Meyer Lemon tree in trouble - dropping leaves

9 years ago

Hello all,
I hope you can help give some direction on how to nurse my Meyer lemon tree back to health. It has dropped a lot of leaves, and I am concerned. Here are some pictures of what's going on: http://imgur.com/a/iIgWH
So it up until a few months ago, it was living on the east-facing deck of my house. It was doing pretty well, although it got a scale infestation that hit it hard. I cleaned it off and am still dealing with it now, although it is a lot better. When the temperatures started to get low (I'm in Vancouver BC), I brought it inside. It also got attacked by a squirrel, so I needed to protect the new growth that hadn't been gnawed off already.

It did well indoors for a while, I sprayed it with water to try and keep it damp. But when it started to get really cold outside, I think it got affected because it was near the door. Many of the small older leaves started falling off. I figured this was a typical response to adjusting to the indoors, and so I wasn't too worried. But the rate of dropping kept accelerating, and I got more worried. I thought that maybe it was because it wasn't getting enough light, so I got a light and put it nearby. The dropping leaves slowed, so I thought I was in the clear.

But now the large leaves that recently grew have started to brown at the edges, and some of them have dropped too. A couple of the lemons have fallen off as well. I read that it might be a buildup of fertilizer, so I watered it well to get a good amount of water draining out the bottom (one solid watering a few days ago). But I am concerned it may be something quite serious. Any thoughts?

Featured Answer

johnmerr

9 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.

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Comments (7)

myermike_1micha
9 years ago
Plus bugs and a bad potting mix rotting your roots out...
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sunshine (zone 6a, Ontario,Canada)
9 years ago
With that soil mix your pot should have many holes, so the water drains faster.
Vladimir (Zone 5b Massachusetts)
9 years ago
Increasing the number of holes will not make the soil less water retentive. You need to change the mix to something like 5-1-1 or gritty mix.
dandt1
9 years ago
From my reading, leaves that turn yellow and then drop are more likely related to overwatering. Whereas normal appearing leaves that fall are more likely due to underwatering. I'm sure this varies, but is this a good rule of thumb with citrus?
myermike_1micha
9 years ago
Steven you seemed very concerned about your tree..Have you had a chance to try any of the methods suggested here or found spider mites with a magnifying glass under the leaves? Have you changed the mix out or found a way to prevent the mix from suffocating the roots?

Hope so..Please, give us an update)

Mike
Steven Masuch
Original Author
9 years ago
I have not watered it since, and just dug around the edges of the pot to try and get some fresh air into the soil to dry it out a bit more. I also removed the fruit to try and de-stress the tree.

The plant was already moved away from the window with curtains drawn, so I think the temperature is pretty good (at my last place, there were baseboard heaters under the window that may have been helping the tree a lot more than I realized!). I will put the tree out as soon as temperatures rise enough here, hopefully in a month or sooner.

I haven't switched out the soil yet, and I haven't looked for spider mites. I do also need to go get some neem oil or something to kill off the scale once and for all.