a fast-draining mix. What is it planted in? Looks like potting soil from the pic. That is not good for potted citrus.

Dear both,

Thanks for getting back to me so promptly.

The soil is a mix of approximately 70% Citrus Focus Repotting mix ( http://www.growthtechnology.com/product/citrus-focus-repotting-mix/) 20% sandy Pete and 10% normal potting soil.

I have not changed the dirt for around 8 months which was when I potted it up. I am happy to change it if you can recommend a better mix.

In terms of watering schedule, as I said originally I normally water the plant once every 10 days-ish depending on how quickly the solid feels dry. I mix 1 table spoon of Citrus Focus feed ( http://www.growthtechnology.com/product/citrus-focus/) with around a pint of water. I do not often use the whole pint on the plant poring some of it away. Having said all this, the time I watered the plant I used two tablespoons of the mix and flooded the pot in a desperate attempt to rectify and nutrient deficiency haha.

As for sunlight exposure, most of the time the plant has been in the conservatory so it has been accustomed to lots of sunlight. Just after the burning happened I went away for 2 weeks during which the plant sat by my window (which where it is now). While I was away there was a lot of growth but on returning home I out it back into the conservatory.

It is in very good light! That's not the issue...What concerns me is the 'mix'..You said dirt..

Two things....You have not been watering so that the water and fertilizer run out the bottom freely and your mix is taking far too long to dry out between watering.

Taking that long to dry out tells me the soil has collapsed, the roots are suffocating, and it's retaining too many undissolved salts because of the amount of time it takes for you to water again, two weeks, way too long, especially in that much light, and because you water in sips..

First thing I would do is change your mix out and do a complete re pot....

Do you have a pic of that mix , or I can look it up..It sounds pretty dense and very organic to me...It is was, you would have to do a re pot every 3 months or so into a fresh mix that will continually allow oxygen to the root zone and allows the salts to drain through each time......What do you have access to to make that mix more porous? What kind of mix can you make that will force you to water more frequently? What kind of amendments do you have access to there to create a more preferably for the roots to breathe and that will make your mix drain more freely?

It's not too late to save it, but if you even desire to, I would do it a.s.a.p...

Okay, so upon your recommendation I have gone out into the dark (with my torches) and repotted the tree.

Admittedly I have had to reuse some of the original dirt as I was a bit short, however, the majority is now fresh Citrus Focus potting solid (which says "quick draining" on the bag) along with a small amount of sandy peat.

The soil I removed was reasonably moist, and fell from the roots easily. I should note it's been a week since the last water but as I said previously I did flood it...

Do you think this will help?

Also should I be concerned about the steam die-back in this photo? I am tempted to cut it...

Thanks again.

I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but that soil is probably not much better than what you had. I don't know what to tell you. You can try it with that soil for a bit. The mix most of us here us for potted citrus is either the 5-1-1 or gritty mix. If you search for that, you will find it. I use the 5-1-1 because I have large trees and it is much lighter, which makes brining them inside for winter much easier. For your container, you can just buy a small bag of reptibark (at the pet store), then you will need some perlite, and a tiny amount of peat moss. If you search for 5-1-1, you will get the exact recipe. Vladimir posts it all the time. If you want to save the tree, it may be worth it.

You live in the UK...I forgot. I wonder if you can find the reptibark there...many use pine bark fines. Cool that the tree is from a seed from Menorca...My grandfather was from Mallorca, and I have visited the island and loved it! They immigrated to Cuba, where I was born, but I now live in the USA. Good luck to you and your tree!

OK, from what I read, it mostly peat and has a little perlite..But no bark...

If it were me, I would make sure to re pot into a pot just one size up from the root ball so it dries out faster and make sure to flush at least twice a month with fresh water...If you find that the mix is still holding moisture more than 5 days, then I would re pot it into a clay pot....This will force you to water more frequently since it will dry out faster, help prevent rot, and allow you to flush your mix from all the salt deposits more often..It will also force you to re pot every few months before the mix compacts again....Re potting again will not hurt, just make sure you remove as much as the old mix as possible carefully...

If you can find bark as Laura suggested, even better! I would leave the dirt out of your mix and just use the bagged...............Glad you came here for help..Hopefully you will stick around and let us know how it goes.

Can you take a pic of the ingredients in the fertilizer? I looked that up and it does not say at all..

As requested, here's a picture of the fertilisers contents.

Sadly, I woke up this morning to find the biggest leaf had fallen overnight.

Perhaps it's too late... :(

On a positive note, I had some come back well from the state yours is in now (in a Mediterranean climate, though).

Citrus are tough, so do not despair (yet!). I think that fertilizer looks good. It dos have trace elements, but I am no expert..I just use Foliage Pro.

It looks very weak to me, plus It's mostly organic with very low numbers. It will do barely anything for your citrus and take over a period of time if any nutrients do become available if your soil microbes are perfect for you trees to utilize it in containers...You are practically starving your trees even though you mean well)

if you are trying to turn your potted tree mixes into gardens that contain dirt and all kinds of organic materials that break down, encouraged by organic fertilizers at the expense of healthy roots systems, then you might end up with a dead tree anyway(

Do you have a good chemical fertilizers there too you could use in junction with that?

As said above, I have seen worst come back very strong once they are handled correctly..It just might take some time unless summer is just starting for you..

Hi all,

I thought I would give everyone an update as to the status of my lemon tree...

I've reported it again into a terracotta pot with a potentially better mix (it includes plenty of bark).

I am still using the same feed but doubling the dose per water.

So the good news is I have a number of new seemingly healthy leaves! So perhaps the tree is saved. Thanks everyone for your help.

My only last, niggling concern is that the two tallest steams which are now leaveless appear to be dying. Should I be worried? Should I cut off the dead to prevent it from spreading further?

Thanks again.