Show Posts
1
Citrus General Discussion / ailing Meyer lemon tree
« on: August 07, 2019, 05:50:15 PM »
Hi All, my Meyer lemon tree is 3 years old. It looked great this spring but is now not looking well. The fruit and trunk look fine, but the leaves don't. Symptoms:
* Chewed leaves: I removed some bird poop caterpillars and relocated them.
* Crispy areas, and some leaves are stunted/twisted. On the bottom of these leaves, I see some fine white shiny cobweb or silk? I wonder if this is where the bird poop caterpillars hatched out, or something else?
* Some leaves are turning over/rolling. Maybe because it's so dang hot?
* Overall the leaved are dull pale green (not the dark shiny green that my healthy tangerine has). Some leaves have yellow veins. Some older leaves are yellowing and falling off.
* Some leaves have a little fine white dust, but I think it's from a foliar treatment I did in the spring. It looks just like the white dust my car gets after I wash it with our extremely hard water and it evaporates.
The lemon is potted outdoors and has an eastern exposure. It it did wonderfully in this location last year. Since then I've repotted it because it got so big last year. This season, I've given it at various times organic (chicken poop) citrus fertilizer and more recently Fox Farm liquid 6-4-4 with a low dose of Osmocote Plus sprinkled on for micros.
My guess is the tree is getting root rot from when I repotted it this spring. It's now in very large plastic pot with several drainage holes, but I did not use citrus potting mix. I used regular potting mix (I don't remember which one) and wonder if it's too heavy a mix. I'm afraid to water the tree because I think it's making things worse, so I've dragged it into the shade until I get this figured out. My area just started with the 100 degree weather that will persist until Sept, so the tree will be dealing with that.
Any thoughts to help out my poor tree?
* Chewed leaves: I removed some bird poop caterpillars and relocated them.
* Crispy areas, and some leaves are stunted/twisted. On the bottom of these leaves, I see some fine white shiny cobweb or silk? I wonder if this is where the bird poop caterpillars hatched out, or something else?
* Some leaves are turning over/rolling. Maybe because it's so dang hot?
* Overall the leaved are dull pale green (not the dark shiny green that my healthy tangerine has). Some leaves have yellow veins. Some older leaves are yellowing and falling off.
* Some leaves have a little fine white dust, but I think it's from a foliar treatment I did in the spring. It looks just like the white dust my car gets after I wash it with our extremely hard water and it evaporates.
The lemon is potted outdoors and has an eastern exposure. It it did wonderfully in this location last year. Since then I've repotted it because it got so big last year. This season, I've given it at various times organic (chicken poop) citrus fertilizer and more recently Fox Farm liquid 6-4-4 with a low dose of Osmocote Plus sprinkled on for micros.
My guess is the tree is getting root rot from when I repotted it this spring. It's now in very large plastic pot with several drainage holes, but I did not use citrus potting mix. I used regular potting mix (I don't remember which one) and wonder if it's too heavy a mix. I'm afraid to water the tree because I think it's making things worse, so I've dragged it into the shade until I get this figured out. My area just started with the 100 degree weather that will persist until Sept, so the tree will be dealing with that.
Any thoughts to help out my poor tree?