Eureka Lemon Yellowing
The leaves of my Eureka lemon are starting to turn yellow again, which is a classic sign of nutrient deficiency. It seems odd that the leaves are turning yellow in late fall when the plant is not growing anyway. Usually, yellow leaves appear on my citrus in the spring and summer if I haven’t fertilized them enough.
Completely yellow leaves are usually a sign of nitrogen deficiency, while green veins in the leaves with yellow in between is often caused by a lack of zinc or iron. University of Florida’s website http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/CH142 has a good summary of the nutrient deficiencies in citrus with pictures. I’ll admit I haven’t been fertilizing it as often as I should. My guess is that nitrogen deficiency is probably the culprit. I just gave it a 10-4-10 citrus fertilizer. Hopefully, that will help.
In our area, many people grow lemon trees in their yards. Most of the lemon trees I have seen in other people’s yards are full of yellow leaves. A few of the lemon trees I have seen are completely covered with yellow leaves. Clearly, these people never bother to fertilize their lemons. Why have one then? Do they think that the leaves are supposed to be yellow just because the fruit is yellow? At least I have been fertilizing mine a few times a year.
Another problem I have had with my Eureka lemon is leaf drop. As soon as the roots get dry, it starts losing leaves. It has happened at least twice already. Last winter was unusually dry here. I stopped watering my lemon regularly, because I figured the daytime temperatures were cool enough (50s F) to prevent it from drying out. But by January, it had lost nearly all of its leaves. I have been watering it nearly everyday since then.
However, now that the daytime highs here are barely reaching above 60 again, I have cut back on watering it. But this time, I plan on continuing to water our lemon about once a week to keep the soil around it from drying out, unless of course it finally starts raining here on regular basis.
Despite all of the problems, citrus is one my favorite fruits to grow. Citrus blossoms are incredibly fragrant. And because lemon plants can produce lemons in all four seasons, one can have a supply of fresh lemons in the yard nearly all year long.
December 06 2008 | Lemons | Comments Off on Eureka Lemon Yellowing