While I'm in Pic posting mode, I might as well share my yellowing problems. Seems to be happening only in old growth. The first leaf fell today. I don't like the way they are yellowing. If you could have a look, I'd appreciate it.

Here you can't see much of the newer leaves I've had this spring, I am concentrating the pic in the bottom center for the old. They are yellowing from the venation outwards....

Yellowing leaves


Here's my "new sprouts" growth, but it's nothing like all of your fresh growth, rather pewnie actually now that I see what new growth really means

New growth #1

New growth #2


And here we see my baby that I hope toughs it, and at the bottom right, the one from last year. See how new leaves are green, lowers ones are yellowing?

Baby and Co.


Here's the last standing of my 5 lemons, just for fun. Little fuzzy though.

Big guy


I fertilized two weeks ago, I haven't changed a thing except that it saw some super nice weather for 5 days outdoors to only be brought in for 8 days of crappy overcast, cold and rain.

Any ideas? My self confidence as a "citrus-ite" is dropping here....

Yellowing on older leaves usually means a Magnesium deficiency. From what I have been told magnesium and nitrogen go hand in hand. They need each other in order to function correctly.

From flying dragon nursery deficiency page:
Old leaves bearing a yellowing from the tip to the leaf stalk forming an inverted "V"

Small new leaves sounds like Zinc deficiency.

Also from deficiency page:
New leaves are small,in the shape of a spear,intervein chlorosis,short internodes. Reduced blooming,small fruits yeilding little juice.

When I fertilized they got a small dose of epson salts, and I am "ferting" with 30-10-10

Do I give them more epson? More ferts? The were greener before I gave them anything at all really...

I need to look into zinc then

But those big huge healthy green leaves at the top you see in some of the latter photos were that size a month + ago, they produced however 3 at a time only.

I think your tree is fine. The leaves are just the old mature leaves falling from the tree. Actually at this time of year it is quite common. The life span of citrus leaves is normally 15 to 24 months. Additionally the greatest time of normal leaf drop is during and after flowering I have 77 citrus trees and many of them are doing the very same thing. It happens every year about this time. It is definately not magnesium nor zinc deficiency. - Millet

What a relief Millet, Thank you!!

I'll let him ride and see how it goes then. Now I'll try and not mourn the loss of each leaf, but as an apparment owner it's hard!

You did say it's the older leaves that are yellowing & falling. Millet is right.
I was going to say that it looks like yellow vein chlorosis which can be caused by root rot (did you ever check the roots?) or nitrogen deficiency. You have some nice green leaves & healthy looking fruits on it! Don't kill it with kindness!

Also the tree is about to undergo WLD, most older leaves usually drop off during spring when it starts to get really warm to hot.

My citrus trees seem to be abnormal, haven't really seen them drop that much leaves, for the past 3 years now. Only very little leaf litter evenly distributed through the seasons instead of the usual ones during spring. I used to have massive leaf drops when we had colder winters. The past 3 winters have been relatively mild.

I am so consoled..except for WLD? What's that?? i'm a northerner and WLD sounds alarming, what on earth is it??

WLD is Winter Leaf Drop. The tendency of citruses to lose their leaves as they go into and out of winter season. The massive leaf drop occurs when we go into spring time in our area for inground citruses. Happens to potted citruses too and these are caused by changes in the ambient environment of potted citruses as we change the settings of our homes during the winter.

So it was the in and out that maybe did it.

Thanks guys!!

Gen, NO, the in and out had nothing what so ever to do with your tree's older leaves turning yellow and than dropping. They are just old leaves that have reached the end of their life span. Following is the life cycle of citrus leaves. Each year a citrus tree produces a flush of new leaves, and when these new leaves have become fully expanded, they supply the developing FRUIT with carbohydrates during their first growing season. Then during their second year, these same leaves will supply photosynthates (food) to the blooms. This is why clusters of blooms with leaves have better fruit set and less abscission than those bloom clusters that lack leaves. Once again, when the tree produces its next set of new leaves and they have expanded and can supply the developing fruit, the second year leaves begin supplying food ONLY the roots. Then the old leaves turn yellow, die and fall from the tree. Of course, I can only see a picture of your tree and not the actual tree itself, but it certainly looks normal. The leaves are not falling because of anything you have done. Take care. - Millet

Hope you don't mind me borrowing your thread but, I have a question about my moro & maybe Millet will see this. Last Jan or Feb I posted pics of 2 sick trees - one being the moro which was losing leaves. It now has few leaves but a TON of baby blossoms & only 3-4 new leaf flushes. Should I pinch off some blossoms or just let the tree drop them?
If leaves supply food to fruits & blossoms, will there be enough leaves to do this? Thanks

Patty Oranges flower only once a year. If you remove all the flower buds you should get quite a bit of vegatative growth for the rest of the summer. The plants that are a pain in the ass are the lemons & limes that fruit all year... You have to constantly remove the blooms if you want a good growth flush....

Hi Patty, I agree with Laaz, that removing the blooms will help encourage new floliage. A tree with only a very few leaves, will probably drop almost 100 percent of the blooms anyway. Most of the blooms that eventually become fruit are from LEAFY inflorences, so without leaves ,the chances of any sort of a crop is nill. I would go for the growth. Take care my friend (see you in Virginia Beach) - MIllet