My Meyer lemon had the exact same problem from 2 years of extremely hard water.

12/31

I began watering exclusively with rain water and cut out the fertilizer to flush the soil. Her leaves continued to burn and fall off over the course of 2 months. Eventually she lost all of her leaves. But she had a growth flush pretty quickly. It’s been 4 months of just rain water now and she’s small, healthy. By the end of the summer, she’ll be back to normal.

Today:

All she needs now is some summer sun!

Lem lem will survive.

Silica, thank you for your timely response. After checking with our municipal water supplier, Marietta has a water hardness of 21mg of calcium carbonate per liter, making it soft water. I have spent the last couple hours drenching Lem Lem.

Alanna, thank you for your detailed response. It was very encouraging when I needed encouragement most! Your Meyer Lemon looks great. Fortunately, I don't have extremely hard water so I am hoping I have a faster recovery time. Time will tell.

Looking forward to providing an update when I can. Thanks so much for your help.

: -)

- John Coffey

John Coffey, even if you are fortunate enough to have soft water, you will still need to flush the container every 5 or 6 months to avoid this problem.. The majority of soluble salts in your container comes from the fertilizer. Soluble salts is further complicated by under watering;

John, as summer approaches you might want to consider using a much more porous mix so that you won't run into this issue by next winter. Prepare ahead...If using a fine mix, just as Silica say's it is very important to flush your mix quite frequently but in a good [porous mix is not needed..)

Silica, thanks for the additional information. Are you assuming that I will be using the same fertilizer when you suggest that I flush the container every 5 or 6 months? If I switch fertilizers, can I avoid the flushing? If there is a fertilizer that would spare me from the flushing, can you suggest one? Would be very grateful for your feedback on this. Thank you.

MyerMike, this is a great suggestion. While Lem Lem is in loamy soil now, I was thinking about transplanting her to a confirmed 5:1:1 mix so that the Houzz community and I would have a common reference point for future citrus challenges. If I made any bad judgement calls reference fertilizers or anything else, a 5:1:1 mix would allow me to "erase" the mistake and start anew. Is this along the lines of what you were thinking when you suggested a more porous mix?

Sincerely, - John Coffey

No matter what fertilizer you decide on, you should still flush the container twice a year.

John, I wish you luck with Lem Lem...you made me smile...love the name :). I agree with all the advice given...flush, repot, patience...best of luck!