New lemon tree dropping leaves

Kate

8 years ago

Hi fellow plant people!

I bought this beauty from an estate sale on February 24. These are photos of her at the estate sale:

Aaaand this is her today:

She is at my dad's house. He keeps the heat super high. I told him to water her sparingly (even though citrus loves water) because I felt she was over potted, and her leaves were yellowing at the estate sale. I wanted to wait until she acclimated to her new location before I repotted down a size. Was I right to think the pot is too large? How can I save her now??

Featured Answer

Alanna Migliacci

8 years ago

Kate - it’s hard to tell from the pictures what exactly the issue is. Whatever is going on, your tree is severely stressed now. It will likely drop all of its leaves and look worse before it gets better. Luckily spring is coming and it will recover over the warm months outside.

It looks like it’s under watered and the leaves are dry, but that may just be an illusion of the pictures. I agree that pulling the whole rootball out and examining it is essential. If the soil is soggy, you have to repot. If the roots are rotting, repot asap. No matter what medium and pot size you repot to, you have to develop a proper watering routine, if you want to keep the tree heathy. Since the house is so hot and dry, either use a humidifier or spritz the tree with water 2x a day. Water after the top two inches dried out. If the bottom of the pot is always soggy, you’ll need a faster drying medium and perhaps a pot with more drainage holes.

Your tree can certainly recover, but it’s going to be a rough couple of months. Good luck.

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Comments (7)

Vladimir (Zone 5b Massachusetts)
8 years ago
Looks like it needs water. It is possible, but unlikely, it is overwatered. Check by pulling it out of the pot and look for soggy soil.

The pot size is fine for a rapid draining soil mix like 5-1-1 but not fine for water retentive peat based mix. In fact, the problem may be the soil being too water retentive.
Kate thanked Vladimir (Zone 5b Massachusetts)
Kate
Original Author
8 years ago
That is a good idea to pull it out of the pot to check for soggy soil! I didn't think of lifting it out at all! Thanks!
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Kate
Original Author
8 years ago
When is a good time to re-pot this if it is in too large of a pot with water retentive soil?
Silica
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
From looking at the picture of your tree while it was still at the Estate sale, it is very easy to see that the tree was suffering from a magnesium deficiency at that time. Now the situation is much worse, plus your father might now be under watering the tree, If so, that is a hard stress on top of the tree's original problem.
Kate thanked Silica
Kate
Original Author
8 years ago
Ok, time for an update! Turns out, it WAS severely underwatered. I pulled the root ball out and the soil was very dry, the root ball fills the pot. So I know it was not overpotted and was in fact very thirsty. My dad has been watering it just a bit every day to keep the soil moist but not soggy. This will stay the same until I repot in better soil. It dropped ALL of it's leaves except 2. After a few weeks of consistent watering, it was all new baby leaves coming in, and the original three baby leaves are full size. It has had a few flower blooms as well. It's recovering great! So happy we were able to save it. Thank you everyone for the help!
Alanna Migliacci
8 years ago
I’m glad it’s starting to grow new leaves; that’s a good sign. My Meyer lost nearly all of its leaves at the new year and by the beginning of April it was full of lush green growth and baby lemons. Give it some sun and fertilizer and by the end of summer, it will be gorgeous!
Kate thanked Alanna Migliacci