Hi all,

An infant lemon plant (germinated last summer) has starting looking very ill very fast. It's managed to survive all winter indoors along with my 3 grapefruit, all of which are doing okay so far.

The light areas arrowed on the leaves in the picture below aren't reflections - they really are that colour. The white area on the smaller leaf is gradually moving towards the centre, on the larger one it's pretty much the width of the leaf and heading upwards.

It's in the same medium (Levington citrus compost) and been fed all winter on the same schedule as my grapefruit plants. Last week they had the first dose of their summer feed.

About the only thing I haven't done is flushed the pot or re-potted it, and I'm not sure if it will do more harm than good at this point. I'm also tempted to remove the leaves but again don't know if this will kill or cure!

Any advice appreciated.

TIA.

The plant looks fine. I would gradually move it outside into the sun for the summer and it should do just fine. Citrus leaves are not always perfect.

It seems to be a nice green, and have active growth at the tip, so should be ok. Not 100% sure from your pic, but the silver(???)effect on the leaf, could be thrips or similar pest ?. Check UNDER the leaf for any tiny larvae. and/or check at night for any bigger bugs about that might be climbing up.

Thanks for the advice. Colourless areas seem to have stopped spreading for now at least. Will check for bugs under the leaves tonight

I never have any luck with lemons, I must have sprouted 10 or more of them and that's the only one to have survived!

Actually, lemons grown from seed are rather easy to grow. Almost always the two reasons that a young seed grown citrus tress dies, are due to either a growth medium (potting soil) that is not free draing enough, thus not providing adaquae oxygen to the roots, ones watering practice, or planting into a non sterile medium. Many young seedling die from rhyzoctonia (stem rot) (http://www.westernfarmservice.com/newsletters/turf/rhizoctonia.pdf) which is caused either by a non sterile medium, or watering later in the day. Young citrus seedlings should only be watered early in the morning, than set the seedling in direct sun so that the surface of the medium quick dries. Rhyzoctonia, requires moisture. - Millet (1,393-)

Millet,does that watering in the morning and then leaving in the sun to dry the top of medium apply to more mature trees in pots too? cheers

Ladeback, depending on how old the seedling is. However, morning watering mainly applies from germination to 3-4 months of age. Most citrus seedlings die from root or stem rot, and normally by the 2nd month. There are a 100,000 identified species of organisms commonly classed together as fungi, but the two that commonly cause a problem with citrus seedlings are Rhizoctonia solani, and phytophra, and they grow rapidly with moisture. Therefore, you want to dry the surface of the medium quickly. Planting in an sterile medium is also highly recommended. Millet (1,390-)

Millet,i meant trees of two or three years old.Like the one thats got the yellow leaves at the moment,not seedlings.
Is it good to water early morning and then,get the sun on them to dry the surface that day if possible? thanks

It is alway good to water early in the day. Further, one should never water a container tree in the evening. Although the damage or death to a young seedling tree is high when the medium's soil surface is kept wet, the chance of hurt hing the tree decreases as the tree ages. - Millet (1,389-)

I have had several seedlings die on me. Been wondering what it was. Must be stem rot. Right above the dirt a portion of the stem turns pale and dry. Cutting the off the top part to the roots.

gdbanks, your conclusion as to what killed your seedling is correct. A sterile planting medium, and early morning watering, followed by a quick drying of the soil surface, by the sun's rays goes a long way to prevent this. - Millet (1,487-)