Lemon leaves fall: possible causes and methods of treatment

Why do lemon leaves turn yellow and fall off?

For the development of plants of the citrus family, good lighting, a certain air humidity and a favorable climate close to tropical are required. It is quite difficult to achieve this at home, so a slight discrepancy in the watering regime or the amount of sunlight can significantly damage the leaves and twigs of the lemon.

The most common causes of falling and yellowing of citrus leaves are:

diseases and pests;
dry air;
lack of nutrition or improper watering;
change in temperature or drafts;
incorrect or insufficient lighting.

Pests can appear on lemons when the plant is taken outside. If pathogens in the room are not able to reach the plant, then even a few minutes in the garden make it vulnerable.

The main signs of citrus infection:

the appearance of small holes on the leaves, which increase over time;
yellowing of leaves around damaged areas of the plate;
the presence of scales, plaque or insects on the bottom of the leaf.

The soil in the plant pot should be hermetically sealed with cling film or ordinary oilcloth to protect it from the external environment. Wash each leaf in a weak soap solution (potash or laundry soap) with the addition of fine-grained ash.

Lemons have many different diseases that can be distinguished by the following characteristics:

changing the color of the ends of the branches to a red-orange hue, releasing dark brown sap;
the appearance of cracks in the bark;
change in color, size or shape of leaves.

The culprits of such symptoms may be viruses, bacteria or fungi. Moreover, it is impossible to cure citrus from viruses.

Particular attention should be paid to the appearance of the plant before purchasing. Any damage or color discrepancies can not only ruin the lemon, but also infect other plants.

In the homeland of citrus fruits, the climate is humid and warm. While maintaining the optimal temperature in a room is much easier, providing the necessary humidity is much more difficult. Even a slight discrepancy with the usual air humidity for a lemon can ruin the appearance of the plant.

Excess moisture in the soil of citrus affects its development. From the petiole of the plant, further along the entire trunk, yellowness will spread, followed by the shedding of all the foliage.

To determine the soil moisture level, you should lightly remove the top layer.

Temperature fluctuations for citrus are no less destructive than other unfavorable factors. Therefore, lemon should be protected from drafts and changes. The plant reacts by dropping green or slightly yellowed leaves, curled at the edges with a brown border.

Diagnosis of lemon diseases and pests based on characteristic features

In the fight against diseases, it is important to accurately recognize and diagnose them. Sometimes this is not entirely simple and requires certain knowledge and experience.

Problems with leaves

The main indicator of the health of a lemon is its leaves.

Lemon leaves are falling

Since lemon is an evergreen plant, seasonal leaf fall is not typical for it. As a rule, this is a reaction to various stressful situations:

Lack of light. In winter, lemon requires additional lighting to extend daylight hours to 12–14 hours. It is better to use energy-efficient fluorescent lamps that do not heat or dehumidify the air.
The air is too dry and hot. Do not place pots of lemons near heating appliances. To humidify the air, use special humidifiers or place wide containers of water near the plants.
Excess or deficiency of moisture. Soil moisture should be constant and moderate. Deviations in any direction will lead to falling or yellowing of the leaves. Lemon should be watered when the soil dries to a depth of no more than 2 cm.
Root rotting (more on this problem below).
Nutritional deficiency due to soil depletion. The plant constantly needs both basic elements (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) and microelements. A lack of any substance first leads to a change in the shape and (or) color of the leaves, and then to their falling off. Therefore, fertilizing should be done regularly at intervals of 7–10 days.
Sudden temperature change. The plant was moved from cold to warm or vice versa - the lemon does not like this and immediately drops its leaves. If movement is necessary, the temperature increase/decrease should be smooth.
Cold in the room where the tree overwinters. In winter, lemon needs cool temperatures, preferably between 12–16°C; if it drops below 10°C, it is stressful and causes leaves to fall off.

Lemon leaves fall off for various reasons.

Video: how to help a lemon if its leaves are falling

The tips of the leaves dry out and/or turn black.

The causes of drying leaf tips are:

The air is too dry.
Very high or low air temperature.
Using tap water for irrigation. It contains chlorine, fluorine, and may be too harsh. You should water the lemon with rain, melt, filtered or bottled water. If you still have to use tap water, then it should first be settled for 3-5 days.
Heavily compacted soil in a pot.
Deficiency or excess of moisture.

The tips of lemon leaves dry out due to dry air, dense soil, and lack of moisture.

The leaves are wrinkled

Lemon leaves begin to wrinkle when there is a lack of potassium. If you do not feed the plant in time, this will lead to marginal leaf burns, tissue death, then drying out and death of branches, and a reduction in the crown. To eliminate the problem, the plant is watered at the root with solutions of potassium-containing fertilizers (potassium sulfate, potassium monophosphate) at the rate of 5 g per 1 liter of water. Additionally, foliar feeding is carried out by spraying the crown with the same solution, but at half the concentration. The procedure is repeated after 7-10 days.

Lemon leaves shrink due to potassium deficiency

Small wavy leaves

Shredding of young leaves can occur due to a lack of nitrogen and (or) phosphorus. If in the first case the leaves turn yellow, in case of a lack of phosphorus they acquire a dark green, bluish, dull color. If there is a lack of nitrogen, the plant will recover quite quickly after adding a sufficient amount of urea or ammonium nitrate (2-3 g per 1 liter of water). And in case of phosphorus deficiency in a plant at an early age with poorly developed roots, it is almost impossible to eliminate the negative impact of this deficiency by abundant watering with a fertilizer solution. Adult plants will recover quite normally after applying a superphosphate solution at the root in an amount of 5 g per 1 liter of water.

Superphosphate is very difficult to dissolve, so first it should be dissolved in a small amount of boiling water, and then the amount of water should be adjusted to the required volume.

Leaves become smaller and become wavy due to lack of nitrogen and phosphorus

Warts on lemon leaves

This symptom indicates that the lemon is likely infected with scab.

The leaves are cracking

With a lack of calcium, the young leaves at the ends of the shoots first lighten, curl downward, and the leaf blade often breaks at the bend. Then the tops and edges die and the leaves fall off. In this case, you need to add slaked lime (fluff) or ground chalk. But this should be done carefully, since excess calcium is also harmful. It is better to first measure the acidity of the soil using litmus paper. If the pH level is below 5.0, then take 1 tsp. with a heap of fluff (or chalk), dissolve in water and water the plant. Then measure the acidity of the water flowing from the drainage holes, repeating the procedure if necessary. As a result, the acidity should be at pH 6-6.5.

The leaves are curling

This common problem can have the following causes:

Lack of moisture, too infrequent watering and spraying. In summer, this should be done daily, but without allowing the soil to become waterlogged.
Lack of fresh air. With the onset of stable heat, the plant should be taken outside, but it should be placed in places without drafts and protected from direct rays of the sun.
Boron deficiency. In this case, young shoots and leaves curl up, as with a lack of moisture, but after watering the situation does not change. The plant should be fed with complex fertilizers or a 0.2% solution of boric acid (2 g per 1 liter of water).
Copper deficiency also causes lemon leaves to curl, but in this case it curls into an arch. Foliar feeding with a 0.5% solution of copper sulfate will solve the problem
Attack of aphids or mites.

If the lemon leaves are curled into an arc, they should be sprayed with a 1% solution of copper sulfate

Leaves are sticky

The sticky coating on the leaves is a sugar syrup released from them when overwatered. In this case, it is easy to get rid of the phenomenon - you just need to normalize the level of moisture in the plant. In addition, the sweetish sticky coating may be the secretions of pests - aphids or scale insects.

The leaves are turning yellow

This common phenomenon can have many causes:

Nutrient deficiency. To avoid this, you should regularly feed the lemon with complex fertilizers.
Violations of heat and humidity conditions.
Insufficient lighting.
Root damage, root rot.
Chlorosis is a disease caused by a deficiency of certain elements, most often iron.
Anthracnose is a fungal disease.

Lemon leaves turn yellow due to disease, poor lighting, lack of nutrients

More details about this issue can be found here.

Pale leaves

Lightening of the leaves is most often caused by poor lighting, so you should not forget about installing artificial lighting for the winter, as described above. Another common cause is manganese deficiency. To make sure of this, you need to spray the leaves with a weak pink solution of potassium permanganate (potassium permanganate) - if after a week the leaves darken, then the diagnosis was correct. Also, pale leaves can be a sign of chlorosis.

A common cause of pale leaves is lack of light.

Black dots

First you need to take a closer look. These spots may be harmful insects such as aphids or scale insects. Sooty fungus can also settle on the leaves.

Brown spots

Most often, brown spots appear as a result of a lack of phosphorus. Then it is necessary to feed the plant with phosphorus in the same way as in the case of crushing leaves. This phenomenon may also be a sign of lemon infection with phyllostictosis or citrus cancer.

White spots

White spots appear in the following cases:

use of cold water for irrigation and spraying;
the result of a burn from direct sunlight;
powdery mildew infection;
mealybug infestation.

Diseases, pests, cold water and burns can cause white spots to appear on the leaves of the plant.

Problems with fruiting

There are times when a lemon bush seems to grow and develop normally, but does not bear fruit. There may be several reasons for this.

Lemon doesn't bloom

Many gardeners in their reviews say that lemons grown from seeds do not bloom for many years. The problem is often solved by grafting a cutting or bud from a fruit-bearing plant into the crown of such a lemon. Some sources report cases where rooted cuttings from non-fruiting lemons bloom the very next year. And, of course, a lemon (even one planted with a grafted seedling from a nursery) will not bloom if the rules of its agricultural technology are not followed:

Inappropriate soil composition.
Failure to comply with heat and humidity conditions.
Sudden changes in temperature and its non-compliance with the required parameters. The most abundant flowering is observed at a temperature of 18°C.
Nutritional imbalance.
Lack of lighting.

Video: an original way to make a lemon bloom

Lemon blooms but does not bear fruit

This happens in the following cases:

The room is too hot and dry.
Drafts.
Poor pollination. It should be done manually by winding cotton wool around a match, transferring pollen from flower to flower.
Insufficient nutrition - as a result, the ovaries fall off.
The deadline for transplanting into a new pot has passed; the roots have become crowded. Young plants should be replanted up to three times a year, 3-4 year old plants - once a year, at the age of 5 years and older - once every 2-3 years.
Too much flowering. The plant does not have enough strength and nutrition to produce a large number of flowers and it sheds its ovaries. It is necessary to normalize at the flowering stage, leaving one bud for 10-15 leaves.
During flowering, you cannot move the plant from room to room, or rotate it more than 10° and more than once every ten days. As a result of such actions, the lemon may lose flowers or ovaries.

Sometimes lemon blossoms do not produce fruits.

Lemon fruits fall

If a gardener has grown fruits of normal size on his lemon, this means that the care was correct and no mistakes were made. But if suddenly large lemons began to fall off, then, obviously, the plant was subjected to some kind of stress (drafts, temperature changes, turning the pot or moving it, etc.).

Sometimes the ovaries do not have time to ripen and fall off

Massive and sudden loss of green leaves

In addition to improper feeding or watering, the disease gommosis can provoke a sudden and massive fall of citrus leaves. The main symptom is the appearance of a light brown sticky liquid in areas of dying bark.

You can save citrus with the help of various fertilizers and fertilizers, including mineral compounds. The main thing is that the plant receives boron, potassium, phosphorus and iron.

Feeding should be moderate. Excessive fertilization causes the lemon to suddenly drop all its leaves.

Proper watering of the plant:

water for irrigation should be warm;
you need to water often, but in small portions;
It is unacceptable to overdry the soil;
monitor the patency of the holes in the bottom of the pot;
the volume of drainage fill should be up to a third of the total soil.

If the process of rotting lemon roots due to excess moisture has started, the plant should be replanted immediately. After cutting off all damaged roots, treat healthy areas with a weak solution of potassium permanganate. The tree should be planted after the rhizomes have completely dried.

Immediately after transplanting the citrus into a looser pot, the plant will begin to develop roots, and only after a certain time new leaves will appear.

How to revive a dried indoor lemon

Even with proper care, indoor lemons dry out and lose their leaves. When a tree is monitored, it is much easier to maintain its health. However, citrus growers often give up when they see a plant in poor condition.

Our tips will help you understand how to revive Pavlova lemon and give it a second life :

Place the pot on the balcony in a bright place.
Remove the lemon from the pot to inspect the roots, remove any dead ones and leave at least 80% of the total mass.
Cut off the dry branches along with the foliage; they cannot be saved.
Place the plant in a sterile substrate and under a bag for 30 days.
Stop feeding the plant until the cause of the dryness is determined.
Plant the lemon in loose, light, breathable soil.
Before planting, add coconut, peat, perlite and 20 g of superphosphate to the new substrate.
Water after the top layer of soil dries out.
Plant grass or spread moss to prevent soil acidification.
Water the plant with Radifarm, Energen Aqua, and spray with a solution of Zircon and Ecogel once a week.

Blackening and change in shape of lemon leaves

Changes in the leaf blade in shape or color are caused by several reasons. First of all, it is worth checking for warts on the plant, which appears due to increased temperature and humidity around the lemon. Treatment in this case comes down to eliminating the damaged areas and treating them with Bordeaux mixture in March, after lemon blossoms and in mid-July.

A reduced phosphorus content in citrus soil leads to darkening of the foliage. Corrected by applying appropriate mineral fertilizers. Corrugated leaves indicate a lack of potassium. The plant recovers after fertilizing and watering with potassium water. Mosaic-like light strokes on the leaf plates indicate a leaf mosaic. The tree stops growing and produces deformed leaves. It will not be possible to cure the disease, but special fertilizers will reduce the negative manifestations.

Late blight manifests itself as a light coating on the bottom of the leaves and darkened spots on the plates. You can heal lemon by removing the damaged areas and then treating them with copper sulfate.

Improper care

Another reason for lemon leaves to fall is improper care. Usually beginners face such problems.

Overwatering

You are afraid that the lemon will not have enough water, and therefore you pour more water so that “there is definitely enough.” But its leaves begin to fall, then you start watering even harder to stop the leaf fall. But the leaves continue to fall and do so even more intensely. The problem in this case is overfilling the soil. There is little air in it, but a lot of dangerous fungi. All this leads to disruption of metabolic processes. The way out of the situation is to dry the soil and reduce watering.

Insufficient watering

The other side of the coin is the lack of water in the ground. It most often affects lemons grown in clay pots, which also evaporate moisture through the walls. To stop leaf fall in this case, you just need to change the watering schedule: the soil needs to be moistened when a ringing sound is heard when you tap on the pot. And you need to pour enough water so that when you tap the pot, it makes a dull sound.

Soil depletion

If you cannot find errors in the conditions of keeping and watering the lemon, then try to remember the last time you fertilized it. Perhaps the leaves are falling because they are lacking vital elements. The solution to the problem is emergency feeding. To do this, it is better to use a complex mineral fertilizer for citrus plants. You need to dilute 2 g of fertilizer in 1 liter of water and pour the solution over the soil. The optimal frequency of feeding is 2 times a month. During the dormant period, lemon does not need fertilizer.

Curling and drying of lemon leaves

The main signs of a plant's reaction to dry air are yellowing of the tips of the leaf blades followed by drying out. If no measures are taken, then yellowness quickly spreads throughout the tree, causing it to turn pale, dry out and die. This problem can only be prevented. To do this, you should spray the citrus with plain water from a spray bottle as often as possible.

The lemon bush should be constantly surrounded by a “cloud” of moisture.

To increase humidity, wet pieces of sphagnum, peat or expanded clay are placed on pallets around the lemon. Containers of water will also create additional humidity, as will radiators covered with wet towels. Frequent use of a steam generator, humidifier or ionizer has a beneficial effect on the microclimate. Arranging a miniature greenhouse around the citrus will significantly increase the level of moisture around the plant, and will also reduce the need to constantly spray it.

Similar symptoms are caused by the xylopsorosis virus, which makes it difficult to identify the pathology. If a lemon is infected with this particular virus, it should be thrown away so that other plants do not become infected.

Pests of citrus fruits at home

Shield.
Spider mite.
Mealy nigella.
Nematode.
Garden slug.

Scale insect: how to get rid of it?

Scale insects are the most common tree pest. The first sign of its presence is a sticky coating on the leaves of the lemon. Convexities of about 4 mm appear on the leaves and branches, almost invisible to the eye. Covered with a dense waxy shell, they become invulnerable to chemicals.

You can fight sticky leaves with insecticides

. During watering, the poison from the leaves is washed into the soil, absorbed by the roots and the plant becomes poisonous.

ATTENTION!

The scale insect that feeds on lemon juice dies. But despite the effectiveness of this method, the fruits become unsuitable for food.

You can also fight scale insects using folk methods. They are very effective, but more troublesome.

Washing leaves with soapy water

several times a day until the pest completely disappears. Mix green soap (5g) with anabasine sulfate (2g) and dissolve in warm water. Washing is done once a week, followed by rinsing the solution with water every other day.

Spraying with a solution of soap and kerosene

. To do this, dissolve 5g of soap and 10g of kerosene in a liter of warm water and spray the plant twice a week. You can clearly see this method in action in the video below:

Tick: treatment

It can be found on the stem and underside of the leaves, the juice from which it feeds. During this process, the leaves begin to turn yellow and dry out for no apparent reason.

It is not easy to notice the pest, given its size of 1–2 mm. But the web on the underside of the leaf is clearly visible, as are the yellow dots at the places where it is attached.

NOTE!

A solution of laundry soap
gives a good effect when fighting it . They treat stems and leaf surfaces.

The tree is also sprayed with sulfur and insecticides, and the leaves are wiped with alcohol.

.
But the most effective and harmless way is ultraviolet light. for two minutes under an ultraviolet lamp has a detrimental effect on the tick
. In addition, this method helps to heal and strengthen the plant.

In this article, we found out such questions as: why does a lemon lose its leaves and what to do about it, what to do if the lemon tree has dried up.

Why do branches dry out and leaves fall?

Problems with drying leaves and twigs of citrus appear if the plant is located in too dark a place, as a result it suffers from stagnation of water in the soil and lacks moisture in the air. After normalization of conditions, the appearance of the lemon should be restored.

In addition to excess or lack of moisture, drying out of branches can be caused by spider mites. Insufficient potassium, phosphorus or nitrogen in the soil can also cause this problem. Feeding with all the microelements necessary for citrus will help it recover.

Lemon leaves turn yellow and fall off at home