Hi, I have a little grapefruit tree as a houseplant. It came from a seed in my breakfast that was sprouted in the fruit. It's about 2-3 years old, and it seems to be just starting to get little branch shoots. In the last couple of weeks, there have been some brown spots on the lower leaves. Now some of the leaf ends have gone dry and dead. Is there anything I can do to help my plant? I live in Canada, and the plant is usualy by a sunny window. It gets watered regularily. Here's a picture. Thank you very much.
There is probably nothing wrong with the bottom leaves. Citrus leaves live about 2 to 2-1/2 years, then turn yellow and die. However, a 3 year old Grapefruit tree should be at least 4-feet and probably 5 feet tall with 10 to 20 side branches. I can tell from the tree's age and the size of the container that the tree is still in, that the tap root has long ago reached to bottom of the container, and is just circling around and around and around. This tree should have had it tap root air pruned approximately 3 weeks after seed germination, and have been transplanted at least two if not three times already. - Millet
I have the same problem except my plant is 25 years old and 5 feet tall. It seems to thrive for a week and then get sad and wilty. I was also wondering if it will ever produce fruit? diane
Diane, all varieties of citrus will mature, bloom and then fruit when the tree has produced the required number of nodes. A node is each place on a tree where a leaf is attached to a branch. For the purpose of this discussion, you can think of a node as being a leaf on the tree. When a person plants a citrus seed and the seed germinates and produces its first leaf, the tree has one node. After a couple months the tree has grown perhaps 6 more leaves and now has 7 nodes. As the years go by the tree adds more and more leaves, more and more nodes, until one day the magic (required) number of nodes (leaves) has been produced. When the tree finally reaches this number, the tree becomes mature and begins to bloom and fruit. I don't know the number of nodes each variety must produce before it is a mature tree, perhaps 15,000 - 20,000 or more. Anyway, when this number is reached the tree will fruit. Therefore, by not properly growing the tree, by not transplanting when the root system becomes root bound, causing the tree to stop growth, or not regularly fertilizing the tree, or giving the tree the appropriate light, the tree's growth is stunted and therefore does not produce enough nodes to ever reach maturity. Also, pruning a citrus tree, which is a real no no if you ever want fruit, greatly reduces the number of nodes by continually cutting them off. I don't know what type of citrus tree you have, but it should have fruited in approximately 7-10 years, or less for some varieties, if started from seed, or 1-2 years if it was a grafted tree. The MOST IMPORTANT PART OF A CITRUS TREE is the root system. When the roots aren't happy no part of the tree is happy. The roots do all the "dirty work" but the branches and foliage get all the credit. If you have any further question, feel free to ask. Take care. - Millet
Diane, I really cannot tell if your tree needs transplanting or not as I have never seen the tree. However, every properly grown containerized tree should to be transplanted once every year, if the expected growth is to occur. It is very simple to tell if your tree needs transplanting by just slipping the tree from the container and looking at the roots. - Millet
