Hello,

Ièm thinking of giving up on citrus growing for a while, because every year is the same thing......I just brought them in a week ago, our temps overnight were getting quite cold.

Two of my keplimes are 4 feet tall, were doing great all season, now they have maybe 5 leaves each, and if I mist the plant, they will fall. Almost all are falling without the petioles, they are still attached to the branches. I know this is shock, but I donèt know what to do anymore. I canèt avoid bringing them in, and bringing them in is a shock, but an enevitable one.

Ièm so frustrated.


My blood orange has lost a few leaves, but nothing like the key limes. My orrange jessamine is also dropping very few leaves. all of these plants received the same treatement.

Donàt want to give up, but cmon now!!!

Is the tree's potting soil (root zone) at or above 64F? 70F is much better at preventing winter leaf drop. Also putting a shading material between the tree and the sun also works. Hang in there, we like having you as a member of the forum = Millet (840-)

Ecomtl,
I was having the same problem until last night. It had been dropping for a week but mine is not WLD after measuring my soil temperature is 70+. I only grow my citrus in door and this is what I have figured out. My leaf drop was from red mites and scales so far and it depends alot on the soils. In 2008, I grow mine in potting soil. I had massive scales attack. I was a newbie and I didn't know what scale was, lol. I thought little nephews and nieces were spilling soda pop all over the wall and got the tree. Man, I was wrong and ignore the problem until this year. My mandarin orange was 6 feet high and now it is less than 1.5' high. 90% of all the branches were dead as the result and lost a nagami kumquat.

This year, I got kaffir lime and fukushu Kumquat. I tried the potting soil again. At first, I got major citrus leaf miner from fungus gnats. They like to live in peat moss. I did get minor scales but all that was sprayed down with Safer Brand soap. Still, the fungus thrived a few day later. After further reading in this forum, I decided to switch the soil medium size pine/cedar barks. This introduced massive red mites. One or two days later, a few of my leaves would drop now and then. On my 3rd, 10+ leaves would drop per night. Mostly old leaves, I had seen any new growth one. I thought the tree was shedding. After the first week, the younger leaves would also drop. I got concerned so I sprayed with Volk pesticide last night. I also try to soak the bark with Volk. It helps but did not eradicate the red mite. It would still crawling on the under side of the bark. Nevertheless, I must have done something last night because this morning when I woke up, I didn’t see anything more leaf dropped going from 20+ leaf per night to nothing is a good sign. I am very surprised. I know there are still red mites exist though underneath those barks. One thing I want to point out is that I have never seen any red mites on my tree. All of them were down below. I do not see any scratch on my leaf or any damage of the dropped leaves. Only .5mm of browning at the tip of each leaves. I think red mites are feeding on the root system instead of the leaves. None of my leaves are yellow or yellow spotted. All are dark green and even the dropped leaves.

Anyway, if the problem is not the temperature and you already have a good CHC mix or bark mix. Try to take away 1-2” of soil off the surface and use sand at the top surface. I am planning to try this out next. I believe the sand will deter most bugs maybe not ants but it’s much nicer. I am sure Millet and other will point out if I am wrong. Btw, this is my first post on this forum! Hi everyone!

Bah, bunch of leaves dropped when i got home. I found few red mites was climbing the plant. Sigh, is this suppose to happen a day after spraying? I spend at least half a gallon of volk mix on this one plant. Gonna go get sand to try out.

Millet, I saw your other thread saying to use 1% of horitcultural oil. From my math, would that be 8 to 9 tbs of Volk oil per gallon of water? The label recommend was 5 tbs per gallon of water for winter dormant.

My guess is that the tree have serious problems not only from the mites but also from so many chemical you have used

1 percent horticultural oil spray would be 1.3 oz/gallon. When I spray I always use either distilled water or rain water. It is not necessary to use rain or distilledd water, but my water source is well water. Rain and distilled does not contain soluble salts. BTW I have never used Volk oil, I use UltraFine. However, either should be fine. - Millet (838-)[/quote][/i][/b][/u]

Millet, I tried 1%, 1.5% there was a big improvement but I have to say, most of those mite stay in the soil and bark. Thus made the spraying ineffective for the mites in the soil. Nevertheless, I tried the method of soak the soil for overnight, it works better than any spray. I also used the fly sticky tape and wrapped it around the trunk so no mites can climb up into the plant. I believe I won the battle against the mites for now!

Okay for WLD, approximately how many days of darkness before the initial sign of leaves drop? I am trying to fully grow my citrus indoor during the winter month but too many leaf are dropping. I am trying to identify the problem. I am currently using x2 42W CFL 6500k 12hrs/day. (is this enough time?) I do not have a windows near me. It seems the bottom of the plant is shedding leave but the top leaves are not still full. The lights are located at the top of plant. The plant is still blooming non-stop.

Sounds like a lot of light, do you have the warm root temperature to match?