Anyone knows whats happening to this spanish lime trees? Should I prune it?

[Mbapie]

Hi guys I have these spanish lime trees but I dont know what is happening to them. I thinking of pruning the leaves.

[brian]

Mine does the same thing, I wrote about it here but got no responses.   I have no idea what it is or if it is a disease or environmental condition.

https://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=51583.msg495863#msg495863

I am pasting same pictures here:

[brian]

the large tan areas in your pictures might be sunburn, but the fine-speckled tan discoloration on some of your leaves looks like what I have in my photo.  Or they could be the same thing with slightly different expression. 

I am thinking of shading half of my tree to see if the problem only appears on the sunny side.  The fact that the discoloration seems to happen at raised parts of the leaf (from macroscopic photo) suggests sunburn or something in the air falling upon it the leaves rather than an infection

[Mbapie]

the large tan areas in your pictures might be sunburn, but the fine-speckled tan discoloration on some of your leaves looks like what I have in my photo.  Or they could be the same thing with slightly different expression. 

I am thinking of shading half of my tree to see if the problem only appears on the sunny side.  The fact that the discoloration seems to happen at raised parts of the leaf (from macroscopic photo) suggests sunburn or something in the air falling upon it the leaves rather than an infection

But I thought that spanish lime trees needed sun. Do you think is worth it to prune it? Thanks

[brian]

My only experience growing it is this small tree pictured.  Hopefully someone else has more experience growing this and can comment here.

I do not thing pruning will be helpful to fix this.

[MadFarm]

I've noticed the leaves can be sensitive to sun exposure, drought, and definiteley cold. My trees seem to go through cycles of different leaf damage. They get the burn, the spots, and also a wrinkled appearance. I don't pay it too much attention other than applying some neem spray occasionally. The Sri Lankan weevils love the leaves.

[brian]

For me cold is not likely to be the cause, as my spanish lime developed these spots when in the same environment as other "ultra tropicals" that were undamaged.

[AndrewAZ]

Mine used to look like that when they were young, but, they grew out of it.

[brian]

Mine used to look like that when they were young, but, they grew out of it.

That is great to hear.  Even if we don't know what is causing it... if it goes away that is good enough

[W.]

I've never had any similar leaf damage on my Spanish limes. Occasionally, I get a little brown area on the tips in the summer, and in the winter, the leaves get a little vein-y looking from the air being a little dry. Otherwise, my Spanish limes tend to be a healthy, bright green. They do grow quite slowly. Although my plants look healthy, they don't grow like healthy plants. I have never had much luck with plants in the Soapberry family, though at least I have been able to keep my Spanish limes alive without any dieback.

[brian]

W are you also growing this in pure compost?  I remember you said you had success with rambutans in such soil, and I have been trying this for seedlings that always have major growth issues.

Also, do you have yours in full sun?  Shade?

[W.]

Brian, I should have included some growing information. My best Spanish lime is in a mixture that is almost entirely compost. There is a little bit of potting soil mixed in with the compost. The other ones are in Miracle Gro. Those have not shown the decline and other health issues I've seen with rambutans and lychees in the same potting soil, but they are not growing very much. I just haven't had the time to repot them in a better mix. They are all in part sun, but they get full afternoon sun; trees shade them in the morning. I use Espoma Citrus-tone and Osmocote Smart-Release Plant Food Plus Outdoor & Indoor for fertilizer. I have started applying fish emulsion every couple of weeks as well to all my plants; I have yet to see any change with my Spanish limes, but I've only been doing it a couple of months. I water using rainwater whenever possible; my city water is quite hard since my area has a limestone, karst-type geology.

[brian]

Thank you.  My new care for soap berries is much like you describe.  I have been meaning to switch to rainwater or distilled water but mine are at least exposed to natural rain.  My city tap water is actually not very hard but it has some hardness and also has added chloramine.  I wonder if soapberries might be sensitive enough for this to be an issue, though all my other plants seem okay with their soil and water.