First a little background. These are two Meyer Lemons (Improved) that I have been growing for maybe 20 years. They are currently in a greenhouse, but spent the early years in small pots inside the main house. They were recently in black plastic 18” diam pots and they started doing poorly a year or so ago. Symptoms are heavy leaf drop, leaves yellowing between green veins before they drop. I attributed the problems to being root bound (had not xplanted them in a few years). So I transplanted them and a few other GH citrus a couple of months ago. I used my own mixed 5-1-1 soil mix. The other citrus, also in this mix, are doing well, so I won’t think it is the soil mix causing the problem.
I realize that yellowing between green veins can be a symptom of lack of available moisture, either from insufficient watering and/or roots failing to absorb the water (root rot, etc). So I got a moisture meter, and test the soil prior to watering; I try to let it get to dry on the meter before each watering.
What I have seen after the xplanting is the lemons have been sending out A LOT of flower buds, but no leaf/stem shoots. And the yellowing/dropping leaves continues. The other xplanted citrus are sending out both flower buds (in more reasonable numbers) as well as sending out new leaf/stem shoots which are doing fine.
I am at a loss as to what is wrong with these lemons. Do Meyer Lemons flower for a few weeks before they send out new leaves? Might I still have the water all wrong? What can cause a Meyers Lemon to make a bunch of flowers but no leaves? Something else going on here?
Any ideas or questions from the citrus experts here? Happy to provide more details, just ask.
I tend to see that on my citrus if they are stressed. I just do everything you did (check water, soil, fertilize, root prune, etc) and in time it’ll put on new growth. Meyer lemons can be complete divas, lol. I have a five year old one that literally didn’t put on ANY growth whatsoever during all of 2025 (mad at me for putting it in-ground as an experiment fall/winter 2024, so survived outside but dropped all its leaves). I put it back in a pot spring of 2025 but it is only NOW finally putting on some green growth.
Have you tried soaking them? I keep most of my potted plants soaking basically all the time, but they dry out quickly due to our heat. So saucers under each pot help keep me from watering daily. I would think a good solid soak and some nitrogen (fish emulsion) would help quite a lot. But citrus don’t take being moved around too happily, defoliation with lack of ample sunlight is quite common during the winter months.
Some photos would really help, also I would suspect scale caused them to defoliate. My in ground citrus give me almost zero problems, but the potted ones tend to be scale magnets.
Thanks to all. Here’s some more info, and some pics.
FWIW, I do not see any bugs on the citrus, but have to admit I am not that familiar with citrus specific bugs and diseases, In general the GH they are in has some white fly issues, but I don’t see them on the lemons (they hang out on other plants they prefer more).
A few more details on the watering/soil thing. Back when xplanted these to bigger, fabric pots I teased out some outside roots from the old root ball but did not attempt to wash off all the old soil. So this old root ball (which was pretty full of roots) was just put into the new pot and surrounded with new 5-1-1 mix. Now when I test with the moisture meter, The 5-1-1 on the outside tends to dry out in a day or so, but the old root ball stays fairly moist. I have been watering only at the perimeter of the pot, thinking that the old root ball would dry out some, but that does not seem to be happening.
Here are a couple of pics, showing the yellowing leaves and flowers/buds. Note on the second pic, leaves on this stem are yellowing and in bad shape, nonetheless it is forming a flower bud.
I have 2 of these lemons, and have been considering trying letting one dry out much further than I usually do to see if that helps. Also considering trying the opposite, watering much more than usual. As you might guess, I am pretty much stumped and grasping at straws here…
Steve. I grow around 120 varieties of citrus (in SE Texas), mostly in-ground, but perhaps 100 or so in containers as well. My situation and experience is not a great analogy for yours, so take this with a grain of salt. In general, citrus are pretty tough plants and will survive quite a bit of abuse. Unfortunately, as evergreen plants, they don’t really go dormant winter, so there isn’t really a good time of year to transplant or up-pot them. I find they don’t really like to have their roots messed with much in the process and will often sulk for quite some time if you do (loosing leaves to compensate for the root loss, refusing to push new growth, dropping flower buds and fruit with impunity, etc). Also be aware that they alternate root growth and leaf/twig growth (while leaves are actively growing, their roots are not actively elongating, then when leaves stop flushing, root growth takes off). Meyer lemon also seems to be a bit of a Prima Donna too. Most lemons are vigorous growers, but Meyer is much more finicky. Bottom line, I am not convinced soil moisture is your issue. I think some transplant shock and poor nutrition (and possibly soil pH) may be contributing to the yellow leaves. Did you buffer your 5-1-1 mix with dolomite when you mixed it? You might check the pH. Also, a foliar feeding (poorly absorbed by old leaves, but worth a shot) might help your leaf color and therefore photosynthesis and growth of new roots. Sometimes citrus will shed all their leaves, then suddenly start pushing new leaf buds and even flower buds. FWIW, I give formal public talks on growing citrus in Texas and one of the most common questions I get from attendees is “what is wrong with my Meyer lemon?”
Yeah it occurred to me that the whole moisture thing might be a red herring. I did buffer the 5-1-1 mix with dolomite, and our water here is pretty alkaline. But that is a good point, probably need to pick up a pH meter and check the soil.
It is unfortunate the Meyers Lemons take so long to show a change. And I admit I am impatient. Would really help if you could make a change and see results in a few days.
The only “baseline “I have is I did the exact same xplant on a pair of Satsuma tangerines. They are in a different GH so not identical in that way, but in every other they are. And they are doing great. So perhaps I just need to be patient with the Meyers.
