My lemon trees (8 months old) are losing leaves.

Question

I read your article on lemon trees and losing leaves by Amy Grant and the subsequent one by Heather Rhodes.
I have fertilized with a citrus fertilizer and still my little guys are turning yellow at the tip of their tiny leaves. I’m letting the soil dry to touch before I water.
They are indoor and potted. I started them from seeds. I live in Canada and keep them away from the window at night. Please help. I need to fight his out soon.

Answer 1

The problem here is very mild and easily fixed.

The issue here is a lack of light. This causes the leaves on the bottom to start dying off to translocate nutrients back to the top of the tree where it is needed most. Generally, to produce indoors, you will need about 200 watts per tree.

I, also, have citrus indoors. Mine are under very powerful horticultural lighting. I do my best to mimic the sun in order to get the most from my citrus.

Once your citrus have plenty of light, they will change shape drastically. Leaves will be very tightly clustered and growth will be VERY fast.

There is only one more thing to address here. The container that this tree is in is too large. These can stay in very small container for very long periods of time, and in fact, prefer to be rootbound.

The problem with this is that even when the top two inches of soil are BONE DRY, the bottom of the pot will be guaranteed to be sopping wet since there are no roots that far down to consume water. This provides the perfect breeding ground for infections. You will have to lift the container and feel when it is completely dry inside. It will not have much weight to it. This will let you know that it is safe to water.