Help! My dwarf lemon tree is not looking good.

9 years ago

I bought a dwarf lemon tree from local Costco a few months ago and it looked like below when I bought it.

It's located in my backyard which gets morning to early afternoon sun. I water whenever the soil is dry, sometimes 1 wk sometimes 2 wks depending on weather. I also use Espoma Citrus-tone Organic fertilizer every month. I am in norcal bay area. All the leaves started falling and left with 2 leaves on the very top but then all the leaves regrown about two weeks after. I read sometimes it could be because the amount of sunlight it gets changed. See below for picture when all the leaves were regrowing.

Then I switched to using foilage pro fertilizer hoping it will help the leaves grow. But after two weeks, all the new leaves started falling off with flowers blooming and now the flowers are wilting. See below.

Due to some reasons I never got to re-pot this tree. I have all the stuff I need for the gritty mix but I am afraid re-potting now will kill it faster. What should I do? All the tree branches are still green.

Featured Answer

Atheen - 7a - in Maryland, USA

9 years ago

See how yellow those lemon bases are right above the flower? The leaves look pretty yellow, too. My best guess is that you have a problem with too much moisture, since you haven't repotted and they always sell you trees in a peat rich soil. How often have you been watering? Did you make sure the soil was on the dry side before you watered?

Do me a favor, take a wooden skewer, dip it half way down the pot, wait 10 seconds and take it out. Then post a picture of the skewer. Tell us if it felt wet, or moist and if it came back up with some soil particles attached to it. Putting it against your cheek helps figuring the moisture part out (I know, it sounds crazy, but it works, trust me).

If I'm right, and it's a moisture issue, you might be contemplating root rot, in which case you need to repot asap. But do the skewer thing first, and post it. Also, take a little bit of your current potting soil, break it a little in your hand and put it on a white paper towel and take a pic of that, too, so we can figure out what we're dealing with and how wet it looks, too. When did you water last?

God bless,

Atheen

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Comments (6)

yeh_yeh
Original Author
9 years ago
Hi Atheen, I water it when I feel dry when I stick my fingers in the soil about 3 inches. The last time I water was on Sep 24th. I water about once every two weeks. I will get some wooden stick and report back.
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Laura LaRosa (7b)
9 years ago
I would repot...yes, it could die, but it WILL die if you leave it the way it is. I'm sorry!
yeh_yeh
Original Author
9 years ago
I repotted it last weekend. Atheen was right, the bottom of the soil was still moist after the last watering two weeks ago. I guess I need to water only once a month or even longer. My area is going to get lots of rain this weekend, should I move my tree to indoor so the rain won't flood it? But then it won't get any sun :(
Laura LaRosa (7b)
9 years ago
No...definitely leave it in the rain. It will be good for the tree. I'm glad you repotted it!
Atheen - 7a - in Maryland, USA
9 years ago
I agree, leave it outside. Once that the tree will get used to its new soil, you won't have to wait that long between waterings. Right now, the roots are still acclimating to the soil change, so we have to keep an eye on it for a week or so.

What happened before was that it was potted in a peat rich soil, that doesn't drain well and keeps the moisture forever, thus promoting root rot. That's what happened to me when I got my trees, for the same reasons.

Which soil formula did you end up using when you repotted? It will give it's an idea of how well it will drain and help us guide you with future waterings.

.

Atheen