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liam_kilpert

Citrus problems

5 years ago

I have 3 pots of lemon seedlings and when I brought them in for the winter they didnt look to good. Pale in color and stunted. So I started feeding with foliage pro and super thrive weekly and one of the 3 pots took off and turned a nice dark green color. Which is great but the other two havnt done much if anything. So I started looking around and found out that soil ph has alot to do with nutrient uptake so I decided to change the soil of the two that were suffering. Before they were in 50/50 perlite and oil dri which is a popular bonsai soil mix. So I decided to mix some peat moss in to make them more acidic and for some reason the same soil made one pot 6.5, and one pot 5.5. Its been in the new soil for about a week and its gotten fertilizer and still arent doing anything. The new leaves that are VERY slowly growing might be a tad bit more deep green then the old pale growth but im not sure what im doing wrong. The one thats doing really well is in some sort of potting mix and compost which is odd because its a very alkaline soil and I heard citrus like acid soils. Anyway any tips would help. As for the light its a very powerful led grow light set to 11 hours a day. All the other plants seem to really wnjoy the light level. I will attach picture in a replu to this post.

Comments (8)

  • 5 years ago





  • 5 years ago

    boy thats a lot of love ... might want to back off with all the cures ... lets try not to harm them with too much love ...


    with trees.. we talk in tree time .. usually counted in decades ... and we dont expect instant results ... you have done a lot of things in a rather short period of time ... i think its time to just water properly ..... and let them sort it all out ... before you do much more ...


    and i wouldnt fert too much in winter ...


    and i never had any luck with clay pots indoors ... they are an old fashioned greenhouse methods... where they wont lose moisture thru the sides of the pot in said greenhouse ...


    if you can find plastic pots of the same size.. i might slip them out of the clay ... and into plastic to avoid those problems ... but dont repot them again ..


    they are very stressed .. and need time to settle down ...


    i dont see the light.. and i cant tell how far away they are from the actual leaves ... it really doesnt matter if other unnamed plants are good with the light.. these are trees .. are th others????


    and the bottom line is.. they are full sun trees that should be outside ... growing them as houseplants ... as with all trees .. is very hard ... learn what you can .. and keep trying ... but dont get upset if you lose ...


    how do you heat your house.. and what kind of humidity can you maintain thru winter...


    big city name usually helps us define problems ...




    ken


    ps: if you started these from seed from an orange you enjoyed.. do you understand there are good odds you wont get that good orange if you can somehow get them to fruit bearing age ...



  • 5 years ago

    Ok i will let them be.


    Yes the other plants are trees. Including the same trees that are growing just fine as seen in the picture. Including a bigger grapefruit tree


    House stays at around 21 - 23 and humidity levels are around 50 - 60%. I mist the trees regularly as well.


    Trees go out for the summer but im in canada so I figure the trees would survive better inside rather then in -25 weather haha.


    And yes i do understand about the fruit. Not necesarrily growing these for the fruit though.

  • 5 years ago
    last modified: 5 years ago

    I think also, citrus trees kind of go dormant in winter like other tree except they don’t drop their leaves like deciduous trees. Just continue doing what the others said and keep them watered and they’ll start growing again in spring.

    P.S. I have Lemon and Keylime trees I started from seed and thats what I’ve noticed.

  • 5 years ago

    Ok that would make sense to me if all of them were like this however why is it that one of them is thriving and growing steafily and the other two pots are stunted and pale in color?

  • 5 years ago

    If you are going to keep them under lights, make sure the lights are at least 6 to 8 inches from the canopy.

    Also if you use lights, you will want to fertilize 1/4 strength at each watering

    And, if you want to make them a richer green, try using vinegar at each watering with the Foliage Pro. They should green up rather quickly and grow faster.

    By the way, I would stop misting. There is no need to. They don't need humidity to thrive. But if you want humidity that actually benefits longer than a few minutes, use a humidifier close by or a humidity tray. You can even make one yourself so easy with a plastic tote.

    Mike

  • 5 years ago

    Here is a couple

  • 5 years ago

    Thanks for the info! How much vinegar would you suggest to a gallon of water? And my question about that is how come there is such a difference between the one growing like crazy and the ones that im having trouble with?