It's been 4 days since I've repotted my Meyer lemon and Key lime trees. I have been watching them very closely for signs of distress.
My lemon tree is saying, "What transplant?", but the lime is wondering how I could do such a thing to it. Poor little lime tree. It's drooping and wilting and cupping its leaves. It even lost a rather large lime. There's also something on its leaves, but it has been there since I bought it. I have yet to identify what it is. Please help, if you can!
My guess as to the droopiness, etc., is that I didn't get the gritty mix up in between the roots well enough. It is requiring more water and it does respond to it, so that's a good sign.
I ordered some seaweed extract to help the roots generate more growth. It won't be here for a few days though.
Got my fingers crossed!
As for the new lemon tree, it is in the original container and original growing medium. I'm going to leave it like that until spring, I think. It is doing fine. I sprayed it yesterday with Neem oil at the strength of 2 tbsp/gallon of water. That will be a weekly routine. It will be fed with Foliage Pro like the others.
With the other 2 trees I have been removing the tiny new fruit. I have read that I should let it set the fruit and then remove it for at least the first year and maybe the second. The lime has produced a ton of fruits, and I removed all but 2. The lemon had not flowered too much before the transplant and there was no fruit to remove yet. When it does, I will remove them too. The old wives tale is for every fruit you remove now, 4 will grow later. I will do that for the first 2 trees. As for this other lemon, I will be pruning it lightly soon, but I am not going to remove the fruit that is growing. I just want to see what happens.
The tropical hibiscus I bought for my Mother's 90th birthday is doing fine. It has several buds on it, but no open flowers. I sprinkled some slow release Osmocote around it, but otherwise just gets watered. I am researching the gritty mix for this plant too. It should be repotted, I think, I can see roots in the holes on the bottom.
Tomorrow is her birthday and 2 little buds looks like they might be open for her tomorrow. That would be great!
UPDATE: I've been keeping a very close eye on my citrus trees as the weather starts to cool off. We've had several days in a row with no sun, all cloudy, cool and windy. I started bringing the trees in at night about the 1st week in September and back outside during the day. I would say that where they are during the day probably doesn't get as much sun as they need. So overall I think they've been light deficient the past 3 weeks.
I have noticed over the last several days that the 1st Meyer lemon's lower leaves are starting to turn yellow. And today I noticed that I have lost 4 leaves. The Key lime is also yellowing a little. I'm not sure if less light will do that or not or if the wind or cooler temps can do it, but it's a problem for me and apparently for my trees.
So I made the decision to bring the trees inside for the fall and winter. I don't have my complete light set up finished yet, so I have my light fixture hanging from my weight bench in the garage. This is their first day under the lights. Got my fingers crossed.
In my next post I will show you my set up and explain where and from whom I got so much help. :)
My lemon tree is saying, "What transplant?", but the lime is wondering how I could do such a thing to it. Poor little lime tree. It's drooping and wilting and cupping its leaves. It even lost a rather large lime. There's also something on its leaves, but it has been there since I bought it. I have yet to identify what it is. Please help, if you can!
My guess as to the droopiness, etc., is that I didn't get the gritty mix up in between the roots well enough. It is requiring more water and it does respond to it, so that's a good sign.
I ordered some seaweed extract to help the roots generate more growth. It won't be here for a few days though.
Got my fingers crossed!
As for the new lemon tree, it is in the original container and original growing medium. I'm going to leave it like that until spring, I think. It is doing fine. I sprayed it yesterday with Neem oil at the strength of 2 tbsp/gallon of water. That will be a weekly routine. It will be fed with Foliage Pro like the others.
With the other 2 trees I have been removing the tiny new fruit. I have read that I should let it set the fruit and then remove it for at least the first year and maybe the second. The lime has produced a ton of fruits, and I removed all but 2. The lemon had not flowered too much before the transplant and there was no fruit to remove yet. When it does, I will remove them too. The old wives tale is for every fruit you remove now, 4 will grow later. I will do that for the first 2 trees. As for this other lemon, I will be pruning it lightly soon, but I am not going to remove the fruit that is growing. I just want to see what happens.
The tropical hibiscus I bought for my Mother's 90th birthday is doing fine. It has several buds on it, but no open flowers. I sprinkled some slow release Osmocote around it, but otherwise just gets watered. I am researching the gritty mix for this plant too. It should be repotted, I think, I can see roots in the holes on the bottom.
Tomorrow is her birthday and 2 little buds looks like they might be open for her tomorrow. That would be great!
UPDATE: I've been keeping a very close eye on my citrus trees as the weather starts to cool off. We've had several days in a row with no sun, all cloudy, cool and windy. I started bringing the trees in at night about the 1st week in September and back outside during the day. I would say that where they are during the day probably doesn't get as much sun as they need. So overall I think they've been light deficient the past 3 weeks.
I have noticed over the last several days that the 1st Meyer lemon's lower leaves are starting to turn yellow. And today I noticed that I have lost 4 leaves. The Key lime is also yellowing a little. I'm not sure if less light will do that or not or if the wind or cooler temps can do it, but it's a problem for me and apparently for my trees.
So I made the decision to bring the trees inside for the fall and winter. I don't have my complete light set up finished yet, so I have my light fixture hanging from my weight bench in the garage. This is their first day under the lights. Got my fingers crossed.
In my next post I will show you my set up and explain where and from whom I got so much help. :)
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