Meyer Lemon Tree Leaves crinkly and curling

Question

Hello, my Meyer lemon tree is starting to lose it’s leaves. It is potted on a sunny window side and spends it’s time indoors.

Recently the leaves have started to shrivel up and fall off. I’ve even noticed some healthy green leaves dropping. It appears to look like they are underwatered, but I did a deep watering yesterday as well as when I first got them 2 weeks ago and it only seems to have gotten worse. The soil is a citrus potting soil mix from Miracle Grow.

I bought a “cocktail tree” from amazon and the tree came with a key lime tree potted as well. The pot they were shipped in was a bit small so I moved them to a bigger one once they came. The key lime tree has the same issues, but they appear to be less severe.

The temperature is typically 65 degrees and they should get 6+ hours of sunlight a day. I have a tiny grow light that I also supply them with some light with if its cloudy that day.

Any ideas for why this could be happening?

Thanks!

Brendan

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Answer 1

I'm surprised they even have their original leaves on them still! Typically, these will have all fallen off by now. This is what they do when they are brought indoors for the first time. This tree has likely never seen the inside of a building until it was shipped, so this is very, very stressful on the tree.

If this is to be an indoor tree, then you will need quite a bit of light. About 200 watts will sustain it indoors, as long as you keep it a small tree.

Now, I know that the pot it came in seems small, and it is... but the next one should not be but a few inches bigger on each side and bottom. Citrus don't like to be put into huge containers out of nowhere. It shocks them, first off. But the real issue is that they do not have roots to absorb the water in the extra amount of soil yet. This leads to fungal issues. You don't want to deep water in that container, ever, until the tree has established itself through out the container, or if the container has plenty of drainage holes to allow any and all extra water out of the container. Even then, I don't like chancing it.

Other than using citrus fertilizer once or twice per year, it sounds like you have everything else under control as long as you also have a horticultural light for it.

Answer 2

Hey BushDoctor, thanks for the tips!

Are they supposed to drop their leaves when they come indoors for the winter?

What happens if it drops all of it's leaves? I have had a Meyer Lemon tree previously and it dropped all of it's leaves when I brought it indoors. It was basically a stick, so I assumed it was dead.