Hi, We have a Lemon tree of hieght 8 to 10 feet. Recently I have applied 6 to 8 cups of Citus food I brought from a nursary. After few days I see all the leaves turing into pale yellow.Please suggest any thing I can do to recover the tree. Thanks & Regards Srini
6-8 cups - is that what's recommended? In any case, unfortunately, there is nothing you can do now except to wait. This is the time of year trees are going dormant and don't want fertilizer at all, or only a little bit, so don't give it any more until late Feb. Watering more won't help now either as it's been absorbed into the root system. It's possible that the amount is not the problem, but the water used when you did it, as trees going into dormancy need less water than in spring or summer, and yellow leaves can mean it's been overwatered. Just leave it alone - it'll either survive (even if it drops all leaves til the spring) or it won't and fussing it won't help at all.
Hi Rima, Thank you for your quick response. I think it was recommended for the height of the tree. I will wait and see. Regards Srini
If this is a potted tree, that is way too much--even if it is a low value fertilizer like 6-6-6. Container trees should be fertilized acording to the size of the container not the size of the tree. I would attempt to remove any of the fertilizer that is remaining on the top of the soil, perhaps even lay it on the side and squirt some water on the soil to remove a little of the soil from the top of the pot (do this outside of course). Then you can flush the container to try and remove the remaining soluble fertilizer salts. Skeet
An educated assessment if the tree's condition was caused by the application of the fertilizer cannot be made from the information that you have supplied. One would have to know what the formulation of the fertilizer was, and also what the age of the tree is, not the height of the tree. Even a citrus tree growing in a warm location like Santa Clara should not be fertilized between September and February. Your nurseryman should have advised you that December is not a time to fertilize citrus trees. A three year old citrus tree should receive 1.75-lbs. of 8-8-8 fertilizer applied 4 times between February and September. A four year old citrus tree should receive 3.5-lbs. of 8-8-8 applied 3 times between February and September. Lastly a 5+ year old citrus tree should receive 5-lbs. 8-8-8 applied 3 applications between February and September. So you can see that even a four year old tree would only receive 3.5 pounds of a LOW nutrient level fertilizer (8-8-8) with each application. Without actually weighing out what a cup of granular fertilizer weights, my guess you applied between 6 to 8 pounds of fertilizer. Hopefully the fertilizer you applied was not a HIGH analysis fertilizer. - Millet
