Thursday, April 22, 2010

What's Wrong With My Lemon Tree?

Here is my submission to the plant clinic over at Garden Rant.


My Meyer lemon has been growing in a pot for a few years (maybe as long as six?) and for the last few years it just hasn't been as happy as it once was. I get a dozen or so lemons a year from this tree which is fine because I can get lemons from several friends with bigger trees in the ground. Maybe I should find a spot and stick mine in the ground too. I did repot it two years ago with fresh potting soil. I give it some organic citrus fertilizer every so often. It gets plenty of sun, I'm careful about watering it and I decorate it with it's own string of piazza lights in the winter to ward off frost. But the bottom line is it is just not healthy looking. The leaves are yellowed and it doesn't have much new growth. It isn't blooming much this year...at least so far it only has a few blooms. I like the idea of citrus in pots...I think they make pretty container plants. But this one is not living up to my expectations!

3 comments:

Frank Hyman said...

Saw your post on garden rant. Thought you might find my new method of fertilizing and aerating the soil for my potted citrus trees useful or at least interesting.
check out my blog at www.liberatedgardener.net and click on Citrus in the categories list.

take care and good luck ! Frank Hyman

Annie in Austin said...

Sure hope your question gets an answer, Leslie. My Meyer's Lemon looked bad after our terrible summer and being outside with lights and covers for repeated nights in the teens. The branches lived but the leaves were really creepy after so much time under the fabric and even with the help they had been frozen.
The leaf color was weird and so many leaves fell off that I finally just clipped off and discarded every old leaf and started watering and composting.
The tree releafed beautifully but I don't think there will be lemons this year.

Annie at the Transplantable Rose

Dig, Grow, Compost, Blog said...

You know, mine looks like that as well. Especially early in the season. After it gets its first burst of new foliage, it's not so bad looking. I too, like the look of lemon trees in pots.