Had a bout with leaf miners earlier in the year, but that’s subsided. Unfortunately, my meyer lemon seems to have something else going on. I’ve been observing this leaf discoloration for some time now, the tree did have some blossoms earlier in the year, but they promptly fell off and didn’t produce any fruit. In one of my other threads it was suggested this could be either chlorosis or possibly citrus greening…if it’s greening, I’m going to remove the tree immediately as I don’t want to infect any of my other citrus…thoughts?
Not sure, but I think it is a nutrient deficiency.What kind of soil do you have? How much water does it get?
Could you just contact your local ag office and get them to come down and look at it? There’s only so much one can do from pictures.
the soil here is a bit sandy, but I have other citrus (all on the same feeding schedule), a valencia growing just 10 feet away and it’s doing fine. water isn’t an issue either. guess I could try giving this one an extra feeding.
good suggestion @VSOP, but that would probably take forever…we do have a local citrus nursery not far from my house. I’m going to swing by there over the weekend and see what they say.
I would call your local county extension service and ask them if they have a test or specialist that could tell you. It might only take a visit to their office with a few leaves for them to tell. Do not take leaves to the nursery, might spread it to their stock. It is spread by a small fly that is almost microscopic.
Take the cutting and seal it in a Ziplock baggie. Brady
If it does turn out to be citrus greening you will need to check the rest of your trees as well. It is one of those diseases that can hide for a year or two before symptoms appear.
good call. I’ll grab a cutting and put it in a ziplock…hopefully that’s not what it is.
I would call first. Your local extension department should know how to deal with this. It is probably the Florida Department of Agriculture that is the enforcement agency for transporting fruit and may also be the ones to contact to test for the disease. I like to contact the non enforcement people first. This time of year it may be hard to find someone in the office.
went up to the citrus nursery this afternoon and showed the owner the pictures of my tree…he said that its not citrus greening (big sigh of relief), but my tree is severely underfed…since it’s too late in the season to fertilize, he gave me some spray to put on the leaves that will help green them up, then I can get back to giving it the proper amount of fertilizer next growing season…
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applied the spray to the leaves, guy at the nursery recommended reapplying every 7 to 10 days until I see improvement…I’ll post up new pics of my progress. He also gave a feeding regimen that consists of fertilizing once per month beginning in February and up until November. I’m sure that will make a world of difference…
Sounds like you’re on track for this, bu thought I would pass along this link
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ch142
It shows color pics of various deficiencies in citrus. Take a look and compare to make your own judgement, but to my eye, from your pics here, a N deficiency seems likely.
Thanks @Steve333, the UF site is one of my go to resources for plant related issues…Looking at those pictures, I would say I’ve got a nitrogen and probably a magnesium deficiency which makes total sense since the tree hasn’t been properly fertilized since I bought it…I’m almost embarrassed…
Most of the nurseries around here have diagnostic services, and you can take anything to them. They do request it be in sealed bags.
Fortunately, I didn’t even need to bring the leaves in. The pictures I had taken were enough to tell him what he needed to know.
Thought I would post an update on this tree…a few months back I was ready to pull it out and start over. Well it’s a good thing I didn’t, the tree has completely turned around. Lot’s of new growth and blossoms. Only thing I had done was to keep up with my fertilizing and a little bit of pruning.I should see a nice crop of lemons this year…
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Your tree had severe nitrogen deficiency. Greening causes mottled irregular yellowing of leaves.
that’s exactly what I’ve been doing. all my citrus trees have set a bunch of blooms this year.
Very glad to see it has turned around; in my experience Meyers, while they can be very productive, have been the most greedy out of my citrus when it came to fertilization. What was your feeding regimen for your tree?