Container Lemon Tree

Question from Diane:

I’m hoping you can help me with my container lemon tree. I have a 2 year old lemon tree that I transplanted from a 14” to an 18” pot in early January. It lost many of it’s leaves. I fed it at the end of January, and it has put out lots of beautiful blossoms, but no leaves. Will leaves come later? What should I do to this tree? It resides in our outdoor atrium that yes about half sun and half shade.  Thanks for any help you can give me.

Answer from Pat:

First, winter is not a good time to repot a citrus tree. Citrus are tropical plants and should be planted and transplanted only in summer. Additionally, any disturbance to the roots of an existing citrus tree sometimes results in it dropping all leaves. Variations of moisture can also cause the leaves to fall off. Leaves often drop off because a root ball goes dry and people think they are irrigating properly but unbeknown to them, water is rolling off the outside of the root ball and never really reaching the plant. Another thing that can cause leaves to fall off is when there are wild swings of temperature—sudden cold nights, for example.

It may take your lemon tree a little time to recover and grow leaves again and resume growth, but I doubt very much that it is dead. Fertilize the tree adequately. Citrus trees are heavy feeders. A balanced liquid fertilizer diluted according to package directions and applied several times at intervals of a week or two may help your tree to bounce back and put out more leaves. If you are an organic gardener, use fish emulsion. I does not burn. See if you can find a brand that contains added phosphorus and potassium and a penetrant. (If not, don’t be worried. Any good liquid fertilizer will work, but a penetrant would help.)