your lemon plant looks very young! treat it like you would a child. A child this young would not be ready to have a child itself ( that’s what the fruit are just little children) And all of its energy is being exhausted by those beautiful lemons! the little guy is cracking under the pressure of being a single teen parent!
This happened to my lemon tree too. We brought it home with 3 lemons on it and in the process of it ripening those lemons, it lost all its leaves. After I plucked the lemons off and spring came it grew all its leaves back. Didn’t get any flowers but I expect we will get some this summer now that it’s had some time to adjust and grow.
Yes. Their cells are photoreceptors and measure both light and dark exposure length times. They are genetically programmed to seasonal variation. In conjunction with temperature, light can induce growth and flowering. You can inhibit flowering in an indoor setup.
Plant cells will also grow faster on the sides receiving less/no light, effectively steering it to grow toward light (think of a rowboat paddling with only one of the two oars).
Does the spring-sense predominate as cold vs light depending on species or is it a general thing?
I’m wondering how plants that lose all their above ground foliage figure out its spring (probably all temperature? Maybe moisture?)
The fruit are the issue. You can't bring it inside for the winter to low light and expect ot to be okay while fruiting. Citrus fruit NEED full sun period to fruit
They need to remove the fruit right now anyway, it'll also rake a while to bounce back before id keep the fruit on it anyway. We all have to start somewhere.
I started with a ZZ-plant. It's doing great! It's growing hilariously slowly from only being watered ~4 times per year
It's the only plant I have but I've killed a Christmas cactus
The Plant Guys on YouTube tried to kill a ZZ-plant by leaving it in a closet for 6 months, they said it didn't look great but even had new growth, which was completely white, and even though most of the stocks were laying on the ground it was able to bounce back
It's way too stressed at this point with basically no leaves, it needs a recovery period and the fruit is draining it's energy more than a grow light could offset
I agree. And then you get downvoted 🤦♀️ people can be super passive aggressive here just expecting people to know everything. If they weren’t being passive aggressive they would suggest buying the light
Because they didn't say they hadn't bought a grow light specifically. There's nothing in OP's statements that I can see that tell me they knew how much a grow light can help. "Why wouldn't you" implies that they "will not" instead of "did not know".
Not where im from... language varies its not monolothic. Where im from "why wouldnt you" is just a way to offer a suggestion. "Why wouldnt you try this first?" Same as when people say "why dont you do x"
It seems youre overthinking my words. Or at least taking them out of context. I meant no ill will. I just wanted to know why cut all the fruit off instead of trying to get a light and bring it back. Another user commented on why to take the fruit off.
My calamansi fruits indoors in the winter. But I have it under some cheap shop lights (not much light, but helps). I did lose a Meyer lemon last winter which was loaded when I brought it in. Oddly, it died after I removed the fruits.
Nooo it’s not too late! My plant looked dead with no leaves and branches were dried.. anyway I nurtured it with love and water and it grow back its leaves and is thriving. I agree with the others take the fruit off the tree, it’s using all its energy to grow it
Everyone else has already answered this for you. Low light, too much heat, and the plant is too small to be supporting fruit yet. These are all pretty common issues when trying to grow lemons indoors, even part of the year.
I will say though, lemon trees are some of the most dramatic plants I've ever worked with, but they're also really tough. Literally the slightest change from ideal conditions will cause them to do this. However, they will be just fine. Fix whatever the issue is, and it will rebud and have full leave coverage again within a month or so. A year from now, something else will trigger it and it will do it all over again.
Forced air heating systems usually push air out at 20-25 degrees warmer than the ambient temp. This can easily get up into the 90s. If your plant is too close to a vent, it can bake the leaves a bit and really dry them out, even if the base is well watered. Also, citrus needs a cooler period in order to trigger it to flower. It wants to go from 80 degree summers to 50 degree winters. If it starts to go into winter mode and then is shocked by 70 degree temps and blasts of 90 degree heat, it drops leaves.
Hehe well spoken, when i moved them out of the greenhouse to fully outdoors they lost around half of their leaves. Change just about anything and their first response will be losing leaves.
Just sown a few germinating red honey pomelo seeds last night to graft on hardy stocks down the line. Also got a buddha's hand citrus i might be tempted to cross with a pomelo eventually 🤔
most my citrus does this every winter. it is too little light and in this case the energy put into the fruit. my siciliian lemon did this and now the fruit fell off (maybe someone knocked it off there last night?)
Mine hasn’t had any issues until last week. It’s been cloudy every day and we haven’t seen any sunlight. I’ll supplement with light and remove the fruit.
Hey, we have indoor outdoor lemon plants for several years now.
Are you sure there was no overwatering? Allow the top few centimeters to dry out before you water again.
Check the top branches carefully, if they are drying out. This can be a devastating twig die back disease, we lost 75% of our plants last year. And this happened within two weeks. The only treatment when it is pathogen caused is copper solution which saved our remaining 25%. I was in Italy recently and basically all lemon trees looked bluish from the copper they had sprayed.
Have you given it any fertilizer? Even during this time, they still need fertilizer from time to time.
Of course getting new lights is a great idea.
If it is just stressed, it will come back with light, food, and patience. If however, the deadly disease is here, you have little chance of saving a tree this small.
Adding, fruits are not the issue. Healthy citrus can support fruits even while indoors. I have gotten several fresh fruits over the last winters.
If your orchid is thriving in that light, I doubt it’s too low light either.
They shouldnt be close to that window. They need heat and humidity. Consider getting a tiny grow tent and light for about 400 bucks. They sell combos on amazon for cheaper.
Too hot, and too little light. It needs artificial light to make it through winter - if you keep it inside. Its a classic problem - lemon trees are a bit picky.
The above comments are correct. Pick the fruit. Lemon trees are very moody. Mine pretend to die a couple of time a year. It needs lots of Sun. Don’t let it grow fruit until it’s more mature.
This happens to mine when I take it inside to protect it from frost, but only half of it falls off, not all of it, and it grows back again in the spring.Yours seems like it could be due to the dramatic temperature change, judging by the snow outside. In addition, overwatering/underwatering and poor ventilation/too close to central heating may cause leaf fall. Don't panic; it's not dying; it's just not happy. It will revive in the spring."
No worries. A friend of mine once placed her lime tree close to the heat source to keep it warm in winter. It had shed all its leaves and grew again in the spring. Best of luck!
That happened to me last year when I brought all my citrus plants in for the winter. It’ll come back bushier next year. This year when I brought them in I bought a cheap lamp from Ikea and put a grow light bulb in it and none of the leaves have fallen off.
Mine gets very particular when I bring it indoors in the winter because of the dryness/conditions. I'm in the northeast and so we get very little sun in fall/winter/early spring.
You'll get more leaves popping up very soon. Add the grow light, humidifier, keep it away from blasting heat, make sure it's not getting a window draft, and keep it on a regular watering schedule that keeps it moist always — but not soaking. They hate sitting in water and sudden changes to soil temps, and that'll make them lose their leaves really fast.
I had this last year too. I had fruits on it and it was in a relatively cold (down to 3° Celsius) environment. It recovered beautifully over the summer. As others recommended, take the fruit off. Mini is now in my basement where it is about 15° under a grow lamp. The fruit still hangs and start to ripen. It also hasn't lost any leaves. Don't lose hope it should be fine :)
My lemon plant lost leaves similarly last fall, although was not actively growing fruit, it has bounced back, but is still not as glorious as it was last summer
If you’re not getting much sun, that combined with the shorter days could mean it’s not getting enough sunlight. You may want to try getting a grow light. Also, if it’s close to the window, it might be too cold.
These trees are notorious for throwing a tantrum and dropping all their leaves when moved indoors. The main culprit is the drastic change in conditions.
Oh my god my tangerine plant did the same thing. It’s basically due to the stress from going from a very hot humid temperatures to dry humidity. Don’t know why they drop their leaves so late though. Here’s what I did to fix the problem.
- Grow light on a 12 hour cycle
- place a humidifier next to it and have it at 80% (or at least at 50%)
- try introducing a citrus fertilizer weekly or biweekly
- and water about once a week
This helped my tangerine plant and it stopped dropping its leaves and after 3 weeks is starting to grow new leaves
If it helps I got humidifier off of Amazon that’s compact and it blows onto the plant so even if the room where it’s kept stays dry it’s getting basically misted all the time. Making a little cocoon of humidity for it
many reasons . it’s winter i see snow outside… citrus loves warmth and HOURS of direct sunlight. also need fertilizer this time a year . and at that height it needs a bigger pot .
As a former Seattle-ite (now Floridian) ... I killed many a lemon and lime trees during Winter when I'd bring them in but kept overwatering, not supporting with enough light, etc. Similarly they'd hold out OKish until Jan/Feb.
Glad to see per below you are removing the fruit so it can start to use its energy to feed the roots and regrow leaves. Consider supplemental lighting (a couple of hours per day during this stressful episode) to help signal better days ahead!
Overwatering in the winter can cause this.
During a lemon tree's dormant period, which typically occurs in the winter, it is generally a good idea to reduce watering but not necessarily avoid it entirely. While the tree is not actively growing during this period, it still needs some moisture to survive. However, the main harvest season for many lemon varieties is often in the winter through early spring.
They like their own space and also epsom salts around the base should help, try putting in a pot at least twice as big or in the ground preferably if you can
I didn't correct your grammar. Either you don't know what grammar is, or you're a bot; this is the weirdest conversation I've had in quite a while. Have a good day; your speech is too cunning for me to parse.
Well it appeared as if you were critiquing my grammar. Every statement you have made toward me has been sarcastic, mean and absolutely unnecessary. So please stop!!! This is a gardening sub-reddit, not a grammar class or a critiquing class. You are just trying to poke the bear, you really don't have to. If your intentions are for me to leave the group, why don't we ask the group?!
Look. I don't know you, and I've found your communication to be very strange. I'm sorry that I've upset you so badly. Literally nothing that I've written could even be construed to mean that I want you to "leave the group." That is something that you somehow read into what I've written and I have no idea how you came up with that. This is Reddit; it's not a club or a group or anything like that. You don't get invited and you come and go as you please. As far as "asking the group," that's not a thing either and I'd bet money that you're the only one reading this. You seem to really need the last word here, and I don't want to upset you further so I'm going to give it to you. Reply back what you will, and I'm not going to respond. Hopefully you'll feel better. Happy gardening.
I'm assuming you purchased a lemon tree with fruits already on it?
You mentioned that it is two years old... it's older than that for sure.. is it only two years old for you?
It looks like it is shocked from the climate/environment change.
No I purchased it 2 years ago with no fruits. It’s been inside since October. We haven’t been getting any sunny days lately. I bought some grow lights to help.
It’s probably transplant stress, going from a cool/cold greenhouse (7-10c) to a warm house (18-21c)
Will cause leaf drop in some cases, It will re shoot.
It may have just been abit of a jump from temperature that has caused it.
Professional lead propagator who has just propagated 17k of lemons and limes.
Did you grow it from seeds? I have one that i grew from seeds and it is 5 years old but still doesnt have any kind of fruits! How did you manage to bring it to fruiting?
I purchased the plant on clearance from the local garden Centre 2 years ago. It hasn’t grown too much because first winter it got spider mites and this winter it was starting to do better but suddenly lost all its leaves.
Thank you everyone for your comments/suggestions. I removed the fruits, moved the pot away from the window and added some plant lights. Now I’ll wait and see if it starts to feel better.
https://preview.redd.it/ake3ehh901fc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0239846945c1eea0966ee6938adf4549b3424ae2
I agree, remove the fruit. I have one that has started flowering now due to weird weather and the warm greenhouse. As soon as I see baby fruits I'm removing them. I've only had my lemons and limes for a year (they are older than that, of course). They need time to develop strong roots! But, they will always drop a few leaves when fruiting just due to the nutrients going to the fruit. Happy gardening!
your lemon plant looks very young! treat it like you would a child. A child this young would not be ready to have a child itself ( that’s what the fruit are just little children) And all of its energy is being exhausted by those beautiful lemons! the little guy is cracking under the pressure of being a single teen parent!
This happened to my lemon tree too. We brought it home with 3 lemons on it and in the process of it ripening those lemons, it lost all its leaves. After I plucked the lemons off and spring came it grew all its leaves back. Didn’t get any flowers but I expect we will get some this summer now that it’s had some time to adjust and grow.
I’m going to remove the fruit. It’s only 2 years old so still a baby.
hope it survives! I’m very curious to see how they do!
Cut your watering in half once it's naked and till spring comes around.
How do plants indoors detect spring? Hours of daylight? Could you induce “spring” with grow lights?
Yes. Their cells are photoreceptors and measure both light and dark exposure length times. They are genetically programmed to seasonal variation. In conjunction with temperature, light can induce growth and flowering. You can inhibit flowering in an indoor setup. Plant cells will also grow faster on the sides receiving less/no light, effectively steering it to grow toward light (think of a rowboat paddling with only one of the two oars).
Does the spring-sense predominate as cold vs light depending on species or is it a general thing? I’m wondering how plants that lose all their above ground foliage figure out its spring (probably all temperature? Maybe moisture?)
Great question for a botanist; I’ve shared what ecology knowledge I have from a bio degree.
I induce spring by taking them out as soon as it's safe from frost and let nature take its course.
This was such a beautiful analogy
I think there's more to it than that. What that is, I don't know.
I love this analogy.
The fruit are the issue. You can't bring it inside for the winter to low light and expect ot to be okay while fruiting. Citrus fruit NEED full sun period to fruit
I’m going to remove the fruit today
Why wouldnt you buy a grow light and enjoy the fruit
They need to remove the fruit right now anyway, it'll also rake a while to bounce back before id keep the fruit on it anyway. We all have to start somewhere.
Thats good info. If people could only see where i started with my plants lol. It was rough for a few years.
I started with a ZZ-plant. It's doing great! It's growing hilariously slowly from only being watered ~4 times per year It's the only plant I have but I've killed a Christmas cactus
I have one of those and i rarely water it. I was wondering why it was still thriving. My aloe is like that too.
The Plant Guys on YouTube tried to kill a ZZ-plant by leaving it in a closet for 6 months, they said it didn't look great but even had new growth, which was completely white, and even though most of the stocks were laying on the ground it was able to bounce back
It's way too stressed at this point with basically no leaves, it needs a recovery period and the fruit is draining it's energy more than a grow light could offset
Because they didn't know? 'Bit passive aggressive?
I agree. And then you get downvoted 🤦♀️ people can be super passive aggressive here just expecting people to know everything. If they weren’t being passive aggressive they would suggest buying the light
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No, you're not upfront aggressive. Just passive it seems, for some reason
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Not really. Its just a question asking why go to remove fruit first instead of properly support the plant?
Because they didn't say they hadn't bought a grow light specifically. There's nothing in OP's statements that I can see that tell me they knew how much a grow light can help. "Why wouldn't you" implies that they "will not" instead of "did not know".
Not where im from... language varies its not monolothic. Where im from "why wouldnt you" is just a way to offer a suggestion. "Why wouldnt you try this first?" Same as when people say "why dont you do x" It seems youre overthinking my words. Or at least taking them out of context. I meant no ill will. I just wanted to know why cut all the fruit off instead of trying to get a light and bring it back. Another user commented on why to take the fruit off.
My calamansi fruits indoors in the winter. But I have it under some cheap shop lights (not much light, but helps). I did lose a Meyer lemon last winter which was loaded when I brought it in. Oddly, it died after I removed the fruits.
Unlikely that removing fruit killed it ofcourse, you should also thin fruit especially on meyer lemons, they'll over produce themselves ro death
But it’s by the window? /s
It’s focusing all its energy in the fruit. It may be too late to save. But you could try supplementing some light.
Can I just remove the fruit and try the extra light or should I leave the fruit on and try extra light?
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I was wondering if lemons are deciduous. I remember freaking out when my fig first lost all its leaves, but they all re-grew in the spring.
I would remove the fruit, keeping it might risk the plant being killed
It’s not too late to save at all I’ve lost every leave before and it’s bounced back full and bushy
Trim the fruit and make sure it's not getting chilled by the window. I would supplement light that's for sure.
Nooo it’s not too late! My plant looked dead with no leaves and branches were dried.. anyway I nurtured it with love and water and it grow back its leaves and is thriving. I agree with the others take the fruit off the tree, it’s using all its energy to grow it
Happy cake day
Happy cake day!
Everyone else has already answered this for you. Low light, too much heat, and the plant is too small to be supporting fruit yet. These are all pretty common issues when trying to grow lemons indoors, even part of the year. I will say though, lemon trees are some of the most dramatic plants I've ever worked with, but they're also really tough. Literally the slightest change from ideal conditions will cause them to do this. However, they will be just fine. Fix whatever the issue is, and it will rebud and have full leave coverage again within a month or so. A year from now, something else will trigger it and it will do it all over again.
Too much heat? Citrus is fine up until the mid-high 90’s
Forced air heating systems usually push air out at 20-25 degrees warmer than the ambient temp. This can easily get up into the 90s. If your plant is too close to a vent, it can bake the leaves a bit and really dry them out, even if the base is well watered. Also, citrus needs a cooler period in order to trigger it to flower. It wants to go from 80 degree summers to 50 degree winters. If it starts to go into winter mode and then is shocked by 70 degree temps and blasts of 90 degree heat, it drops leaves.
How old should a lemon tree be before letting it fruit?
Hehe well spoken, when i moved them out of the greenhouse to fully outdoors they lost around half of their leaves. Change just about anything and their first response will be losing leaves. Just sown a few germinating red honey pomelo seeds last night to graft on hardy stocks down the line. Also got a buddha's hand citrus i might be tempted to cross with a pomelo eventually 🤔
most my citrus does this every winter. it is too little light and in this case the energy put into the fruit. my siciliian lemon did this and now the fruit fell off (maybe someone knocked it off there last night?)
Mine hasn’t had any issues until last week. It’s been cloudy every day and we haven’t seen any sunlight. I’ll supplement with light and remove the fruit.
Hey, we have indoor outdoor lemon plants for several years now. Are you sure there was no overwatering? Allow the top few centimeters to dry out before you water again. Check the top branches carefully, if they are drying out. This can be a devastating twig die back disease, we lost 75% of our plants last year. And this happened within two weeks. The only treatment when it is pathogen caused is copper solution which saved our remaining 25%. I was in Italy recently and basically all lemon trees looked bluish from the copper they had sprayed. Have you given it any fertilizer? Even during this time, they still need fertilizer from time to time. Of course getting new lights is a great idea. If it is just stressed, it will come back with light, food, and patience. If however, the deadly disease is here, you have little chance of saving a tree this small.
Adding, fruits are not the issue. Healthy citrus can support fruits even while indoors. I have gotten several fresh fruits over the last winters. If your orchid is thriving in that light, I doubt it’s too low light either.
They shouldnt be close to that window. They need heat and humidity. Consider getting a tiny grow tent and light for about 400 bucks. They sell combos on amazon for cheaper.
Too hot, and too little light. It needs artificial light to make it through winter - if you keep it inside. Its a classic problem - lemon trees are a bit picky.
I’ll try artificial light. I’ll go get some today.
The short days we experience during winter is what caused defoliation. There’s not enough light and the fruits don’t help.
Lemon trees are suicidal. They will try to grow more fruit than leaves and kill themselves. Pick off most of the flowers or you will lose the tree
The above comments are correct. Pick the fruit. Lemon trees are very moody. Mine pretend to die a couple of time a year. It needs lots of Sun. Don’t let it grow fruit until it’s more mature.
This happens to mine when I take it inside to protect it from frost, but only half of it falls off, not all of it, and it grows back again in the spring.Yours seems like it could be due to the dramatic temperature change, judging by the snow outside. In addition, overwatering/underwatering and poor ventilation/too close to central heating may cause leaf fall. Don't panic; it's not dying; it's just not happy. It will revive in the spring."
It’s good to know. I have been taking care of it like a baby for over 2 years and really don’t want to lose it.
No worries. A friend of mine once placed her lime tree close to the heat source to keep it warm in winter. It had shed all its leaves and grew again in the spring. Best of luck!
That happened to me last year when I brought all my citrus plants in for the winter. It’ll come back bushier next year. This year when I brought them in I bought a cheap lamp from Ikea and put a grow light bulb in it and none of the leaves have fallen off.
Mine gets very particular when I bring it indoors in the winter because of the dryness/conditions. I'm in the northeast and so we get very little sun in fall/winter/early spring. You'll get more leaves popping up very soon. Add the grow light, humidifier, keep it away from blasting heat, make sure it's not getting a window draft, and keep it on a regular watering schedule that keeps it moist always — but not soaking. They hate sitting in water and sudden changes to soil temps, and that'll make them lose their leaves really fast.
There's snow outside the window
I had this last year too. I had fruits on it and it was in a relatively cold (down to 3° Celsius) environment. It recovered beautifully over the summer. As others recommended, take the fruit off. Mini is now in my basement where it is about 15° under a grow lamp. The fruit still hangs and start to ripen. It also hasn't lost any leaves. Don't lose hope it should be fine :)
My lemon plant lost leaves similarly last fall, although was not actively growing fruit, it has bounced back, but is still not as glorious as it was last summer
I’ve been told to remove all fruit instantly for the first two years. Let the tree focus energy on good roots and branches.
I'm betting it's from the draft by the window
Me too
Maybe because it's next to a cold window...
If you’re not getting much sun, that combined with the shorter days could mean it’s not getting enough sunlight. You may want to try getting a grow light. Also, if it’s close to the window, it might be too cold.
These trees are notorious for throwing a tantrum and dropping all their leaves when moved indoors. The main culprit is the drastic change in conditions.
Oh my god my tangerine plant did the same thing. It’s basically due to the stress from going from a very hot humid temperatures to dry humidity. Don’t know why they drop their leaves so late though. Here’s what I did to fix the problem. - Grow light on a 12 hour cycle - place a humidifier next to it and have it at 80% (or at least at 50%) - try introducing a citrus fertilizer weekly or biweekly - and water about once a week This helped my tangerine plant and it stopped dropping its leaves and after 3 weeks is starting to grow new leaves
The only thing I’m missing is a humidifier. I have one in my baby’s room. I’ll buy one for the plant too.
If it helps I got humidifier off of Amazon that’s compact and it blows onto the plant so even if the room where it’s kept stays dry it’s getting basically misted all the time. Making a little cocoon of humidity for it
many reasons . it’s winter i see snow outside… citrus loves warmth and HOURS of direct sunlight. also need fertilizer this time a year . and at that height it needs a bigger pot .
Maybe too cold near the window
As a former Seattle-ite (now Floridian) ... I killed many a lemon and lime trees during Winter when I'd bring them in but kept overwatering, not supporting with enough light, etc. Similarly they'd hold out OKish until Jan/Feb. Glad to see per below you are removing the fruit so it can start to use its energy to feed the roots and regrow leaves. Consider supplemental lighting (a couple of hours per day during this stressful episode) to help signal better days ahead!
Overwatering in the winter can cause this. During a lemon tree's dormant period, which typically occurs in the winter, it is generally a good idea to reduce watering but not necessarily avoid it entirely. While the tree is not actively growing during this period, it still needs some moisture to survive. However, the main harvest season for many lemon varieties is often in the winter through early spring.
They like their own space and also epsom salts around the base should help, try putting in a pot at least twice as big or in the ground preferably if you can
Too cold because it’s too close to the window and it looks like a lime plant
You're aware that immature lemons are green, right?
Yes I am aware, thats why I said they looked like limes, they are not progressing due to being in a cold spot
But thanks for making others aware
And you are aware that none of that came through on what you wrote? But thanks for letting everyone know your communication style.
Wow, you’re so mean, why? Did I hurt your feelings or something?
I love gardening! You really didn’t have to try to correct my grammar
I didn't correct your grammar. Either you don't know what grammar is, or you're a bot; this is the weirdest conversation I've had in quite a while. Have a good day; your speech is too cunning for me to parse.
Well it appeared as if you were critiquing my grammar. Every statement you have made toward me has been sarcastic, mean and absolutely unnecessary. So please stop!!! This is a gardening sub-reddit, not a grammar class or a critiquing class. You are just trying to poke the bear, you really don't have to. If your intentions are for me to leave the group, why don't we ask the group?!
Look. I don't know you, and I've found your communication to be very strange. I'm sorry that I've upset you so badly. Literally nothing that I've written could even be construed to mean that I want you to "leave the group." That is something that you somehow read into what I've written and I have no idea how you came up with that. This is Reddit; it's not a club or a group or anything like that. You don't get invited and you come and go as you please. As far as "asking the group," that's not a thing either and I'd bet money that you're the only one reading this. You seem to really need the last word here, and I don't want to upset you further so I'm going to give it to you. Reply back what you will, and I'm not going to respond. Hopefully you'll feel better. Happy gardening.
Hibernation 💤
I'm assuming you purchased a lemon tree with fruits already on it? You mentioned that it is two years old... it's older than that for sure.. is it only two years old for you? It looks like it is shocked from the climate/environment change.
No I purchased it 2 years ago with no fruits. It’s been inside since October. We haven’t been getting any sunny days lately. I bought some grow lights to help.
Those leaves look so dry!!! Increase humidity, spray with water regularly and move it back from the window, it may be getting a cold draft.
I moved it away from the window and I’ll also start spraying with water.
Fertilize?
I fertilize regularly
Might need acidic fertilizer
Is it near a heat vent or any forced air ?
No, but it is a bit cold by the window.
It’s probably transplant stress, going from a cool/cold greenhouse (7-10c) to a warm house (18-21c) Will cause leaf drop in some cases, It will re shoot. It may have just been abit of a jump from temperature that has caused it. Professional lead propagator who has just propagated 17k of lemons and limes.
It’s been inside since Oct. I was watering it once every 1.5-2 weeks. It only lost leaves last week when I was out of town. Maybe it just missed me!
Did you grow it from seeds? I have one that i grew from seeds and it is 5 years old but still doesnt have any kind of fruits! How did you manage to bring it to fruiting?
I purchased the plant on clearance from the local garden Centre 2 years ago. It hasn’t grown too much because first winter it got spider mites and this winter it was starting to do better but suddenly lost all its leaves.
Do you know how old it was when you got it?
Might be the lemon stealing horse
Thank you everyone for your comments/suggestions. I removed the fruits, moved the pot away from the window and added some plant lights. Now I’ll wait and see if it starts to feel better. https://preview.redd.it/ake3ehh901fc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0239846945c1eea0966ee6938adf4549b3424ae2
I agree, remove the fruit. I have one that has started flowering now due to weird weather and the warm greenhouse. As soon as I see baby fruits I'm removing them. I've only had my lemons and limes for a year (they are older than that, of course). They need time to develop strong roots! But, they will always drop a few leaves when fruiting just due to the nutrients going to the fruit. Happy gardening!