I have this Meyer lemon tree in a pot. The leaves are slowly but steadily falling off, and each little lemon turns completely black and falls off before it even grows to like a centimeter or two. What could I be doing wrong? I have a soil moisture meter and I only water it when the meter reads “dry”. Could it be my grow light isn’t right or isnt strong enough?

  • Arache Louver@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    1 year ago

    I can only say things based on the appearance of your plant, maybe my “diagnostics” are wrong… The soil seems a bit dry, and they like wet soil, the place seems a bit cold, I don’t know, to produce lemons you need a good warm temperature, maybe 26-27 ° celsius. Also, maybe she had consumed some of the minerals and nutrients in the soil, try to renovate organic material… if it is the only light source that plant has, I believe that it needs more light to produce lemon, maybe 6 hours of sun per day minimum. Plants indoors tend to become filthy, so maybe you have to clean the leafs to increase the photosynthesis metabolism and to “spray” some water on it every 2 or 3 days.

    • MetalAirship@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      hm, the leaves are a bit dusty, I will definitely try cleaning them. As for temp, I am in the northeast so not too much I can do about it (temps are around 18c/65f). I just re-potted it into a larger pot than the one I bought it in, and added some fertilizer when I did that - I’m wondering if the other commenter is right and maybe its too much fertilizer

      • Arache Louver@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        1 year ago

        I think that is not the case, because if it would be over fertilized it would has some burned and brown leafs. If you still have doubts about over-fertilizing, you can water it a lot for once, to clean the excess of chemical materials.

        • MetalAirship@lemmy.worldOP
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          1 year ago

          OK, yeah when the leaves fall off they are either fully green or just a little bit yellow. I am always paranoid about over-watering, as I have definitely killed plants in the past this way (especially potted plants). But maybe I should do as you say and give it a one-time burst of water