I have an orange tree and a grapefruit tree which I grew from seeds indoors. The orange tree is about 8 yrs old and 6 - 7 feet. The grapefruit is about 5 yrs old and about 4' tall. They both have developed spider web type problems around the leaves and the leaves fall off. This has been going on for about a year and I have tried insectical soaps, fungicides and mitecides and nothing has helped. These trees have always been indoors. They have never flowered. Thank you
Sorry to hear about your plant. First, way to go with having an eight year old plant. You must be doing something right. The best way for this forum to chime in and give you good advice is to provide more information. 1. attach a photo of your plants 2. describe growing medium and how long in use 3 watering methods 4. fertilizing methods and type 5. lighting/sun exposure
photo's attached over the counter potting soil probably 6 years old miracle grow 4 times per year south west exposure sun all day sorrry for the long delay in responding I took ill thankfully everything turned out ok
They are clearly caused by spider mites. They are very hard to eradicate without a true miticide. Insecticidal soap works, but you have to repeat it once a week for many weeks and even then they will probably come back. I never tried agricultural oil or neem seed oil, both of which are reputed to work. You might give them a try, especially in winter time. I used to use Kelthane which is a miticide and it worked wonders in getting rid of 2-spotted spider mites from my fruit trees. Kelthane has been banned and has been replaced by other miticides. Permethrin, though classifised being able to kill mites, was ineffective for me. Sevin(carbamate) and nicotine extract were both also useless as miticides. You need a true professional grade miticide. Google for it.
thanks for the help I will try to find something that is effective and can be used indoors I will keep you posted. Is it ok to use now because the tree is flowering?
I would be less concerned with the webs and bugs on your plant, pick them off and spray some horticultural oil over everything, than I would with your growing medium and fertilizing. Off the shelf potting soil is not the way to go for citrus. Search the site for specifics but you should be using a very chunky medium. Most use coconut chips as the dominate growing medium with very little true soil in the mix. Get some better growing medium and repot forthwith. I use Miracle Grow 24-8-16 to great effect. Other ratios would not work as well for Citrus. Citrus are heavy feeders. I fert at 300ppm N in the growing season. One brief comment on watering, wait till it's dry and water heavy. This is a great site so use the search function for specifics. New York, New York, the town so nice they named it twice.
