my grapefruit tree just started shedding its leaves a week ago and it seems every morning there are about 1- or more that shed over night. it is in a pot im pretty sure its too small but thats been a problem for a yr or so,. not a new issue. i water it every day and its in the same place it always is/ spending the winter indoors next to a morning sunny window. ( summer it goes outside in almost the same exact spot) i have posted before/ we are in nj so its a bit chilly there but why all of a sudden would it shed? is it normal? i see no parasites or bugs or cobwebs on the leaves. a few months ago i thought maybe white powder substance ( dry not sticky) so washed it off no problems since. maybe i am not watering it enough? or can this happen if you water too often? odd it started a week ago with no changes-in temp inside its not near a heat source its radiant heat in the floor but its near the front door so it does get a slight draft.... lots of branches without leaves now so any suggestions? but also have new branches with new leaves.. my husb said it usually sheds in the spring/ make room for the new life but never this much. help!!
It won't drop old leaves to make more, but citrus leaves do only live 12 - 18 months. The pot...the fact that is has been in too small a pot makes it a continuing issue, not an old issue. I'm not sure if it is to blame, but it might not be helping.
the pot we put it in last summer was ok but now the roots are visiable on the top. it had enough space around the root ball but i dont think it was high enough to cover it. we had about 2 inches of soil but washed along the sides. we cant do anything about the pot till it goes outside in the summer as its almost blocking the walkway to the stairs now as it is..lol but we have never seen as many leaves fall off...kind of strange thanks!
If its cold, it wont use much water so watering every day would probably be watering far too much especialy if the roots are cold it could be virtualy dormant, let it dry out well between each watering, check the root temperture in the center of the pot to see what it is, it will be far far lower than room temperature unless you have heater mat If its cold and getting any direct light the leaves will fall off as well, but it is probably due to overwatering if you are watering every day, i would guess more like once a month would be better if its cold
ok i will water less. it seems that if i let it go more than 3 days more leaves fall off. originally i thought it was that i was underwatering it as the leaves that are falling off dont look new, they are older looking some are yellowish and curled up on the edges( the curling of the edges usually happens in the summer when we go away and just say it gets too much sun and not enough water ..at least thats what we thought maybe we are wrong?? anyway i will let it dry out a bit thank you for your suggestions. the cool temps i would think it is used to being its been there since nov when the frost came... right? how much space should be around the root ball? i really dont think i can fit a larger pot if i knew how to post a pic i would do that and you all can see it and let me know if you think the pot is too small for the size of the tree. it is about 7 feet tall ( was trimmed when we brought it in) and the pot it is in is 16" diam( inside to inside diam) the pot is not straight down ( curves smaller maybe to 14 at the bottom) thanks!!
It may be used to the air temperature being cooler, but if the roots get cold, under 70F it will not be happy, they prefer more like 80 to 90F , below 70F the roots can not work well, the sun goes on the leaves and they can not cool themselves as the roots can not work so they will fall off ith sun contact as the sun will burn them, it is the root temperature not air tempertaure that is critical for this, Have you got a air humidity meter, check the air humidity is high enough, if not do something to raise the humidity such as a humidifyer or pebble tray with water in, maybe try spraying the plant once a week with dilute citrus fertiliser to give it nutrients if its too cold for the roots to work well, you dont want to be fertilising in the water often as it will use very little water so it would overwater it, spraying fertiliser will give some nutrition without adding to the wet pot
i wiped all the leaves clean ( no dust mildew or black stuff) on any leaves... if i have a branch or two that once it branches off from the main trunk that has NO LEAVES left on it will the leaves come back? should i leave it alone or snip it off? there is a large one and a small one like this. it has the sharp needles coming off( i thought that meant a new branch was forming or sprout) but not a leaf on it. thanks..
It could be winter leaf drop. Have you had a lot of sunny days lately? The sun will warm the leaves to a higher temperature than the air temperature which causes the leaves to transpire more water. The roots are colder than the air temperature because of water evaporating from the soil. A cold draft could make the roots even colder. The roots won't function at all below 55F. Cold roots cannot supply enough water to the warm leaves so the leaves fall off. The usual solutions are either to warm the roots or to reduce direct sunlight on the leaves on sunny days. I don't know why this doesn't happen to citrus tress outdoors in the ground. I am not an expert on this. I am only repeating what I have read from others.
