Side note - marrakech and key lime, which are newer plants, both still doing fine, so it seems to be traveling from right to left along the wall I have the trees against. My now-dead ST was at the right, then Rangpur, then Marrakech.

Could fusarium fungus go to work that quickly?

Do you use the same skewer for every pot to test for moisture? Anything in your water can that could harm the roots? I always thought fusarium fungus is something seedlings get when too moist. I might take the rangpur away from the two unaffected trees just to be on the safe side.

you know, a PICTURE would really help and make this a lot easier for people to respond to you.

Is the pot big enough? do you feel the roots in the soil are reasonably aerated enough?

It's possible the soil has gotten too compact, depending on what type of soil is in there.

Has that level of light worked well for you in the past?

Susanne,

I use a different skewer for each plant and throw them into the compost after one use. The rangpur is currently in timeout after repoting but I’ll have to move it inside if I want it to grow - the weather here won’t kill it from cold but it doesn’t get above 55 either this time of year.

Parker,

Fair enough on the pictures, but many of the other questions you asked were answered in my original post.

Pot is plenty big enough - it’s a 12” pot, probably about 8 gallons. I use a mix of coarse growstones, reptibark, and free-draining wood-based organic potting soil that’s always worked quite well for my citrus. My Yuzu is in the same mix and gets rained on outside for 6 months here in the PNW with no ill effects. The light level is new for this year in that it is higher than what I gave them last winter - an attempt to have them drop less leaves. In that at least I’ve been successful, my trees seem to be dying with all of their leaves attached this year.

Photos below -

Your tree looks thirsty. I noticed a few of mine looked this way today and freaked. Perhaps in our attempt to not overwater, we have underwatered. A few of the lower leaves on my thornless key lime were dried up as well. In my case, I am sure it was too dry. I watered them thoroughly today.

I am having a similar issue with one plant, so I share your frustration.

It definitely does look thirsty, which is bizarre because I watered it 24 hours ago! That's why I'm concerned, I would have expected it to perk up by now :(

I thought it could have been the soil getting to dry, but the soil seemed moist when I repotted the Rangpur today, and the soil it was in was about 15 months old before the repot.

I wonder if it's not warm enough for the increased light this year? 60-65 should be fine for root function shouldn't it? The leaves getting the most sunlight / closest to the grow lights are the most wilted.

Pac, sometimes if the mix is too try, it will become hydrophobic and even if you water it, the water will not penetrate well. I wonder if that could have happened.. My key lime has perked up nicely since I watered it yesterday. I hope yours improves!

I just saw Susanne’s comment and that is exactly what I was thinking about the soil being too dry.

You have a tree that tall in what looks like a 3-gallon container growing in a rapid draining medium like 5-1-1 and you watered the tree a sip on Novemver 30, eighteen days since the last watering on the 12th ?? -- not good. Citrus trees don't eat, they can only drink. Under watering is almost as damaging to the tree as over watering, and it would be hard to over water a 5-1-1 free draining medium. Throw away the skewer and water the poor tree. It is not the amount of water that damages a tree, it is the lack of oxygen that kills the tree, and a 5-1-1 medium supplies the roots with plenty oxygen. When it is time to water, water well and fully.

I agree with Silica. In fact, I suggest that, if possible, you put the pot into a container of water for 30 minutes or so.

I also think it is under watered, when a fruit tree has flower buds and blooms, watering should be increased a little, you should not let it dry at all.

And once a tree is under watered much root destruction has already taken affect...So it might take some time to get the leaves to perk up or you may even loose them but develop good growth since many roots will rot, the ones that died anyway while new ones are regenerated...Once the new ones start to take hold, expect a better outcome..It will take time..

I will re-iterate and stress some points already made in some form:

A 12 inch pot is pot holds about 3-4 gallons and not 8 gallons as you think it is. Your plant has quite a bit of leaves. With the environment you are providing (warmth and light) it wants to grow and thus consume water. Under these conditions you would need to water it more frequently. More like 2-7 days. 18 days is way too long to go between watering unless the plant is semi dormant. Even with a dormant and leafless plant such as a pomegranate I have I water it once a month till new growth shows up.

The wilting is more evident near the top of the plant and that tells me it is quite likely the soil is too dry. Once the soil is dry you would need to rehydrate the soil very well. Either you soak the entire pot for 30 minutes or so. Or water it 5-6 times in 20 min intervals to wet the mix thoroughly. No fertlizers for at least two weeks and rain water or RO water will be the best under these conditions. Roots absorb water faster/easier when there is no dissolved salts in it.

You can also create a temporary humidity dome to reduce water loss from leaves and it is very effective. A plastic drop cloth works well. You may want to use some sticks to prop up the plastic so that it does not touch the plant as much as possible. Once or twice a day air it out (half an hr or so) and lightly mist the leaves before putting the plastic back on.

Some citrus, most particularly Meyer lemons will drop all of its leaves, if you let it get too dry and then water it; it has happened to me with my container Meyers when I went away for two weeks and asked someone else to water them.

Pac, your plant got too dry at some point. The same happened to about 5 of mine this week. I was busy and I guess not paying enough attention. My large Sanguinelli dropped almost all its fruit that were just starting to turn color. The others have dropped leaves now and have brown twigs. I hope I don't lose them. I can't believe I didn't notice as I have been checking, or so I thought. We had a few warm days and I guess that caused them to dry out faster than they had been. I'm so mad at myself as they were doing so well. My Kishu and Tango look particularly bad. I'm not not sure they will make it. I have about 60 trees and fortunately the others are ok. They are in the same pots, same 5-1-1, and were watered at the same time. I guess some are more tolerant of dryness than others. The Sanguinelli was a little closer to the furnace which may have caused it to dry out faster. The others were also slightly closer to lights, so that may have caused them to also dry out faster. It was only 2 days since I had watered them that is why I was surprised they had dried out. Just shows you can't get distracted and have to check carefully every day.

Cory

Pac I am sorry this is happening to more of your trees, logically the symptoms seem to be under-watering but if your medium is still wet even at the rootball it seems strange that it would be the issue. My ST did the same thing and there was not a single day that tree was too dry and now leaves are falling off my tree in handfuls and I have no idea what to do about it other than treat it like the others and hope it makes it until spring so it can go back outside. I hope someone comes up with another idea that it could be so your trees don't continue to suffer.

Well, since consensus is that the tree got too dry then I will accept the group's wisdom over my instincts! The tree hasn't declined much from the last photo, but it hasn't perked up much either. If it truly was dry soil and related root damage then I'm sure the re-pot didn't help either. I'll keep giving it water at higher intervals than I would think necessary and cross my fingers!

If your soil was still moist to the touch at the rootball but not rotting, and it's only at 60-65F then it's possible it's doing WLD. Root function stops around 55F. Your soil temperature might be lower than your air temp (60-65F). What could be happening is that the leaves are warm enough and is getting enough light to photosynthesize. But your roots are probably functioning at the bare minimum or much less active than the leaves so it can't uptake the water that the leaves need and so the leaves wilt.

Try the soaking suggestion first. If it's not WLD, the soak should work. However, if soaking doesn't work and it is WLD then due to the large difference in leaf and root activity I'd suggest moving it to a spot with less light and hold back the watering like you're originally doing. Or water your tree with warmer water to increase the soil/root temperatures so it can match the leaf activity. A heating mat under your tree would work to increase root activity too. The main idea is to bring up the soil temperature to make the roots become as active as the leaves are or at least active enough to give the leaves what it needs for photosynthesis. But this only applies if this is a case of WLD.

Is your tree in a terracotta pot? The color looks like terracotta but I can't tell by color if it's clay or plastic. If it's in a clay or terracotta pot, then your tree's soil temperature will definitely be colder than you think. I hope your tree pulls through

It is not WLD because if it were the leaves would not be wrinkled.