7 Reasons Why Your Potted Lemon Tree Is Dying and How to Save It
If your potted lemon tree has yellow leaves, stunted growth, or peeling bark, something is awry. Join farmer Briana Yablonski to learn reasons why your tree may be dying and discover how to save it.
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Growing lemons in pots allows you to enjoy homegrown citrus regardless of where you live. The containers allow you to easily move the plants between outside and indoors, making it easy to protect them from cold winter temperatures.
However, growing lemons in containers also presents a unique set of challenges. If your tree is turning yellow, dropping leaves prematurely, or slowing its growth, something is wrong. It’s up to you to determine the cause!
Before you give up on your dying potted lemon tree, check out these causes of unhealthy trees. Once you determine the reason for the unhealthy growth, you can start remedying the problem.
Mineral Boost: Azomite Powder
It’s ideal for blending with other fertilizer materials and amendments as a trace mineral resource to help meet complete plant nutritional needs, and is an economical way to fortify and re-mineralize soils, composts, and potting mediums.
Wet Soil
One of the biggest causes of sickly potted lemon trees is overwatering. If you’re growing one of these citrus species in a pot, you want the soil to remain moist but not saturated. In most environments, you should deeply water your plant once or twice a week.
Since environmental factors like soil type, temperature, and light impact how often you should irrigate, checking the soil moisture before watering is a good practice. You can use a soil moisture meter or use your finger. Just insert your finger into the top two inches of soil, and only water when this top layer is dry.
While overwatering is the most common cause of overly wet soil, issues with the container and soil can also lead to problems. Make sure the container has drainage holes that allow excess water to escape, and always use a well-draining potting mix.
Signs of Wet Soil
If your soil is saturated, it will feel constantly wet to the touch. You may also notice algae growing on the top of the soil.
Overwatered plants may also develop an infection known as root rot. This fungal disease is caused by pathogens in the Phytophthora genus, causing roots to become soft and/or discolored and then die. It presents with the following symptoms.
- Light green or yellow leaves
- Dropping leaves
- Wilting leaves
- Stunted growth
How to Remedy
The best way to cure an overwatered tree is to decrease the amount of water! Check the soil regularly, and only water when the top few inches of soil is dry. If you water deeply, your tree will remain healthy between waterings.
You should also ensure you are using a container with drainage holes and a well-draining potting mix. If there are problems with either, repot your tree using the appropriate materials.
As long as you decrease the amount you water, your tree should be able to fight off moderate root rot infections. The roots will regrow, and the tree will become healthy again.
Too Little Water
While overwatering is more common than underwatering, it’s still possible that an unhealthy lemon tree is dying from thirst. A lack of water is more likely to occur if your tree is in a hot and sunny location.
Most potted lemon trees require irrigation one to two times a week, otherwise they are at risk of dehydration, rotting, and even dying. However, this can vary depending on the temperature, humidity, and light. If your tree is in a hot, sunny, and dry location, you’ll need to water it more frequently. For example, you should water a potted lemon tree in a dry sunroom more often than a tree in a humid outdoor garden.
Signs of Too Little Water
Dry soil is the most obvious sign that you need to water more often. However, you can also look for symptoms in your plants. A lack of water causes some of these, and others result from the plant’s inability to take up nutrients.
- Brown leaf tips
- Leaves curling inward
- Dropping leaves
- Small leaves
- Lack of flowers
- Small fruit
How to Remedy
Fortunately, it’s easy to save an under watered tree. All you have to do is increase the amount you irrigate.
Remember to thoroughly water the tree each time you irrigate. Pour water slowly and steadily until the water is running out of the pot’s drainage holes. Check the soil moisture every few days and water when the top two inches dry.
Not Enough Light
Citrus plants require lots of direct light, and potted lemons are no exception. They need at least eight hours of bright light each day but are happier if they receive 10-12 hours of light.
Lemons, like all plants, require light to complete photosynthesis and produce sugars. If they don’t receive enough light, they won’t be able to carry out essential processes like cellular respiration, leaf production, fruit set, and ripening.
If you are growing indoors, you should pay special attention to the light. A bright room is crucial unless you use grow lights to provide supplemental light.
Signs of Not Enough Light
When lemons don’t receive enough light, much of the plant is affected. In short, the plant lacks the energy needed to grow and flourish. Therefore, plants often look generally stunted and unhealthy.
Your tree may also exhibit the following specific symptoms:
- Green leaves dropping
- Slowed growth
- Small leaves
- Yellowing leaves
- Elongated and leggy growth
How to Remedy
If your plant shows signs of lacking light, move it to a brighter location. Potted indoor citrus grows best in bright rooms with lots of windows. South-facing windows are ideal, but you can also get away with placing your plant near a west-facing window.
You can also utilize grow lights if you don’t have a suitable indoor location. Leave the light on for eight to ten hours to provide enough light.
Cold Temperatures
It probably doesn’t come as a surprise that citrus likes warm temperatures. Below-freezing temperatures will severely damage or even kill the plant, but sustained periods below 50°F (10°C) can harm the plant.
While indoor lemon trees rarely experience cold stress, outdoor specimens are susceptible to cold damage in most areas. Therefore, you should closely monitor the temperature and move outdoor specimens indoors before cold temperatures arrive.
If a severe freeze zaps your tree, it will unlikely recover. However, plants can bounce back from moderate cold damage.
Signs of Cold Temperatures
Below-freezing temperatures, prolonged cold periods, and quick transitions between warm and cold temperatures can all cause plant stress. The damage varies depending on the low temperature and the length of exposure, so cold exposure doesn’t always look the same.
If your tree experiences below-freezing temperatures, it may develop water-soaked lesions on its leaves, black leaves, and split bark. The trees may experience stunted growth if they experience prolonged temperatures between 40-60°F (4-16°C).
How to Remedy
Trees that experienced near-freezing or below-freezing temperatures may or may not be able to recover. If the interior of the twigs is green and damaged leaves fall from the branches, the plant will likely survive. Just move it to an area protected from further cold damage. However, if the interior of the twigs is brown and brown leaves remain on the plant, the tree is unlikely to recover.
Avoid pruning freeze-affected portions of the plant since it’s difficult to tell the extent of the damage until a few weeks later. Instead, wait until new growth appears and then prune appropriately. You should also reduce the amount you fertilize to compensate for lost branches and leaves.
If your plant is exposed to prolonged periods below 50°F (10°C), it can fully recover. Move it to a warmer location where the temperature remains between 65-85°F (18-27°C). However, avoid suddenly moving the tree from a cool to a hot area.
Too Much Fertilizer
Potted lemon trees need various nutrients to survive, but applying too much fertilizer can be more harmful than not applying enough. Applying too much fertilizer can cause salts to build up in the soil. This problem is most likely to occur if you use synthetic, quick-release fertilizer, but it can appear with excess amounts of other fertilizers.
Saltburn can happen if you apply too much fertilizer at one time or apply too many doses throughout the year. Therefore, the damage may not appear immediately after a fertilizer application.
Signs of Too Much Fertilizer
Since fertilizer builds up in the soil over time, the symptoms may appear slowly rather than all at once. You may notice a shiny, salt-like crust on the soil surface. Plants also show symptoms of overfertilization.
Lemon trees that have received too much fertilizer may show any of the following symptoms.
- Yellowing leaves
- Brown leaf tips or edges
- Slow growth
- Brown or black roots
- Leaves may appear burnt
How to Remedy
While you can’t reverse the damage caused by fertilizer burn, you can prevent further damage from occurring. First, stop applying fertilizer. Next, flush out the nutrients from the soil by thoroughly watering the soil. Continue to irrigate until water flows out of the container’s drainage holes.
If you’re concerned about the amount of fertilizer in the potting soil, you can also repot your lemon tree using a new potting mix. Remove the tree from its container and carefully shake the soil from the roots. Use a new, well-draining soil mix to repot the tree.
In the future, use slow-release fertilizers. If you’re growing your tree indoors, it will likely skip a dormant phase and continue growing year-round. Therefore, you can fertilize year-round. Applying slow-release fertilizer spikes or granules once every four months is a good place to start.
Foot Rot
Similar to root rot, foot rot is caused by Phytophthora species. However, it doesn’t infect plant roots. Instead, it enters the tree at the graft union and spreads.
Foot rot is most likely to occur if the lower portion of the trunk is damaged. Improper pruning, curious pets, and other factors can all lead to breaks that allow the pathogen to enter. These pathogens often enter the plant when they are splashed from the soil during rainfall or overhead irrigation.
This disease can cause dying potted lemon trees when left untreated, so it’s best to remedy the issue ASAP.
Signs of Foot Rot
You may notice foot rot symptoms at the infection site and throughout the rest of the plant. Some of the first symptoms include a dark, water-soaked area near the graft union. In case you’re not familiar, this is the portion of the trunk where the scion (the top portion of the tree) is grafted onto the rootstock (the bottom portion of the tree). This union is typically located a few inches above the soil line.
This discolored portion of the bark eventually cracks. Infected trees may also exhibit yellowing and/or wilting leaves followed by the loss of leaves. After the leaves fall, twigs die back.
How to Remedy
The success rate of curing foot rot depends on the tree’s overall health and the infection’s severity. Severely infected trees may be beyond saving, so disposing of them is often the best option.
If your tree has recently been infected, it’s possible to save it. Ensure there is excellent airflow around the base of the tree, and avoid splashing water from the soil to the trunk. Continue to provide proper light, temperatures, and irrigation to aid your plant in recovery.
Nutrient Deficiencies
If you’ve had your tree for more than a year and haven’t added any fertilizer, it probably doesn’t have access to the nutrients it needs. Lemon trees require more than a dozen nutrients to thrive, so forging fertilization can cause serious harm. Since potted citrus are often grown in a soilless potting mix, they rely on you to provide them with nutrients.
These nutrients allow plants to complete processes like photosynthesis and cellular respiration, supply the building blocks of proteins and fats, and allow plants to form fruits and flowers. Even if you apply fertilizer to your plant, you may not be supplying every nutrient the tree needs.
Signs of Nutrient Deficiencies
Plants require 16 different nutrients to thrive. Since they take in carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, when they take in water or air, you only need to apply 13 nutrients to the soil. Each of these nutrients present different deficiency symptoms, so a nitrogen deficient plant may look very different from one that lacks chlorine or zinc.
In general, stunted, yellowing, or weak plants may be deficient in one or more nutrients. Nitrogen deficiency is one of the most common nutrient deficiencies in potted lemon trees. When plants lack nitrogen, their older leaves turn yellow, and this yellow progresses to newer leaves.
How to Remedy
The best way to remedy nutrient deficiencies is to add fertilizer to the soil. However, you have to ensure you add the right type and amount of product. You can find many fertilizers specifically designed for citrus plants. These products generally contain the proper ratio of nutrients for lemon trees.
If you think your tree is deficient in micronutrients like boron, chlorine, and copper, you may need to add another product that contains these trace minerals. Rocks dusts like AZOMITE supply small amounts of these micronutrients.
You should also pay attention to the soil pH. A pH between 6.0 and 7.0 is ideal for lemon trees and allows the plants to take up a wide array of nutrients.
Finally, make sure you water regularly. Plants require water to take up many nutrients, so dry soil can lead to nutrient deficiency symptoms.
