My lemon tree is sad and so am I. The other day I came down and found the largest of the lemons had fallen off prematurely. It wasn't ready yet. It was still only about 2 inches long and pretty hard. It needed more time to ripen. Then I noticed the leaves were looking a little droopy and yellowish. I started doing some research and figured out I'd probably induced root rot when I re-potted it and covered the trunk too high with dirt. I didn't know you had to be careful not to cover any of the trunk - only fill the dirt to barely cover the roots. So I've been trying to nurse it back to health. I gave it a bleach wash to try to kill the bacteria and next I think I need to re-pot it with a better draining soil mixture. Today the other 3 lemons with promise fell off. They were smaller but quite yellow. We cut them open and decided to juice them and see if we could at least get our one glass of lemonade.
We did, and it was scrumptious, but it was bitter sweet (literally and figuratively) since it meant the lemons hadn't made it and the tree is barely clinging to life. More of the leaves have dropped and it's looking even more droopy. Is there any hope? I keep thinking that if the weather will finally warm up I can put it outside and the sunlight, warmth, and fresh air will heal it. But I don't know. The whole thing is just very sad and depressing.
My lemon tree is sad and so am I. The other day I came down and found the largest of the lemons had fallen off prematurely. It wasn't ready yet. It was still only about 2 inches long and pretty hard. It needed more time to ripen. Then I noticed the leaves were looking a little droopy and yellowish. I started doing some research and figured out I'd probably induced root rot when I re-potted it and covered the trunk too high with dirt. I didn't know you had to be careful not to cover any of the trunk - only fill the dirt to barely cover the roots. So I've been trying to nurse it back to health. I gave it a bleach wash to try to kill the bacteria and next I think I need to re-pot it with a better draining soil mixture. Today the other 3 lemons with promise fell off. They were smaller but quite yellow. We cut them open and decided to juice them and see if we could at least get our one glass of lemonade.
We did, and it was scrumptious, but it was bitter sweet (literally and figuratively) since it meant the lemons hadn't made it and the tree is barely clinging to life. More of the leaves have dropped and it's looking even more droopy. Is there any hope? I keep thinking that if the weather will finally warm up I can put it outside and the sunlight, warmth, and fresh air will heal it. But I don't know. The whole thing is just very sad and depressing.
6 comments:
i have about 4 lemon trees in my backyard.
i love them, and I am so sorry for your misfortune.
Hi there
I just wanted to say that I am from Perth Aust reading your blog! I came across it when I was doing some research into renovating/decorating my new house and saw some of your lovely house pics on nienie's blog, which I found from Cookie Mag's website :)
We have just planted a lemon tree and I know that it must have heaps of sun and good drainage and apparently leftover ground coffee beans is good for fertiliser. hope that helps.
welcome ms s lane. we were wondering who our mystery visitor has been from Perth so I'm so glad you commented. my husband spent some time in Perth years ago and desperately wants to get back there one of these days. thanks for the tips on growing lemon trees. we have the meyer variety which is supposed to grow well indoors, which it was doing until my re-potting debacle. but i think you're right that it does need better draining soil.
i am sad too.I hate it when plants struggle, it's a real personal thing!
I'm sorry Sarah. I'm glad you made some lemonade. Lemonade sounds mighty fine right now.
Our lemon tree ate it too Sarah. We brought it down for the winter and all of the sudden these weird little red bugs started sucking the life out of it. The tree was fine but Chris kept thinking the bugs were on his head so we took it back up to the deck in February. It died of hypothermia, I guess. But hey, at least you got a few lemons out of yours before it went to lemon tree heaven.
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