what's wrong with this lemon tree?
 

I know this is a banana forum, but I also know that many of you grow lots of plants other than bananas, and have lot's more experience growing plants than I do. So... here's a question for those of you thinking outside of bananas:

What is going on with my Meyer lemon "tree"? I use the term "tree" loosely, because it is all of 3' tall, at most.

Here's a photo of a couple of the leaves.

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These are a couple of the worst looking leaves, but the two major symptoms that I see are present to some degree on most of the leaves. Those symptoms are (1) yellow veins and (2) "burnt" tips.

I understand you can get burning from overfertilizing or excessive salts in the water. Either is possible in my case, though other citrus in my yard and around the neighborhood don't look like this, so I'm guessing it is probably not salts. I haven't fertilized at all in over a month (maybe 2-3 months) and don't think I really went overboard the last time I did fertilize. I have tried to leach fertilizer or salts out by doing a one-time watering with distilled water and deep watering on other occasions.

I'm under the impression that yellow veins is usually a symptom on inadequate iron. I added a liquid solution with iron (from the nursery, not me grinding up nails or something) perhaps a couple of months ago, which did seem to temporarily alleviate the vein color problem.

Am I missing something obvious here? Should I just continue to withhold fertilizer and add more iron?

Aside from the look of the leaves, the complete absence of growth of new leaves for probably 6 months (i.e., the whole time I've owned the plant), and a rather sparse look since the leaves do occasionally drop off and aren't replaced, the plant seems OK. It is constantly blooming and is finally setting a few fruit.

Other potentially relevant details: the plant was nutrient starved when I purchased it -- the leaves were quite yellow. It is in the ground and gets one deep watering per week.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.

Re: what's wrong with this lemon tree?
 

Is the soil well draining? I wonder if it's getting too much water & hope it doesn't have some root rot.
Sometimes when there is no leaf growth, it's putting out new roots. It's also normal for old leaves to yellow & fall off While putting out new ones. I'd check the roots.
If it's not showing growth, don't feed it. Can you post a pic of the plant?

Re: what's wrong with this lemon tree?
 

Hi Patty,

Thanks for the info. Here is a picture of the plant (about 3' tall). Lot's flowers but no new leaves, and the leaves it has are dropping. Starting to look quite bare. I wouldn't be too worried about the leaves dropping because they are old, but it's not putting on new ones to replace them.

I dug around in the soil a bit. Not as many roots as I might have expected, but those I found seemed reasonably healthy.

The soil does drain well, but I might not be letting it dry out enough. I only water once a week, a few gallons probably, but in our cool coastal environment, it takes quite a while for things to dry out. The leaves never look dried out, so it must be getting enough water, and maybe too much.

Haven't fertilized in 2-3 months. It doesn't look nitrogen starved.

I'm thinking I'll take the path of benign neglect -- no food and less water -- and see what happens.

Cheers,
Mark

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Re: what's wrong with this lemon tree?
 

Re: what's wrong with this lemon tree?
 

It's underwatered.

Re: what's wrong with this lemon tree?
 

Interesting responses. The guys at my local nursery say it is overwatered, if anything. My soil moisture meter never registers anywhere near dry -- though it doesn't seem to be too soggy either. The burns on the leaf tips (see photos in first post) seemed to indicate overfertilizing, and so I stopped fertilizing. It does still have slow release citrus fertilizer in the soil, so it can't be truly hurting for basic nutrients.

Re: what's wrong with this lemon tree?
 

Inexpensive magnetometer moisture meters work well in pots with a standard potting mix, but are not recommended for soils containing clay. The clays will cause the meter to register moisture until the soil is bone dry.

Re: what's wrong with this lemon tree?
 

Thanks for that info Richard. Even though my soil is not primarily clay, I had noticed that my cheapo moisture meter seems to be more binary (bone dry or wet) than showing a gradient. So I've taken to just digging around in the soil a bit to see it if is moist with my fingers. Any suggestions for a better way of checking soil moisture levels? E.g., one of those tubes that takes a soil core?

Re: what's wrong with this lemon tree?
 

1st of all, Lemon is a very vigorous plant so we are not too worried.

Only in extreme cases should you dig into the soil surface. Plants have very fine roots that you can't see until re-examining the soil with a magnifying glass.

A good soil moisture probe starts around $150 wholesale, and that does not include the computer or the software.

A good soil coring device starts around $1500. A metal pipe pounded into the ground is a worthless substitute in most cases.

Here's something I wrote a while back -- a little out of date (chagrin) but the watering guidelines are good: Guide to Common Citrus

Re: what's wrong with this lemon tree?
 

Re: what's wrong with this lemon tree?
 

If iron fixed it before, why not shoot it some iron again? My lime tree isn't in the ground, but it does seem to need iron on a regular basis to stay green.
It could be either overwatered or underwatered. Only you will know if you're watering it too much or not enough. What's your gut feeling? are you watering it more than once a week deeply? and it's not 90 or over outside?
If it's underwatered, it will dry out. If it's badly overwatered it will dry out as well even though you're pouring the water to it. Because the roots rot and then it will not be able to take up the water even though there'd plenty of it.
another thing to consider--You don't have spider mites or mealybugs do you? Mine had mealybugs and it nearly defoliated the whole thing before spring was over and I had time to really look at it and see what was wrong.

Re: what's wrong with this lemon tree?
 

I have a citrus on my patio and it was constantly drying out and had the same symptoms,i think it has to do with under watering or being allowed to completely dry out to much. My advice would be to keep it moist and check the moisture with your finger.

Re: what's wrong with this lemon tree?
 

Thanks all. This plant definitely does not dry out regularly. Only once, months ago, has it ever dried out (based on the "finger test" and the even more sad looking, dessicated leaves). That was the only time I've ever noticed the soil to be anything other than moist. I'm pretty sure I have overwatered it, and it may be low on iron. For those of you in warmer environs, you may have a hard time believing that 3-5 gallons of water a week is too much, but this summer has been very cool and moist in coastal Ventura, CA. It hasn't gotten over 70 degrees except for a handful of days this summer and we haven't seen much of the sun. So it seems to have been taking a small plant like this lemon a long time to use up water.

I'm going for less water. I'll report back. If I kill it, at least Meyer lemon trees are easy to come by here in Southern California.

Re: what's wrong with this lemon tree?
 

Citrus plants like acidic soil conditions. Get a good acid fertilizer that should take care of the problems. Also, if you want to check soil moisture, try digging a hole about 1 foot deep and see if water accumulates in the bottom quickly, say in about 6 hours. If so, improve your drainage or move to a different place.