I have a black thumb. It's honestly miraculous I have been able to keep my lemon tree alive since I bought it last July. The lime tree I bought in November was doing well for quite some time, but started going downhill around February.

I live in an apartment in Washington, D.C. with no porch or balcony - just a giant east-facing window with unobstructed sun from sunrise to noon. I bought a standing lamp and a 150W equivalent CFL bulb as to add some supplemental light over the winter months. The lamp is on a timer to start around 2 pm and turn off at 10 pm.

It started with overwatering. I was oblivious that the tree's winter dormancy, besides slowing growth, would slow the uptake of water. Womp womp.

Next, there was an infestation of fungus gnats. I tried a neem oil spray, an insecticide spray, hydrogen peroxide added to waterings, eventually a neem oil soil drench, and a repot in 5:1:1 (I had to add some epsom salt because I didn't know where to get garden lime).

All of the leaves had fallen off except one. Branches started dying back, which I pruned to leave only the viable ones. The last leaf fell about a week and a half ago, and when I got back from a short vacation yesterday, the remaining branches had all begun to turn brown. I don't know what I was thinking, or if it was the right thing to do, but I pruned all the dead branches which left me with nothing but a 6" stump. There's still some green on the stubby little trunk, but since I've never been able to identify a graft scar, I have no idea if what's left is even a lime tree anymore.

I was in a small garden store this afternoon trying to get some soil acidifier for my lemon tree (which is now suffering from what I think is a nitrogen deficiency. I started talking to the owner, who told me I probably fussed over it too much and all of my attempts to solve various problems probably did the poor tree in.

There isn't really a question to this post, but I had a feeling I might be able to get some general advice on how to not repeat my mistakes. I've noticed a lot of posts and questions tackle one problem at a time. My problems, on the other hand, were usually two or three deep at any given time. I'll probably come back to this again if I start seeing any new growth on the stubby trunk.