Hi guys, I'm new to this forum.I live in the alicante region of spain. I have inherited 2 trees a lemon and an orange both in large pots, the lemon tree has fruit on it at the moment but the leaves are very yellow, can anyone tell me why and also can I fee it and with what, now the orange tree is rather pathetic looking, has had no flowers yet but has loads of new buds appearing apart from being a bit spindly it seems ok can i also feed it and with what? any help gratefully appreciated. Oh bye the way the trees are in the garden. Cheers June
producing fruit always takes a lot of the plants energy, so yes it would be a good idea to feed them both, i'm guessing spain is a little bit warmer than the UK, so if your going to be free from frosts then give them a feed now, you can buy special citrus fertilizer. If the plants look really pot bound, maybe consider moving them into larger containers. Use John innes number 2 (soil based compost) Good luck
I think your real question is better served if we can see some photos of your Lemon and Orange trees. Yes, you can fertilize them but with a Eureka or a Lisbon Lemon this time of year here with yellowing leaves with fruit on the trees it may require a different fertilizer than we are used to applying. I'll give you an example. The Lisbon Lemon that borders my property has some all yellow leaves on the newest growth but has fruit on the tree that the owner wants to save. The yellow leaves is due more so to the affects of cold, lack of sunlight and a specific nutrient deficiency. We do not go in and give this tree high Nitrogen now as too much Nitrogen will make the fruit even more tart than it currently is. What I gave the tree was some 0-10-10 with 6% Calcium and 2% Iron in the formulation with no Nitrogen as I want to wait about 6 weeks before I give this tree any Nitrogen. If we apply Nitrogen now we can either get a greening that will mask the real nutrient deficiency on this tree which is always Magnesium for when this tree yellows like it does or we can exacerbate any cold damage this tree may have gotten as in years past with much colder and sustained cooler temperatures applying Nitrogen for this tree made the tree show even more dieback. By giving this tree some Calcium and a little Iron I can "fool" the tree into thinking I gave it some Magnesium as Calcium and Iron both can assimilate Magnesium which can act towards helping the actual deficiency this tree always shows at this time of year. Yellow leaves can be due to a variety of reasons as even scale (insect) damage from the Summer can cause a Lisbon and Eureka Lemon to yellow out on us and we will more readily see the results of this after the tree has endured some cold and short day (lack of long day) light stress. Jim
Lady, As both of your citrus are in containers, you do not have to worry about the weather, or cold spells when fertilizing. The yellowing of the leaves could be from numerous causes, such as a lack of nutriens, high soil pH, high soluble salts or still other reasons. Do you know the past care that was given these trees by the person you inherited them from? Has the trees been given any fertilizer? Yellow leaves can result from any of the following: a defiiciency of nitrogen, or magnesium, or iron, or manganese, or zinc. Or it could easily be from the soil having a high pH, cold root zone, or just old leaves. You should inquire about the previous care given to the tree, before you should make any type of correction. After finding all the information you can about the two trees, come back with the information, and we should be able to offer a recomendation. As Mr. Shep said a photo of a typical leaf and of the tree itself would also help greatly. If I had to guess without seeing the tree I would suspect a lack of any or all of the following nutrients, nitrogen, iron, or magnesium, but before I did anything I would definitely first find out the pH of the "soil". - Millet
