I have 2 lemon trees I bought last spring. When I bought them they had a thick bush and a couple of lemons growing on them. They did very well through out the summer. Through the winter they slowly lost a lot of leaves. There has been a couple of small branches that are dieing off on both of the trees. I trimmed off the dieing branches about a month ago and now I see some more that are dieing off. It has cut one of them practically in half. In some areas they are producing new leaves and plenty of blossems but are not producing any lemons. There are 2 lemons on 1 tree left over from a late bloom last fall that are still about the size of a nickle. I live in Waco Texas, where right now we get rain about 1 a week and the temp is around 50-75. When it doesnt rain, I water about once a week. We didn't get very much freezing weather but when it did get down to about 36 I brought them inside. I potted them last fall in Miracle grow citus soil. I use nutri star fertilizer at 12-10-10 once every 2 months which the nursery recomended. I use Ortho insecticidal soap maybe once a month maybe more if I see any bugs. They sit on my balcony which faces to the west and they get about 6-8 hours of direct sunlight. Any ideas of maybe why I keep seeing dieing branches and any recomendations on how to make them more lush? I will post pictures when I can.
Fertilizing a containerized citrus tree once every two months does not come close to suppling enough nutrition for good growth Citrus are heavy feeders, and require more nutrition than most trees. Container citrus trees, should be fertilized a *MINIMUM* of at least once a month. Most grower fertilize container citrus every two weeks. I fertilize my trees with every watering, as does the Citrus Clonal Protection Program (CCPP) at the University of California at Riverside. A good fertilizer for citrus provides a higher nitrogen and potassium percentage with a low phosphorus content. Some with a ratio (not formula) as close to 5-1-3. Your trees main problem is that it is not getting enough nutrition to maintain a good canopy. - Millet (1,371-)
