How often are you feeding it? Is it always in shade like that? Or is that late afternoon exposure?

Hi Evdesert,

We are using a citrus food the nursery provided, and were advised to feed it in March, April, and May, but not over the summer. Its 13-10-4. We used one cup each of those months, but none since.

Its morning sun. Those pics were taken at 9am looking south. The wall directly behind the canopy shot is directly on the south side, so it gets full sun past about 10am, and all afternoon. Below is another picture taken just now (about 2pm). If anything, its getting blasted.

Below that is a pic of the irrigation area that I took this morning at 8am. It last watered Thursday night at 6pm. At 9am this morning, it was still moist at the surface of the root zone. I checked just now, and its bone dry on the surface, but still moist a few inches down. It will water again for two hours tomorrow night (every three days, so a little over twice a week)

sun exposure at 9am

sun exposure at 2pm

soil moisture at 9am (2 days after irrigation). Surface is dry by 2pm.

I am a fan of raised planters for citrus when the soil isn't ideal. I only have one of my trees in a raised planter but it grew faster and does really well. Maybe your native soil is acting like a bowl and holding the water around the roots instead of allowing it to drain through. If that' the case, your tree' roots may be mostly rotted off from fungal growth or just suffocated fro lack of aeration. Only other suggestion I have is to check to see if the fence is holding heat and creating a hot spot for the tree during some parts of the day...possibly when the sun is on the tree but maybe even when the sun is shining on the back side of the fence.

Good point John. Welded that fence up myself, but it does get hot in the summer.

LOL! Good job so don't even think of taking down the fence!

I think that the tree is going to outgrow the area that it is planted in if the fence remains. If that is not a dwarf, you are going to do a lot of pruning to keep it within bounds of your property.

Yes, I am aware of that too. Its planted about four feet from the fence, and there is about 10' between the fence and the raised planter to the north, just out of the picture. It will certainly fill out the space... but only if it doesn't croak on me.

Oh, and we have an alley behind us, so not worried about it hanging over the fence.

This picture may give a little more context. Its taken looking east. The steel fence wraps around the corner, and you can see the poor little Lisbon Lemon struggling. Kim's squash are going crazy in the raised planter by it. To the right you can see another raised planter, and there is a dwarf lemon at the back, and a dwarf lime in the front (just out of the picture). They are both lush green and healthy.

I will offer secondary advice to those that grow in the desert....

In my far cooler areas i need to water young trees ( 1-3 years after planting ) at least every other day in the summer; every day when it jumps over 100F. I've learned the hard way by damaging them trying to water every 3 days.

I see sun scorched leaves. If you dont want to or can't water more, i suggest shade cloth.

My lemons do well against west and south facing walls.... but they need plenty of moisture. Your tree should recover well once you get it on a good hydration regimen.

Good luck and let us know....

Tstarkey, just a couple of suggestions. I’d follow George’s advice and water more often with less water. I do that with my trees for the first few years until the trees are well established. Also, it sounds like your nursery gave you Arizona’s best Citrus Food fertilizer, that is a great fert and I use it as well. The only problem is younger trees do better giving them food more often in smaller doses. Once the tree gets a little bigger you can follow the 3 times a year fert regime. My lemon trees are also notoriously hungrier than my other citrus so I feed the lemons more than my other trees. Hope the suggestions help.

Evan

Evan and George, Thanks for your insight. I will dial back but increase frequency, and also add some citrus food. Will report back good news, hopefully!

Why is it that a lot of people say that a lot of dropping yellow leaves is common because that does not happen to mine unless there is something seriously wrong with my trees .

Have you checked the roots ?

Ha you checked the texture of your mix?

Have you tried taking them out of the full hot sun?

Have you tried acidifying your fertilizer solution ?

Have you been using a good quality mix?

Was your last re pot recently?

Is your fertilizer loaded with good nutrients ?

and yes, AZ Best food.

Hi Meyermike,

Thanks for the ideas. Something is certainly wrong. My citrus in the raised planters are very healthy looking right now, even though its 110 here. This is not a potted citrus, though. In the ground, and not moving, unless I end up having to take it to the compost. "/

The leaves are not really dropping. They are pretty much turning crispy on the branch.

To answer some of your questions...

dug down and the limited roots I saw seemed fine. But it was already pretty dry in the top soil profile, so I think more frequent watering (until established) is a good idea. Your thoughts?

The soil here is clay, and slightly alkaline, which is a challenge. The planting pit was amended. 3x the size of the root ball, 60% native soil, 40% mixture of happy frog, and some citrus mix from the nursery.

I should probably look into coffee grounds or some pH reducer. I also need to get some mulch down, but this area is still in "renovation".

I think there are a lot of factors to overcome... hot fence, direct mid-day and afternoon sun, poor soil quality.

I will look into the soil pH, and water frequency, and keep checking back.

Update - switching to daily deep watering has helped. Most of the sunburned leaves are still on the tree, but it has a lot of new growth green leaves. Will try to upload pics soon.

Thanks all!

I am glad to hear your tree is improving. If your tree has not fruited here is some information on its fruit.

Steve