Oolie

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Location: Spring Valley

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we have an old lemon tree that is a sprawling mess. it gets daily watering, but recently has started losing its leaves. do citrus lose their leaves due to nutrient deficiency?

Laaz

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Location: Dorchester County, SC

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Photos?

DavidLJ48

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Location: San Joaquin Valley, CA

Climate Zone: Sunset Zone 14, USDA zone 9b

Yes, photos would greatly help.

More questions:
Have you always watered daily? On sandy soil, could be ok, but could create a problem on heavy clay soil or soils with clay or hard pan only a foot or two below the soil surface.

I have a Improved Meyer Lemon, a number of years ago, put a float bowl dog waterer under it, and it started to take off, as it has a slow constant leak. I have well draining sandy silt soil, and it seems to love it, it grows like a monster weed.

Dry soil would create wilted leaves, then maybe drop. It would also create burned young leaves, that shrivel up on the edges or the entire leaf.

Too much water and or too high of soil salts tend to cause leaf drop and or leaf edge burn.

David

Oolie

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Posts: 333

Joined: Tue May 08, 2012 5:34 pm

Location: Spring Valley

Climate Zone: sunset 23

the tree is on a sprinkler system, so it always gets daily watering.

it is in a sandy loam, made from broken down granite.

Laaz

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Location: Dorchester County, SC

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That looks like it is in pretty bad shape. Check the base of the tree for gummosis.

DavidLJ48

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Joined: Fri Nov 26, 2010 8:38 pm

Location: San Joaquin Valley, CA

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I am with Laaz, it looks to be in really bad shape. It looks like some major disease or gophers have wiped out its root-system, but the plants under the tree, don't speak of a lot of gophers.

Is there new growth below the graft, could the graft have fail for some reason, or from what was already mentioned. How old is the tree, how old do they live, I guess that depends on the root-system and capability.

If it was here in the Central Valley, I would guess a recent massive attack of cottony scale, but don't see any post evidence of that, unless long gone. It really looks like a citrus tree here, that got hit by temps below 20F or had not been watered all summer.

I would have to guess, some massive disease infestation maybe, you guys have diseases there, we don't see here in NorCal, in the Central Valley.

David

Oolie

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Joined: Tue May 08, 2012 5:34 pm

Location: Spring Valley

Climate Zone: sunset 23

just following up, and thank you for the suggestions, but none of them seem likely.

with the exception of gophers that is and even that, is not likely, but i'll work down the list and finish with my assumption.

so the tree is really old, it was a dwarf lemon planted by my girlfriend's grandpa. probably in the 60's. i'm told he fed the trees and took care of them when he was alive, and that they haven't been payed attention to since.

i'm also told the tree in the past had much larger lemons, because nowadays they are around 2 inches to 3 in diameter, but it bears large amounts (but steadily decreasing since i've known the tree).

with that i'll do the list.
there is no gummosis (bleeding).
gophers, the gophers have been on notice since i've been here (3 yrs roughly), been shooting them and trapping them, and there are only a couple left on the lawn (the lemon tree is on the lawn area) i doubt gophers are the cause as i can climb in the limbs of the tree and the roots support my weight.
there is no new growth below the graft, and the graft is not likely to fail on a tree of this age.
the tree i estimate is close to 50, because the house was built in the 60s and the tree was early on.
no evidence of scale has ever been seen on this particular tree.

now for my idea, i think that since noone has fed the tree since her grandpa died at least 6 years, i suspect it needs nitrogen really badly., does that seem likely?

again, thank you guys for your interest in helping me.

DavidLJ48

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Posts: 1783

Joined: Fri Nov 26, 2010 8:38 pm

Location: San Joaquin Valley, CA

Climate Zone: Sunset Zone 14, USDA zone 9b

I have never seen a citrus tree, drop leaves and go down hill, for a little lack of nitrogen, maybe if very severe, coupled with other stressors.

Normally Citrus are fairly longed lived, but not sure how long.

Are you applying a good citrus fertlizer one to twice a year ?

One thing that might help, is a good pruning job, to help stimulate growth, I have heard it words, if the plant is not too far gone. I have even gotten new citrus plants in pots, planted them, and they just sit there and start dieing. Most times when I prune 1/3 to 1/2 of the tree away, it stresses it, causes a call for new growth, under and below ground, and it starts growing.

I have found and read that new limb growth results in matching root growth, something to think about.

David