Hey all,

Though all my trees don't look all that 'fresh' I wanted to use my lemon tree as an example. Lost a lot of leaves and twig dieback during winters but has been stable since late spring. Sadly with the exception of 2 flowerbuds, no new leaves or branches.
I was wondering how to support more leaf and branche growth. Should I leave it alone and give it some time or should I start working on it activelly? E.g. pruning (though I red somewhere that you should keep the died bag twigs on the tree until next summer or so), grafting,... ?
As you'll see, the leaves are only located on top of the tree. The lower part being fully bald. It's this latter part that I want to stimulate.

Pictures:

Full view:


Full view other side:


Just above the rootstock:


Marked dead branches with red and healthy ones in green:


Healthy branches above the rootstock:

Cut all the dead wood back and you should get some new flushes.

Are the roots okay? I have a mandarin that was seriously root bound when I bought it and not doing well. I aggressively cleaned out the old potting soil, untangled the roots, and repotted it. It promptly dropped the remainder of its leaves, looking dead. Then within a week or two it flushed out all over like a deciduous tree does in spring.


This was a month or so ago, the leaves are full size now.

Some of the roots are still okay. They just had some water damage. I am gonna get smaller containers soon because these are about 6cm to wide. Gonna give me better drainage than it does now.

Sorry but that tree is half dead!....Thats a terracotta pot there...They usually dry out pretty quick...esp in summer....i used them in Auckland nz where it rains all the time in winter.
My guess is you have over watered it and there is only one drain hole in the centre of that pot...at least that is what i have always seen.
Get a masonry drill bit and very carefully drill extra drain holes in terracotta ...its worth the effort....start with a 3mm and then a 5 or 6mm.......be careful or you will crack the pot.Dont be tempted to use a 5 or 6mm drill straight off or It will end in tears!
Put some mesh in bottom of pot(to stop losing mix out the holes)....put your pot on pot feet...so air can circulate underneath....tray under that.....I mixed perlite into my mix too.Terracotta has the advantage of being heavier,so wont get blown over so easy....roots can breathe better....but dry out quicker in summer(unless you apply sealer to the inside of pot)...so more attention to watering is needed....If you get a lot of rain in your area in winter....then terracota is better IMHO but you still need a good mix with some inorganics added eg perlite,pummice,turface etc
If the tree lost its leaves from the bottom up and then twig die back....then what i said above it true.......It will take time to recover but let it dry out a bit........its hard to get it just right because its a catch 22 situation......in the summer they dry out quicker....so you need to water more often but in winter.....if it rains all the time....you will end up with wet feet and citrus hate that.......I killed so many trees by them having wet feet.......that must be the biggest cause of death of container citrus...wet feet equals oxygen starvation and death to the roots....brown yukky smelly wet roots....that break free when you remove from the pot........when you really want something like this=(note the pot feet in the background) ....this tree was grown in a terracota pot in shot and was becoming root bound. I am a big fan of adding inorganics to my mix to prevent compaction....leaving air spaces for the roots to thrive.If it was me.....I would slip the plant out and check the roots....if a big mush......buy a smaller pot(buy pot that is 2 to 3 inches bigger all around than the rootball.....drill holes/mesh...make new mix as described and repot in container mix with perlite or pummice added.....repot and dont add any ferts at all...prune off the dead wood....remove mushy dark brown gundgy roots....water in and leave.......Dont feed at all......keep in the shade for a week or two.....dont feed until new growth appears and then at half strength.......Hopefully that will work for you..Move on up to bigger pot....when roots start coming through drainage holes....Good luck mate......God knows i have killed so many trees in containers.....all of them succumbed to wet feet via too big a pot for the rootball or lack of aeration due to compacted mix(no inorganics in medium)
Hope this helps you.
http://s1026.photobucket.com/user/laidbackdood/media/P1010153.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0
p.s nice recovery Brian!

The roots and the foliage of a citrus tree make up a unit, and this unit MUST stay in balance. In the case of your tree, what first got out of balance was the root system. This happened when some of your tree's roots died. Therefore, the tree had no other choice but to try its best to once again return to a balance of growth. To do this an equal portion of the top foliage died back until the tree was again a balanced unit. Looking at the medium the tree is growing in I can see that it does not supply enough aeration for good root health, because of the water it holds. A good medium is made up of particles of different sizes ( two or three different sizes and shapes). Your medium should also have contained large particles such as bark chips, cedar mulch, red wood chips and so on. Remember, a well draining, well aerated medium simply CANNOT be over watered. Do as you wish, but personally I would forget perlite, it makes a mess, and there are much much much better ways of creating a medium with ample aeration while still maintaining adequate water holding capacity. You tree's problem was inside the container. BTW I doubt that the size of the container had anything to do with it. - Millet

Must agree with you there millet.......perlite does make a mess.....the bloody wind blows it everywhere(unless you put some mulch over it but not against trunk)....When i was in Auckland i used pummice......I found that was the best inorganic and used that with my terracota pots.......If you can find some pummice.....that will be better i reckon.....I couldnt find any here....Good luck with your tree.