A couple questions. Is this tree indoor/outdoor? Indoor? If you bring it in and out how do you do so? What did you use to treat for spidermites? When you repotted it, how did the roots look? When you water, do you leave the runoff in the tray, or do you drain it? How are you fertilizing?

why did you treat for spider mites .. did you ever see then on the plant??? .. or did you presume a few spots meant you needed to goo up the plant ... was the plant in sun after your sprayed???

i doubt the humidifier is worth running ...

i never had much luck with clay pots indoors.. in my winter furnace MI ... high humidity is not going to make up for water being wicked thru the sides of the pot ...

where are you.. and how cold does that window get at night .. or during the winter .. and where is the supplemental light .. do you move the plant a lot???

relying on moisture meters are known to not be the best method of determining when and how to water ... is there any chance you can tip it all out of the pot.. look at the roots and moisture down there .... .and then slide it back in the pot intact .. it might be hard with a clay pot.. but if you had it in a plastic pot.. it would be easy ... right now .. you are guessing on water.. and relying on a old school gizmo ... i would tend to looking and seeing with my own two eyes.. and really FINDING OUT whats going on in there...

i am wondering.. with the porous clay sides.. if your plant is not seriously underwatered ...

ken

ps: if stuff falls off when you poke it.. well ... stop poking it .. lol .. sorry.. couldnt help myself ...

@bonsai_citrus_and_indoor_gardening It is indoor in the winter. From about September until May. When I brought it inside I just sat it in a west facing window and put a grow light on it.

I was having this same issue ever since I brought it inside and before the spider mites but I mixed water with a little alcohol and sprayed the plant any time I saw a spider mite.

I have not repotted The plant since last fall. The roots looked fine. I was having yellowing leaves in the veins and random spots. I had read about People planting with sardines in the pot for fertilizer so I did that and the new growth was super healthy. Perfect dark green and strong. Since then I will supplement with a 15-15-15 granulated fertilizer.

when I water I water very heavy and let it sit in my sink until no more water comes out and move it back into its normal place.

thanks for your reply!

Spring and the period of bloom is the highest time of leaf drop for citrus. The picture of your tree shows a healthy tree. It is also a young tree. In the proper time your tree will supply you with fruit.

@ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5 Haha maybe not poking it will fix all of my problems!

I has spider mites on the plant. They came from my Banana trees but got them taken care of quickly.

I did think that maybe it was underwatered so the next time I watered it I didn't let it get as dry. it had started some new growth and lost it again when I watered sooner than normal. I am really afraid of root rot. it takes a long time to dry out inside.

that window does get pretty cold in the coldest parts of the winter but the room stays in the low 70s. maybe that is part of it. Recently though it hasn't gotten very cold and its still dropping the leaves.

I attached a photo of the roots. I know the rocks are bad for drainage so I removed them and replaced them with citrus soil

just now.

Hi Jarod,

See the link at the bottom. It is a VPD vapor deficit chart. You can also find it in my idea book. In the chart find the intersection of temperature and humidity. The new growth is falling off because the VPD around the new shoots is either in the dangerous level, high stress or flower area. You need to keep the VPD in vegetative or nursery VPD to have the new growth survive. The higher the VPD the more moisture gets pulled from the plant. At 71-73F and 50% you are have a VPD of between 1.32 and 1.45 which is way to high for new growth. It is actually much worse than that because you have to use the surface temperature of the leaf which is going to be much higher than the air temperature. Without a breeze indoors leaf temperature in a sunny window would be closer to 80-120F. When you put those temperatures in the VPD you will see you are way off. In my idea-book there is a battery operated mister which I use which is really helpful. You need to mist the new growth as frequently as possible. Outdoors wind is going to cool the leaves. Indoors air doesn't cool the leaves so you need to add some mechanical fans. That is complicated to do as too much air will also dry the leaves out if the humidity is low. I grow in clay pots and love them. Very hard to overwater in a clay pot if you are using a good potting soil. The downside of clay pots are the weight when you have to move them around. Fixing the potting soil WILL NOT fix the VPD. Waiting to water when the meter reads 2 in my opinion is too little too late. Your mature leaves look pretty healthy. You really need to lower the temperature below 70 to work with 50% humidity. Indoors fall and spring are the easiest time to grow citrus indoors. Winter and summer are the hardest because of the low humidity in the winter and the high heat in the summer. Also you have to keep an eye on the radiant heat from the light. You need to measure leaf temperature with an infrared thermometer to get accurate information on what is going on.

When you buy potting soil look for the maximum humidity on the package. Also referred to as maximum water content. If you over water the plant it will self balance to the maximum humidity. You want to keep citrus roots in the 40-60% moisture level.

VPD-Bioengineering-Chart-1.jpg (5032×3388) (ceresgs.com)

"I have a supplemented light that is on a timer for 12 hours a day"

What type of bulb is it? If it's an old-style one, although plants do like heat, the heat rays directly onto the leaves can also cause the leaves to dry out faster, leading to much more water stress.

You might want to go with an LED bulb. A "3000K" color one would be a good choice for that situation, since it would help give the plants a decent amount of blue light without looking too bluish.

Also there's no reason to have it on a timer. You might just be better with leaving it on 24 hours a day.

Another question, just based on your replies... how cold is the water you use to water the tree? Do you check water temp before you water?