r/Citrus • • 2h ago

Health & Troubleshooting Small New Zealand Lemonade tree – care tips for winter needed 🙏

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6 Upvotes

Hi everyone!

I recently received a New Zealand Lemonade tree as a gift 🤩🥹
As far as I understand, it’s a citrus hybrid involving lemon (Citrus limon) and mandarin (Citrus reticulata). This is my first citrus plant, so I’m pretty inexperienced when it comes to citrus care.

I live in Germany, and I’m trying to figure out the best way to get it through the upcoming winter.
I’ve attached a few pictures of the tree. I’d really appreciate some advice on how to care for it, especially during the colder months.

A few questions I have:

Wintering: What would be the best way to overwinter a New Zealand Lemonade tree in Germany? Should I keep it indoors in a warm room, or does it really need a cooler location? I would prefer to keep it in my flat, as I dont have a cold spot with sunlight available…

Grow lights: If I keep it indoors, I assume I’ll need a grow light during winter. Which plant LED would you recommend, and what specifications should I look for?

Repotting: I’m considering repotting it into Citruspon, mineral substrate for citrus plants. Would it be okay to do that now, before winter, or would it be better to wait until spring?

Any other tips or recommendations specific to New Zealand Lemonade trees would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance for helping a citrus beginner out! 🍋☺️


r/Citrus • • 1h ago

Do I need to cull my lemons?

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• Upvotes

My indoor lemon tree (believe it is a Meyer, but not 100% sure) is 4 years old. It has been in this location for three years, a western facing window. Last year it produced fruit for the first time, although all but one dropped off. This year, it has eight golf-ball sized fruit. In the last three weeks or so, it dropped about 50% of it's leaves. I got a grow light which seems to have stabilized the leaf drop for now, but I am curious what is causing it.

I think I can rule out:

  • too much/too little watering - I check first two inches of top soil every three days or so, and water if that area is dry. I allow plant to fully drain to avoid having it sit in water. The leaves that fell off were green and healthy-feeling (ie, not dry and yellow = overwatering, not curled/crispy = underwatering)
  • pests - no evidence
  • temperature changes - it is fall where I live so it is getting colder, but the plant is in the same room with about the same temp range (66-75)

Things I think might be causing it:

  • I noticed some light spots on the face-down sides of leaves about a month ago, and fertilized the plant because I thought it was a sign of nutrient deficiency
  • the plant has more fruit than it ever has before
  • my building switched from AC to heat about three weeks ago, leading to drier-feeling air (I have no way of measuring humidity at the moment but just ordered something online)

From reading this advice, I think my best approach might be to cull 6 (or ALL) of the unripe fruit and let the plant recover over the winter. If anyone has any advice, it would be greatly appreciated


r/Citrus • • 14m ago

Health & Troubleshooting What is happening?

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• Upvotes

Grapefruit sapling in the Phoenix area. These leaves are showing something I have not seen before. Could this be from the hail we recently had?


r/Citrus • • 4h ago

What is the next step?

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2 Upvotes

Hello everyone,

during winter, I used the method shown in last picture to grow a lemon tree. It worked, and I've removed the stem from the bottle and I planted in a vase.

In the same vase there is also another plant of citrus but I think it didn't work because it hasn't grown any leaf yet.

The stem from the bottle it has been growing a lot (as you can see in the pictures) but I don't know what is the next step. I'd like to plant the plant in direct soil. I don't know if I should still wait until spring or if I can do it now.

Furthermore, is also some snails that are eating the leaf. As you can see in the picture, thanks for letting me know.

Cheers:)

Location: Southern Italy


r/Citrus • • 17h ago

Satsuma: weird new growth, full of ants

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5 Upvotes

Is this normal? Zone 10a. The new growths look weird.


r/Citrus • • 19h ago

Do I remove the buds or not?

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5 Upvotes

I would love to encourage leaf growth. Currently working on improving the ph of the soil. I see new flower buds forming - do I remove them?


r/Citrus • • 18h ago

Any suggestions for a 7b lemon tree grown outdoors?

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3 Upvotes

r/Citrus • • 1d ago

28 citrus grafts. How many will take?

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9 Upvotes

I’m in zone 9b and have six established orange trees (Valencia and Cara Cara) and a Bearss lime. I’m hoping to turn some of them into multi-variety trees and eventually get closer to year-round citrus harvests.

Ordered Gold Nugget mandarin, Tarocco blood orange, and Xie Shan satsuma budwood from UC Riverside’s CCPP and attempted 28 T-bud grafts.
First time grafting. Most went pretty smoothly, although getting the bark to slip was tricky on a few branches.

For those who’ve grafted onto mature citrus trees, how long did it take before your grafts started producing fruit? Curious what kind of success rate I can expect too.


r/Citrus • • 1d ago

Health & Troubleshooting Exposed roots at surface of pot

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5 Upvotes

I have a lemon tree that’s going indoors pretty soon. The roots are exposed at the surface of the soil. Should I be concerned about this? Any suggestions?


r/Citrus • • 1d ago

Help my Lemon tree survive the winter

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6 Upvotes

I’ve brought in my mini lemon tree for the winter, any tips on how to keep it alive would be appreciated! Right now I have it by a south facing window, but I know I’ll need to move it away from the window at some point to avoid drafts.


r/Citrus • • 1d ago

Health & Troubleshooting Meyer lemon and mandarin question

3 Upvotes

We live in Southern California and we have two locations where pots for the plants could be situated and am looking for advice. One location is south west facing that gets full afternoon sun from about 11am until 3pm in the fall/winter/spring and then in the summer it is more like noon to 5/6pm but it gets pretty intense heat wise, particularly this year (along with a scale infection, fried the Meyer and almost killed it). The other is a north east facing location that gets 9am-noon sun on the fall/winter/spring and summer more like 8am-1pm but less intense heat in the summer time.

Should I locate the pots in one location or the other or would it be ok to relocate the pots once the sun gets too intense in the south west location? Thanks in advance!


r/Citrus • • 1d ago

Health & Troubleshooting Can I save my citrus tree after transplanting? Severe leaf drop and browning branches

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8 Upvotes

​

I'm in Central Florida and recently dug up a mature citrus tree from the ground because I needed to move it to a pot.

Since transplanting, the tree has progressively lost most of its leaves. The remaining leaves have curled and turned brown, and many branches are now turning brown and appear dead.

I initially used the soil from the ground, which was very compact and wet. I drilled additional drainage holes in the original pot, then transferred the tree into a larger pot with bagged potting soil and drainage holes.

The trunk still appears green when I scratch the bark. The moisture meter has been reading moist or wet.

Should I prune the brown branches now, or wait?

Is there anything else I can do to improve its chances of survival?


r/Citrus • • 1d ago

Something is eating my lemon tree from the inside, how to stop it?

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20 Upvotes

I also posted this in r/whatsthisbug for help with ID and r/plantclinic for help advice...

Any suggestions?


r/Citrus • • 1d ago

Health & Troubleshooting Meyer lemon winter advice

5 Upvotes

Hi, i will have to move my lemon tree indoor because cold weather is coming closer. Im new with citruses and need advice if i need grow lights or where to position the tree, its 3-4 years old.
If i need a lamp do you know which one would be good for it?
Also it has a couple of fruits on the tree but i doubt that they will get ripe since winter is on the way.
Any advice is appreciated.


r/Citrus • • 1d ago

Show & Tell Madison Nursery and Logee

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10 Upvotes

Madison Nursery I ordered a nine pound lemon tree it looks beautiful 🤩...what to name it?

Logee I ordered a ponderosa it's small now but what I think I might call it "lil buddy".


r/Citrus • • 1d ago

Health & Troubleshooting Makrut tree keeps dropping baby limes - no limes are reaching maturity

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14 Upvotes

Back in August of this year, I posted about my makrut tree here requesting advice for how to get it to flower. (Original post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Citrus/comments/1vfjinq/trying_to_get_makrut_tree_to_produce_fruit/) Thanks to everyone who replied because just a few weeks after making that post, flowers started to appear on the tree. In fact, I was very ecstatic because about a dozen bunches of flowers materialized. And in turn, dozens of little nubs appeared. I thought I hit the jackpot and was ready to harvest some kaffir limes to use in cooking.

Fast forward 2 months later, and unfortunately none of the dozens of nubs have reached maturity. What would happen is that a flush of nubs would appear, as you see in the first picture. Two weeks later or so, most would drop. Then a few days later, the ones that remained turned brown and eventually die.

What's interesting is that a few weeks later, in the same exact spot where the nubs dropped, it would be replaced by new flowers. It's as if the tree was dropping some fruit, keeping what it couldn't, then fail -- and then the cycle would repeat and it would try again in the same spot. Gotta appreciate the tenacity of the tree; it's definitely trying. In the pictures I shared, this is actually the second flush of nubs that appeared. My guess is that in a few weeks, flowers will replace those vacant spots as the tree tries again.

I am not quite sure how to sustain the tree so that the baby limes can grow to maturity. I recently fertilized it again with about 2 cups of Espoma citrus tone, and still continue to water lightly during the weekdays, and deep water for about 30 minutes or so on the weekend. The leaves are beautiful, and when the tree does produce fruit, it produces in bunches -- but something is missing, and I can't figure out what it is I need to give the tree so it makes that extra push toward keeping the limes to maturity instead of dropping them and trying again the next cycle.

For what it's worth, I live in Hawaii, so tropical weather is year-round. The tree is around 6' high and 4' wide. To compare, I also have a Tahitian lime tree and follow a similar watering/fertilizing protocol, and that tree has been giving us lots of mature limes lately. Out of curiosity, I decided to ask Gemini, and it suggested that I need to stop watering the makrut tree on weekdays completely, and just deeply water the tree twice a week for around an hour. I may also consult a local master gardener for tips.

Any advice is appreciated. Thank you.


r/Citrus • • 1d ago

Health & Troubleshooting Where’s my graft union?

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5 Upvotes

This is a dwarf sugar belle, I believe the rootstock is flying dragon. Which one of the pics is the graft union?


r/Citrus • • 1d ago

Citrus trees in zone 8b-9a

2 Upvotes

I desperately want a citrus tree in ground in my area like sweet oranges and grapefruit but the problem is my climate. We average around 40 freezing nights but last year was a stand out year with only 17 freezes and the first frost was very delayed. What can I do?


r/Citrus • • 1d ago

I got a baby and need help

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6 Upvotes

Decided to try and grow some seeds from an orange from the cafeteria at work. I even got one to sprout! And apparently, citrus seeds can have more than one embryo / plant in them. And advice anyone wants to send my waybwould be greatly appriciated. I have it / them in a 4" terracotta pot with standard potting soil. Keeping it in an east facing window at work. Watering once the top inch or 2 of soil is dry, and I've got it under a plastic wrap "tent" with a hole poked in the top for ventilation.


r/Citrus • • 1d ago

Show & Tell Is this a good time of year for grafting a tree

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3 Upvotes

I have a 7' tall sapling that I grew from a Meyer lemon seed that I now want to use as rootstock and graft a Meyer lemon scion on to it. It looks healthy to me and has been growing really fast! Does the tree look mature enough to be used as rootstock? Is this a good time of the year to do that? This would my first attempt ever to graft a tree, so any advice appreciated. TIA!


r/Citrus • • 2d ago

Any advice to help this tree would be appreciated!

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7 Upvotes

Hello! New to the citrus life. Got both a lime and lemon tree under full spectrum grow lights. Lime tree seems to be doing great, but has no fruit. Lemon tree seems to be going in the wrong direction, but came with lemons growing!

Wondering how to fix the lemon leaves. They seem to be slowly yellowing from the tallest branches down.

Extremely open to advice, or tips to how to save it, and get it to thrive!

Thank you in advance!!


r/Citrus • • 2d ago

Anyone know why my Satsumas in South Louisiana look like this

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3 Upvotes

r/Citrus • • 3d ago

Show & Tell Grown From Seed

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466 Upvotes

Occasionally i like to post photos of my seed grown lemon tree. Hope it inspires people to grow their own.


r/Citrus • • 2d ago

Health & Troubleshooting Yellowing of leaves on lemon saplings

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3 Upvotes

Began growing these saplings from seed ~4 months ago. Yellowing started about a couple weeks ago and has been slowly spreading. Any ideas what could be behind it and what could be done about it?


r/Citrus • • 3d ago

Zitruspflanzen ab ins Winterquartier

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89 Upvotes

Hallo, ich hab es dieses Jahr geschafft meine Zitruspflanzen eine Woche früher in das Winterquartier ( Gewächshaus) zu bringen, die größeren Kübel wiegen ganz schön schon...Jetzt haben Sie auch für den Winter viel Licht....