Interesting... I only use rain water but I'll give it a good rinse.

The salt is not from the water; but from the fertilizer.

I don't know what this is but it does not look like salt buildup to me. Maybe it is but salt damage I've seen looks different.

Nik,

Exactly what I would expect from you. I said salt buildup; not salt damage, nor salt burn. Proverbs 18:2

This does not look like salt damage to me. I believe salt damage usually occurs at the tips and does not cause "yellow dots".

looks like the beginning of a manganese deficiency

I repeat, I said salt "buildup"; and that is exactly what it looks like. Salt "damage" or salt "burn" will follow, if the soil is not flushed. We almost never see that in trees planted in the ground; but it is quite common in container citrus, when the owner is trying to push (be too kind to) trees. I have it often in my relatively few container citrus; because I am guilty of wanting them to grow/produce too fast.

Not an expert by any meas but if you look at the stem of this tree you can see the salt built up. Soil looks a bit soggy too and not sure how a flushing could help???

Susanne,

flushing will remove the "excess" fertilizer that is causing the problem. It is the excess ferts that are causing that problem; because the plant cannot absorb them; but does absorb the extra salts.

The soil looks already dense and wet that is why I was wondering about the flushing.

Susanne,

the dense/wet soil only contributes to the problem; still, with adequate drainage, elevation above saucer, etc... flushing with clean water will help to alleviate the problem. I have personal experience with this, having caused the problem a number of times due to my self imposed urgency to get the plant to grow/flower. But of course, if you live in Greece, that might not work.

johnmerr,

You could follow your own advice and spare the ad hominem attacks. Enough is enough. I'm sick and tired of your attitude and so, I guess, is everyone else. Let people comment politely with their opinion, as I did, without attacking them. Why do you always need to prove what a nasty character you are?

Btw, yes flushing helps with salt buildup, both in containers and in ground.

I have a question about salt build up. Wouldn't you see a lot more white stuff on top of the soil rather than just on the trunk of the tree? When I fertilize with a granular product, I tend to keep it away from the trunk because scratching it in may damage feeder roots. Anyway, why would the salt build up be only in that area and no where else? When I see salt build up in my other plants, not my citrus, the salt is all across the top of the soil.

If you see salt on the soil or the rim of the pot; then you have very serious salt buildup indeed. What the OP has is created over time, usually affects the older leaves; and is most commonly caused by repeated fertilization.

john, why would there be salt found only on the tree trunk and not anywhere else on the soil? If the OP waters, then the salt would be spread evenly on the soil wouldn't it?

I'm not really sure this is damage from soluble salts or not. It does look somewhat different, than normal, but then again it certainly could be salt damage as john states. My point is that damage caused by raised levels of soluble salts can show up on the leaf long before actual visual salt shows on the soil surface or container.

Salt tends to follow along "wicks"; perhaps the trunk is acting as a wick, drawing up salt from the soil.

I'm just trying to get the tree to put out new leaves.... The last two flushes were flowers... The tree hasn't grown in size or any leaves since Januaryish.... and I try not to fertilize too much. Maybe once every week-2 weeks. The other times I use rain water. The soil may appear to look wet because I had just watered that day.

,,If you want new growth , add more nitrogen

By using exclusively rain water you may be mitigating some problems with salt buildup but you MAY be starving the plants from some essential nutrients (like Ca, Mg and K) which will need to be provided wholly by fertilisation. You MAY also be lowering the pH of the soil solution to levels somewhat inappropriate for citrus, a problem which can aggrevate any micronutrient shortage. It all very much depends on the 'quality' of your rainwater which in turn has to do with the prevailing atmospheric conditions when the water was collected and any contamination occurring afterwards.

Nothing is simple..

Add some fish emulsion. I used it on my trees a few weeks ago and it greened up my leaves beautifully and I am seeing new branches growing on some of my trees. I will be using it more often after seeing such improvement.

Nik has some very good points concerning rain water. Here at our place when we use rain water we blend it with the well water at the rate 30 percent municipal and 70 percent rain. The rain water is collected off of the many buildings on this property, and then stored and mixed.

Denise - What brand fish emulsion did you use? Did you spray it on?

Nik and Silica - I switched to rain water after nearly killing my Meyer with our extremely hard well water. Now you're telling me I could be causing more problems? This hobby is really starting to stress by out. I hate when my trees are sick

Alanna, rain water has no calcium nor any other minerals, Blending it with our well water add these.

But isn’t that why we fertilize? Should I be blending my water or is alternating fine? Once I move, I’ll most likely have chlorinated and fluorinated water. Is t that also really bad for trees?

Foliage Pro has calcium so if that is what you are using you don't need to worry. Chlorinated and fluoridated water will not harm your trees.

Too much chlorine does have a detrimental effect in the long term. Best way is to either mix or use rain water to flush the pots every now and then. Adding some vinegar in the watering can if one uses mains or well water helps also. I often add 20ml of vinegar to 10lt of water (I leave it to you to turn metric to US measurements. The rate I use calculates to 2:1000).

Does anyone but me think that tree is really too small to beholding fruit?

I use 1.5 Tb vinegar/2 gal water or 22 mL/5,570 mL water. Ratio is 1/344 which compares to Nik's ratio of 1/500. I use vinegar to lower the pH of my tap water not because of any concern with chlorine. I have never heard of any long term effect of chlorine but admit one my exist.

I got a giant ponderoa off this tree in Late December... It was doing fine with the mature lemon...even when it was indoors. I've only been having problems with it in the last month or so. I decided to remove all the little fruitlets a few days ago and the very next day I lost the smaller of the 2 big lemons.... Now I only have 1 lemon on the tree and 1 pea sized fruitlet. I was furious when I lost that medium sized lemon.... It was 6months old (flowered in January).

As a note about chlorinated tap water - some municipalities actually use chloramine (like mine) vs chlorine gas as a disinfectant. Assuming the latter was used, that usually begins to dissipate as it is transported to the home and is mostly gone as it is being dispensed through a faucet... and more so if a bucketful is allowed to sit for a bit, after which the remainder will eventually evaporate out. Alternately, chloramine does not dissipate and it is usually recommended to get a product to remove it before using in aquariums, etc. It may also have a small impact on the garden, particularly if there's not enough rain to leach it away. This is why you often see the recommendations for use of rain water (or even collected air-conditioning condensate water, something I used to use back when I had a window AC). Interesting commentary on the chlorine/chloramine issue here - http://blog.pennlive.com/gardening/2007/12/chloraminetreated_water_in_the.html

Actually, the lemon that you see in the picture above is the lemon that fell off 1 day after I removed all but 1 pea sized lemon and the slightly bigger lemon.... So it looks like I'll only have 1 lemon this year... if it doesn't fall off either. I can take a new photo if y'all want to see.... The leaves appear to be getting more yellow.

Here are updated photos....

The first photo you'll see the branch is turning white... It used to be green, what's up with that? I see 2 branches like that.

The second photo is a close up of where the "2nd biggest" lemon fell off... It looks like it was bitten off or something unnatural.

The third photo is the overall tree with the "largest lemon" As some of you might remember, this tree produced a giant lemon in late December so it's capable to maturing a fruit... You can also see the overall health of the leaves which are all slowly getting the yellow tips.
By the way, this lemon is 6-7months old now.... looks small if you ask me.

Also, I was wondering if all of this is happening because of the recent heatwave? Maybe it was burning the tree? I'm not too sure.... but the way I lost that lemon is very weird.... it doesn't look like the tree dropped it....

Alanna, I use the Alaska 511. One of my trees originally had growth all on one side of the trunk. Now I have 4-6 new branches starting to grow on the bare side. I am very excited about it.

You can assume volcano John is right and try to flush the soil. Let's see what happens.

Jenny, brilliant!!! That's the reason why I use as much as rain water as I can. Those that get continual TAP water with do exactly that. Especially most of my tropicals in particular Gardenias and Brunsfelsia... Many different varieties of citrus. It's depressing when I get so lack of natural rain. Every year it gets drier and drier here with defoliation of my local forests..Just one big dust bowl until the cold rains move in again.

Vinegar does a great job for my trees, the reason why they are all so green unless I forgot to use it on one or two, but also HEAT can affect the uptakes of nutrient too to cause yellow and blanch colored leaves. That a real pain, all these problems, right? Like reaching for a needle in a haystack. Eventually the problems correct themselves especially if you catch what it is on time.

Okay, I watered with tap water and vinegar today. Lets see what happens. I'm going to cut back on fertilizer for a couple of weeks.

Don't expect that those yellow spots will go away; those leaves will eventually fall; but if you are doing things right, the new growth should not be affected.