My lemon plants are dying!

fionaquinton

I successfully cultivated three lemon plants from pips and was very pleased with myself but now they are around 9 months old they have started to curl up and look they are dying. I have watered them with rain water and given them some citrus feed but they look sick. Any ideas? Thanks

philippasmith2

The leaves curling up could be due to the dry atmosphere of a CH house ( if you are keeping them indoors ).
Some leaf drop is normal over winter.
At only 9 months old, they will be quite small so over potting, over watering, over feeding, unsuitable compost can all be likely culprits.  
Perhaps if you posted a photo, it may help with advice.

fionaquinton

fionaquinton

fionaquinton said:

Sickly specimens!

philippasmith2

I'd say at first glance that they are over potted and also not in the best compost.  Looks rather wet too tho that could just be the colour.
They would prefer a soil based medium ( say JI 2 at this stage ) incorporating grit to allow good drainage. The pots need to be able to drain adequately and only need to be the size to accommodate the root ball with maybe 1 cm soil around the sides and base.
I'd say you could rescue the plant on the left of your pic - take it out, check that the roots are alive ( cut out any rotting ones ) and re pot using better soil, enough moisture to settle it in and keep your fingers crossed.  You could do the same with the other one - not always easy to see on a pic but he/she doesn't look too clever. 

purplerallim

I don't have lemons I do have limes, so might be able to help a little.
Tip out the water in the pots,  they won't do well sat in water.
The left one looks OK,  just could be too much watering in winter plus winter leaf drop.
No feed in winter. 
Only water when they feel dry, and remove any that is sitting in the pot after a couple of hours. 
To me the plant pots size are ok.
The right one if you look closely has a web on it, it might have apple moth, look for grubs making holes or curling the leaves, if you find any remove grubs, but keep looking for a few weeks. Don't give up on it at least until spring and the other one has new growth showing.
Hope this all helps.

fionaquinton

philippasmith2 said:

I'd say at first glance that they are over potted and also not in the best compost.  Looks rather wet too tho that could just be the colour.
They would prefer a soil based medium ( say JI 2 at this stage ) incorporating grit to allow good drainage. The pots need to be able to drain adequately and only need to be the size to accommodate the root ball with maybe 1 cm soil around the sides and base.
I'd say you could rescue the plant on the left of your pic - take it out, check that the roots are alive ( cut out any rotting ones ) and re pot using better soil, enough moisture to settle it in and keep your fingers crossed.  You could do the same with the other one - not always easy to see on a pic but he/she doesn't look too clever. 

Thanks for that

fionaquinton

purplerallim said:

I don't have lemons I do have limes, so might be able to help a little.
Tip out the water in the pots,  they won't do well sat in water.
The left one looks OK,  just could be too much watering in winter plus winter leaf drop.
No feed in winter. 
Only water when they feel dry, and remove any that is sitting in the pot after a couple of hours. 
To me the plant pots size are ok.
The right one if you look closely has a web on it, it might have apple moth, look for grubs making holes or curling the leaves, if you find any remove grubs, but keep looking for a few weeks. Don't give up on it at least until spring and the other one has new growth showing.
Hope this all helps.

Thank you I won't give up on them. They were only sat in water for a couple of hours - I just couldn't decide whether to water or not!