We have a five-year old lemon tree in a pot which has always done well gainst a south facing wall. We bring it in in winter. This winter we brought it in and put it in a place where I suspect there wasn't enough light. It had grown too large for its previous over-wintering site.

It has now lost half its leaves and does not look happy. I have moved it into a ligther spot. I am wondering whether cutting it back would help or hinder.

Any suggestions welcome.

Jonathan

On 28/02/2016 14:46, wrote:
We have a five-year old lemon tree in a pot which has always done well gainst a south facing wall. We bring it in in winter.
This winter we brought it in and put it in a place where I suspect
there wasn't enough light.
It had grown too large for its previous over-wintering site.

They go sort of dormant in winter so I'd have expected a few leaves to
drop off. Did you keep it too wet? Check for red spider, scale or mealy
bug since they can all cause trouble on a citrus plant indoors.

It has now lost half its leaves and does not look happy. I have moved it into a ligther spot.
I am wondering whether cutting it back would help or hinder.

Leave it be and give it a feed when it shows signs of coming back into
growth as the days lengthen. Mine is showing signs of new life with 2"
shoots now. The fresh young leafy shoots will hide any bare patches.

Mine is kept cool and dry for winter although with decent light. It does
suffer a bit from red spider when it is indoors and drops leaves.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

Thanks

Jonathan

On 01/03/2016 09:01, Chris Hogg wrote:
On Mon, 29 Feb 2016 09:03:04 +0000, Martin Brown
wrote:

On 28/02/2016 14:46, wrote:
We have a five-year old lemon tree in a pot which has always done well gainst a south facing wall. We bring it in in winter.
This winter we brought it in and put it in a place where I suspect
there wasn't enough light.
It had grown too large for its previous over-wintering site.

They go sort of dormant in winter so I'd have expected a few leaves to
drop off. Did you keep it too wet? Check for red spider, scale or mealy
bug since they can all cause trouble on a citrus plant indoors.

It has now lost half its leaves and does not look happy. I have moved it into a ligther spot.
I am wondering whether cutting it back would help or hinder.

Leave it be and give it a feed when it shows signs of coming back into
growth as the days lengthen. Mine is showing signs of new life with 2"
shoots now. The fresh young leafy shoots will hide any bare patches.

Mine is kept cool and dry for winter although with decent light. It does
suffer a bit from red spider when it is indoors and drops leaves.

A few years ago I visited a nursery that had an area in a polytunnel
set aside purely for citrus. It was a real horror story. It looked
like every pest known to man was assailing them. Whether they
attempted any pest control, I don't know, but ISTR seeing little
packets hanging on branches, implying biological control. Nor can I

IME Biological control only works on a huge scale under very carefully
controlled conditions. In a small greenhouse the predator prey
relationship bounces around too much an the predators inevitably starve
whilst the pests return after a fortnight of apparent absence. YMMV

remember the time of year; perhaps their appearance improved as the
season changed, but I came away with the very firm conviction that
citrus plants are very prone to pests and best avoided.

I wouldn't say they were very prone to pests but if there are any going
they will attract them. A sort of sacrificial pest trap if you like.

Mine have mealy bug and red spider. Both becoming a problem in the
winter since outside the birds pick the tree over. I do the mealy with a
brush dipped in meths but have never totally eliminated them on it.
I hit it with a knock down insecticide before bringing it in.

And there is a certain kudos in a DIY lemon. (Once the pesticides in the
original potting mixture have been exhausted)

It is a reasonably ornamental plant with glossy leaves and the white
flowers are wonderfully sweet scented.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

On 01/03/16 11:57, Martin Brown wrote:
On 01/03/2016 09:01, Chris Hogg wrote:
On Mon, 29 Feb 2016 09:03:04 +0000, Martin Brown
wrote:

On 28/02/2016 14:46, wrote:
We have a five-year old lemon tree in a pot which has always done well gainst a south facing wall. We bring it in in winter.
This winter we brought it in and put it in a place where I suspect
there wasn't enough light.
It had grown too large for its previous over-wintering site.

They go sort of dormant in winter so I'd have expected a few leaves to
drop off. Did you keep it too wet? Check for red spider, scale or mealy
bug since they can all cause trouble on a citrus plant indoors.

It has now lost half its leaves and does not look happy. I have moved it into a ligther spot.
I am wondering whether cutting it back would help or hinder.

Leave it be and give it a feed when it shows signs of coming back into
growth as the days lengthen. Mine is showing signs of new life with 2"
shoots now. The fresh young leafy shoots will hide any bare patches.

Mine is kept cool and dry for winter although with decent light. It does
suffer a bit from red spider when it is indoors and drops leaves.

A few years ago I visited a nursery that had an area in a polytunnel
set aside purely for citrus. It was a real horror story. It looked
like every pest known to man was assailing them. Whether they
attempted any pest control, I don't know, but ISTR seeing little
packets hanging on branches, implying biological control. Nor can I

IME Biological control only works on a huge scale under very carefully
controlled conditions. In a small greenhouse the predator prey
relationship bounces around too much an the predators inevitably starve
whilst the pests return after a fortnight of apparent absence. YMMV

remember the time of year; perhaps their appearance improved as the
season changed, but I came away with the very firm conviction that
citrus plants are very prone to pests and best avoided.

I wouldn't say they were very prone to pests but if there are any going
they will attract them. A sort of sacrificial pest trap if you like.

Mine have mealy bug and red spider. Both becoming a problem in the
winter since outside the birds pick the tree over. I do the mealy with a
brush dipped in meths but have never totally eliminated them on it.
I hit it with a knock down insecticide before bringing it in.

And there is a certain kudos in a DIY lemon. (Once the pesticides in the
original potting mixture have been exhausted)

It is a reasonably ornamental plant with glossy leaves and the white
flowers are wonderfully sweet scented.

It's not mealy bug which is the pest with me, but scale insect. Then you
get black mould everywhere on the leaves below from their droppings!
And, like you say, RSM is a permanent pest too. Bayer's "Plant Rescue"
used to work pretty well as it contained abamectin, but because it also
contained thiamethoxam it was removed from the market. It would be
useful to have something with abamectin back, as there is nothing active
against RSM. I am in total agreement with you about biological control
being too variable for the amateur.

When I repotted my mandarin/clementine/whatever (I lost the label years
ago) it sulked for a couple of years losing all its leaves and was
attacked by numerous pests. But I persevered with it. Last year it grew
lots of nice new foliage, and at present has hundred of flower buds just
about to open. I'll bet the RSM and scale insects can't wait...

--

Jeff

"Jeff Layman" wrote

It's not mealy bug which is the pest with me, but scale insect. Then you
get black mould everywhere on the leaves below from their droppings! And,
like you say, RSM is a permanent pest too. Bayer's "Plant Rescue" used to
work pretty well as it contained abamectin, but because it also contained
thiamethoxam it was removed from the market. It would be useful to have
something with abamectin back, as there is nothing active against RSM. I am
in total agreement with you about biological control being too variable for
the amateur.

When I repotted my mandarin/clementine/whatever (I lost the label years
ago) it sulked for a couple of years losing all its leaves and was attacked
by numerous pests. But I persevered with it. Last year it grew lots of nice
new foliage, and at present has hundred of flower buds just about to open.
I'll bet the RSM and scale insects can't wait...



Scale is the big pest as far as I'm concerned. We have two Lemon trees, two
Tahiti Limes, an Orange, a Grapefruit, an an ornamental lime thing with huge
fruit. The best way to deal with scale if you want to use the fruit is to
blast them off with a sprayer pumped up to max pressure containing water a a
tiny bit of detergent. Yes you get soaked too and it's a long process going
over every branch and leaf but it works.


--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK

On 01/03/2016 19:03, Bob Hobden wrote:
"Jeff Layman" wrote

It's not mealy bug which is the pest with me, but scale insect. Then

Generally found oil and wetting agent painted on them works for me a bit
like meths and a stiff brush against mealy. Never quite kills them off
completely but keeps them from becoming a nuisance.

you get black mould everywhere on the leaves below from their
droppings! And, like you say, RSM is a permanent pest too. Bayer's
"Plant Rescue" used to work pretty well as it contained abamectin, but
because it also contained thiamethoxam it was removed from the market.
It would be useful to have something with abamectin back, as there is
nothing active against RSM. I am in total agreement with you about
biological control being too variable for the amateur.

When I repotted my mandarin/clementine/whatever (I lost the label
years ago) it sulked for a couple of years losing all its leaves and
was attacked by numerous pests. But I persevered with it. Last year it
grew lots of nice new foliage, and at present has hundred of flower
buds just about to open. I'll bet the RSM and scale insects can't wait...

Scale is the big pest as far as I'm concerned. We have two Lemon trees,
two Tahiti Limes, an Orange, a Grapefruit, an an ornamental lime thing
with huge fruit. The best way to deal with scale if you want to use the
fruit is to blast them off with a sprayer pumped up to max pressure
containing water a a tiny bit of detergent. Yes you get soaked too and
it's a long process going over every branch and leaf but it works.

I tried something like that on a Bay tree with scale insect and the
leaves all dropped off within a week. It never recovered

I didn't want to use anything noxious on it for culinary use.

There must be a decent systemic that will get scale insect if you can
forgo eating any fruit for a year. I haven't found anything that will
still control red spider any more. Controlling humidity helps a bit but
basically they are now immune to almost everything.

I have my own local variety of sap sucking mite that aren't rsm and only
target snowdrops as far as I can tell. Makes the leaves go silver later
in the season but doesn't seem to do them any harm.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown