Lime leaves curling and falling dry

[andyepx]

  

Hi,

we’ve had our lime tree for about 3 months and it has lost a lot of leaves, especially in the last 3 weeks. They seem to roll up and fall dry. 

We’re watering it regularly and it’s in a large terracotta pot, we used a mix of regular potting mix and the potting mix it came with when we purchased the plant when we re potted it. We added some Osmocote Citrus and Fruit fertiliser to the soil. It’s on our north-facing balcony and gets natural light all day (however no direct sun light).

To keep moisture in check we just recently bought a Meter and been trying to keep it in the lower side on the green "moist" area.

What could be causing our leaves to keep falling?

Thank you in advance!

Andy

 

 

[MitchellMc]

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @andyepx. It's fantastic that you've joined us and many thanks for your question.

Citrus can drop some leaves naturally. However, it can also be a sign of over or under-watering. They need full sun of 8-12 hours a day to thrive and might struggle with no direct sunlight at all.

I'd encourage you to try the finger meter to determine if your plant needs watering. Stick your finger into the soil and if it is dry, give the plant a thorough watering until it is saturated and water runs out of the drainage holes. How many drainage holes are on the bottom of the pot? Citrus like lots of water, but they also don't like constant wet feet, so the pot must have adequate drainage.

Let me mention a couple of our experts @Noelle and @Adam_W to see if they can offer some assistance.

Mitchell

[Noelle]

Hi @andyepx 

To be dropping green leaves like that would, in my opinion, probably be due to lack of moisture. While you may be watering often enough, the growing mix may not be holding enough moisture. I'd suggest using a wetting agent (NOT a watering storing crystal) to help the mix absorb and hold more moisture after watering.

Make sure the pot itself is not in the direct sun - the potting mix being too hot can also result in leaf drop.

Citrus need good light with the leaves receiving direct sun but if possible keep the pot itself shaded.

[andyepx]

Thank you @Noelle!

We moved the pot so the leaves get more sunlight and will continue to keep an eye on water and get some wetting agent if things don’t improve in the next few days.

How long do you think it might take it to stop dropping leaves if it starts to recover?

Thanks again!

[Noelle]

Hi again @andyepx 

You may not see any noticeable change for several weeks because changes like moving the pot etc can take some time to have any effect. I'd suggest 3-4 weeks probably before you are aware that the leaves have stopped curling and/or dropping.