Hello everyone, I need your help. I planted a lemon seed in April of 2017. It did very well, it stayed green, grew healthy leaves, and I never saw any yellowing or browning. It was also outside for the warm months. But here's my problem. I brought Lemony (my lemon tree) inside in mid-October because the temperatures became too cold. It was doing very well. I rarely watered it because the sun wasn't evaporating so much of the water anymore, but I never saw problems with it. This January, though, I noticed fully dark green leaves started dropping off my tree. At first they started at the bottom and one at the top. I gave it some water when I noticed that because I thought it was because it didn't have enough water. Today I saw another leaf fall off! I prodded some others to see if they were strong and yet another dropped off (the others were pretty sturdy though). I do not know what has changed and why this is happening. We did have a pipe burst in my home a couple weeks ago and they're now just fixing the floors, and because of that, I had to move my tree upstairs, where there is a lot less lighting. I'm not sure what to do. Will my tree be okay? Also, it started with about fifteen leaves, and it's down to about nine. Will it be able to survive if it keeps dropping more, and is there anyway to encourage leaf-growth during these winter months?
My mandarin tree was dropping leaves in a similar manner earlier this year and stopped only when I found a place closer to the windows. Do you have a spot behind a south- or west-facing window?
There's a couple south-western windows, but houses are built right outside of it so the lighting isn't too good. Would a south-eastern window work just as well?
Southern exposures get the most light so that's where I would put the plant. Late December is the time of year when the hours of natural light are at their lowest, which also happens to roughly coincide with the occurrence of leaf loss. I wonder if there would have been enough light at the previous location. Which direction does it face? Does it get cold or drafty either there or at the new location? Just trying to think of other possibilities.
Speaking as someone who knows nothing about this, I'm wondering anyway whether you should be encouraging leaf growth in the winter. Wouldn't this normally be a time to recoup some energy? I understand the concern about losing a lot of leaves, but would have thought that some leaves should fall during winter and the tree should be allowed to rest.
Hi wcutler! Generally citruses do not need rest period as they produce fruit, flower and grow over y whole year in hot climates that the biggest producing countries have. In temperate climates however they do need "rest" period due to less natural light that is available. So yes it would be better not to force green shoots to grow as this will develop in rapid growth and degenerated leaf and shoot tissue. Talking about dark leaves that fall of, I think Junglekeeper might be on a point to ask if the tree is or was exposed to any colder or even windier environment after you moved it form previous location? Jordyn H can you post the picture of your tree? Some symptoms for leaf drop can be obvious just by looking on leaves and the tree, but not all of them.
