I have this Meyer lemon tree in a pot. The leaves are slowly but steadily falling off, and each little lemon turns completely black and falls off before it even grows to like a centimeter or two. What could I be doing wrong? I have a soil moisture meter and I only water it when the meter reads “dry”. Could it be my grow light isn’t right or isnt strong enough?
I can only say things based on the appearance of your plant, maybe my “diagnostics” are wrong… The soil seems a bit dry, and they like wet soil, the place seems a bit cold, I don’t know, to produce lemons you need a good warm temperature, maybe 26-27 ° celsius. Also, maybe she had consumed some of the minerals and nutrients in the soil, try to renovate organic material… if it is the only light source that plant has, I believe that it needs more light to produce lemon, maybe 6 hours of sun per day minimum. Plants indoors tend to become filthy, so maybe you have to clean the leafs to increase the photosynthesis metabolism and to “spray” some water on it every 2 or 3 days.
hm, the leaves are a bit dusty, I will definitely try cleaning them. As for temp, I am in the northeast so not too much I can do about it (temps are around 18c/65f). I just re-potted it into a larger pot than the one I bought it in, and added some fertilizer when I did that - I’m wondering if the other commenter is right and maybe its too much fertilizer
I think that is not the case, because if it would be over fertilized it would has some burned and brown leafs. If you still have doubts about over-fertilizing, you can water it a lot for once, to clean the excess of chemical materials.
OK, yeah when the leaves fall off they are either fully green or just a little bit yellow. I am always paranoid about over-watering, as I have definitely killed plants in the past this way (especially potted plants). But maybe I should do as you say and give it a one-time burst of water
The light looks underpowered for the plant’s needs. Take a look here at the “lighting for indoor trees” section and compare those specs to the light you’re using. I’ve seen a number of inexpensive “grow lights” that don’t produce the necessary spectrum or lumens, so be sure to take note of the manufacturer specifications if you decide to replace your lights
That looks like a really good resource, and according to it I do have a few things wrong. Seems like the light is probably under powered, although its hard to tell since I can’t find the specs on it anywhere (GE model #93101232). So looks like I’ll have to upgrade the light. I also put stones in the bottom of the pot and that link says specifically not to do that, I wonder how bad that actually is since it would be kind of a pain to get them out now
The GE site is terrible on mobile but I took a look at the bulb here. The site is also lacking documentation regarding lumens, but as this appears to be a product aimed at young or leafy green plants I’m confident it’s not enough for your tree. One other thing to note is that the light doesn’t seem to be hitting the tree evenly - you might be able to correct this when you change the bulb and fixture, but if you’re raising the position of the light you want to go higher on your lumen output. Every additional inch of distance necessitates an additional thousand lumens to achieve the same light intensity, so plan your upgrades accordingly.
Stones in the bottom can do a few things that change the dynamics in the pot. If there’s void space, the air pockets can cause the roots to self-prune and deflect laterally, which can lead to encircling roots (particularly in round pots, square ones don’t always cause circling as readily). The change in porosity between your potting mix and stone can also lead to excess water being held just above the stones. This video has nice visualizations of water movement through various substrates. That link will take you to the section on soil and large aggregates but the whole thing is neat. Personally, where the plant is already stressed, I’d err on the side of not disturbing the root mass until the tree goes dormant for the winter, and then address the aggregate at the bottom along with any necessary root maintenance.
Perhaps over fertilized?
I did that a few months ago on a year old tree, learned the hard way. Half the tree lost its leaves and new growth died prematurely. No fruit yet so can’t comment on that. I also had to trim the tips of the branches since they started to dry out. Luckily, a few months since, growth has restarted.
(My tree is outdoors so I can’t comment on light being a factor for an indoor tree 😬)
I just re-potted it and added fertilizer when I did that, so maybe that could be it. Is there a way to test for that so I know for sure? Soil PH maybe?
over-fertilization typically appears as leaf tip burn, I don’t think this is it
I had this problem with my citrus tree and it improved when I moved it to direct sunlight. Yours doesn’t look nitrogen deficient so I would suggest a stronger light/move to sunlight
I have grown hundreds of container citrus trees and meyer lemons are finicky. In general citrus aren’t terribly happy indoors where it is quite dry. I have mine in a greenhouse in winter where it is fairly humid and they all do great… except the meyer lemon which is never all that happy.
I strongly suggest a non-meyer lemon. The grocery store types ‘Eureka’ and ‘Lisbon’ are great, and commonly available. Also Pink Variegated Eureka makes a pretty striped and pink-inside fruit, though less productive than the others.
I have grown many lemon trees and they are all kinda similar (except meyer which is a hybrid)