i just learned about citrus greening and one of the lemon trees has mottle looking yellow leaves. i also learned from the tags that they came from florida.

i fed them both iron and espom salt thinking they looked iron and magasium defidient but now that i learnt more, i am very worried.

a couple of weeks ago, i found some tiny brown bugs on the other tree and i sprayed limonene soapy water and got rid of them. but 2 days after the spray, some leaves started turning completely yellow and dropped off, a couple of little fruitlets turned yellow too and one of them dropped, now i have a third turning yellow. i will post picture of the mottle looking tree on this post and the other trees on the next.

thanks,
kay

(pictures wouldn't upload and i will try again later today.)

The chances of your tree having Greening disease is very slight. First, Greening takes approximately 2 years before symptoms appear, so if your tree is a new young tree that you have recently received, I would say no your tree does not have Greening. Second, all citrus trees presently coming out of Florida were grown in a screen house to guard against Greening, and which is routinely inspected. As a guess, if your tree is a young tree, the chances of it being infected with Greening is 1 chance in 10,000. Lastly, if you have a tree from Florida, than you must live in Canada. - Millet (1,366-)

thanks millet. you guessed right about me being in canada, i am in vancouver. and a bit of a relief hearing what you said. i recently sprouted some lemon seeds as well and was worried about the disease spreading to the seedlings ...

anyway, i still couldnt upload the photos of my trees but i uploaded it to my website. here are pictures of the trees with many mottle looking yellow leaves (what would you say is causing that?):

http://www.theothereden.com/lemon1.html

here are photos of the other trees that dropped about 10 leaves after turning yellow very quickly. it also dropped about 10 little fruitlets. the top left photo shows the tiny little bugs (there are a couple near the base of the 2 leaves), the bottom left shows a heart shaped leaf, this tree has 3, is that normal? and finally the bottom right photo shows the tiny lemon turning from green to yellow and orangy yellow.

http://www.theothereden.com/lemon2.html

my little seedlings are coming out quite nicely as well, i now have them in seeding soil mix but when i put them in pots, would the 1/2' chc be too large for seedlings? i also have coir and perlite so can mix something up. i cannot find anywhere that sells 1/4" chc here... you said to put them in proper pots when the true leaves come out, now some of them are about an inch or so tall with 2 tiny leaves (would these be the true leaves that you refered to?), shall i pot them soon or wait till the are bigger?

thanks again.
kay

Posted for Kay:

Lemon 1:

Posted for Kay:

Lemon2

It seems to me that they are fertilizer burns from applying too much fertilizer!

thanks joe. if its fertilizer burns, the nursery must have over fertilized them, they were like that when i bought them. maybe i will ease off on the fertilizer then... does that cause the yellowing on the leaves too?

any idea about the heart shaped leaves?

thanks.
kay

Actually, I do not see all that much wrong with your trees. The one leaf in picture number 3 and 4 is just an old leaf, that should be soon discarded by the tree. Because the burn and discoloration of the other couple leaves is mainly on the tip of the leaf, and not showing much on the leaf margins, the damage was from the high soluble salt levels, probably in the original potting soil. Soluble salts originate from various sources, including the water source used and fertilization, and normally accumulates due to improper watering, or using a container that is too large for the tree. You must have transplant your trees, because I notice that they are growing in a CHC medium. With the free draining medium your trees are now in, they should not be bothered by toxic levels of soluble salts in the future. When watering or fertilizing your trees, if the pass through is too rapid, you can also water or fertilize them by setting the container in a larger container and let the medium soak for 2 or 3 minutes. . Actually all in all your trees look quite healthy. There is nothing to worry about concerning the tree dropping the small fruitlets. This is very natural for citrus to do. Citrus produces many more flowers than needed for a good crop of fruit. Generally less that 5% of the flowers set and produce fruit, and in some cases as little as 0.2% of flowers produce the final crop. Fruit dropping from the tree takes place in several steps. The largest drop occurs during, and very shortly after flowering, when flowers and very young fruitlets drop as a result of the separation of the pedicle (stem) from the twig. This is a natural drop, but it may be increased by water stress or nutrient deficiency. Another drop occurs when the fruit ranges from pea sized to marble sized. This is often called June drop, (although it often times it happens in May) because it parallels the well known June drop of deciduous fruits. This time the drop involves the separation of the pedicle from the young fruit. Your tree will retain only the amount of fruit that it is capable of bringing to maturity. For the size of your trees, my guess is that it might keep and mature 2 to 4 of the fruitlets. The heart shaped leaves is just a quirk of nature that happens from time to time, nothing to worry about. You are doing a good job with your trees. Good luck to you and your trees. - Millet (1,365-)

I think that on the leaf close-up picture I can see a couple of citrus red mites. They haven't caused any damage yet - but take care they don't spread!

Thank you everyone.

millet, i did transplant the trees. you actually helped me with that on the other forum, so a thank you for that too. thanks for the information about the dropping of fruitlets, a couple more of the little babies are turning yellow so i guess they are doomed too, but there are one or two that is gaining size and looking healthy, so keeping my fingers crossed.

for the seedlings, you recommended osmocote slow release. i looked at home depot and 2 garden centres yesterday but couldn't find it around here. is there anything else i can use? i actually moved them out of the paper egg holder yesterday into a 50:50 perlite and seeding mix medium (their roots have grown into the paper).

citrange, thanks for pointing out the red mites, i didn't know what they were but i think the limonene soapy spray took care of that.

thanks again,
kay

for the seedlings, you recommended osmocote slow release. i looked at home depot and 2 garden centres yesterday but couldn't find it around here. is there anything else i can use?

Osmocote is very common in the US. I know often times specialty items are difficult, or impossible to locate in Canada. I guess that is the price you must pay for living in Paradise. You can use your regular water soluble fertilizer, at 1/3 to 1/2 strength. Take-care. Millet (1,364-)

Everybody is Somebody

Some of the leaves are showing minor biuret toxicity. It doesn't tend to do a lot of damage, but you could switch to a non-urea-based fertilizer, or one with a more pure form of urea in it.

thanks millet. paradise - right now i have to agree with you with the beautiful weather we are having but ask me again in january

thanks for the tip about biuret toxicity. being the noob that i am, could you tell me how to tell if a fertilizer is urea based?

it is quite exciting watching the seedlings grow

thanks,
kay

Actually, I did not give you the tip about Urea, Dr. Malcolm Manners did. Look on the label and it will tell you what the ingredients are that make up the nitrogen portion of the fertilizer. (Urea is a nitrogen source) - Millet (1,363-)

i guess the labeling requirements here is different too. mine only says total nitrogen... 24% and nothing about what makes up the nitrogen portion ..