Calamondin losing leaves

[FromYorkshiretoBucks]

Hi All,

I have a small calamondin I got from Lidl last year, I brought it inside early October and it’s been relatively happy until now in my utility room with a south facing window, with me watering it once a month with a mixture of water and winter citrus food.

I noticed a couple of leaves falling off earlier this week and I’ve just gone in there this morning to most of the leaves have come off.

Is this normal / if not, is there anyway to save it?

I have a grow light arriving tomorrow for my chilli seedlings if this would help?

[veggiechicken]

Is it too dry in that room? Not humid enough? Maybe mist the leaves (not the ones that have fallen off!)

[Scarlet]

I've had a few of these - never managed to keep them longer than 3 years and its always been due to leaf drop.
They dont like the temperature going up or down.....so no radiators turning on or off?

[devonuk]

Doesn't sound much water for a S facing window, I suspect it's drought stress. Keep it moist and you have a very good chance it will leaf out again.

[ameno]

If the room is more than 10c then it's not cold, so it's likely drought.
That said, you shouldn't keep the compost moist. In winter, that's a sure way to rot the roots. Rather, let it dry out between waterings but then water it again as soon as it is dry. Never let it remain dry.

[Scarlet]

If the room is more than 10c then it's not cold, so it's likely drought

Unless that room has a radiator and the heating goes off at night the fluctuating temps can cause an issue.

[FromYorkshiretoBucks]

Thanks for the replies all.

The room comes off the kitchen so the fluctuations may be the thing, and maybe it is drought.

We had our first child about a month ago and the missus has been on overdrive with the heating on in the house.

I misted it this afternoon it now has one leaf, so not holding out hope it will survive unfortunately.

Oh well, thanks for your help everyone

[bramble]

I have had a few over the years as well.
No matter what I tried I always lost thrm.
Either leaf drop or infestation.

[devonuk]

Thanks for the replies all.

The room comes off the kitchen so the fluctuations may be the thing, and maybe it is drought.

We had our first child about a month ago and the missus has been on overdrive with the heating on in the house.

I misted it this afternoon it now has one leaf, so not holding out hope it will survive unfortunately.

Oh well, thanks for your help everyone

Please don't bin it just because it loses all its leaves. I have completely defoliated a tangerine by letting it dry out in winter, and it came back to life in spring.

[ameno]

Thanks for the replies all.

The room comes off the kitchen so the fluctuations may be the thing, and maybe it is drought.

We had our first child about a month ago and the missus has been on overdrive with the heating on in the house.

I misted it this afternoon it now has one leaf, so not holding out hope it will survive unfortunately.

Oh well, thanks for your help everyone

Citrus often recover from defoliation. It does weaken them, though, so if it happens every year it will probably die after two or three years.

[Kirk]

Not sure of the pot size but a watering a month is likely insufficent.
Weekly or twice weekly I would suggest. My citrus I keep the soil/compost damp. And that is about 2 litres twice a week.

If the water is insufficent then the plant will drop it's leaves as they pass water out through them. Likely to be in a survival state of "Lose leaves, hope it rains". And the rain isn't coming.

If possible try a bigger pot, lets face it they want open ground, and water and let it dry out to just damp and water again.

Plants take water in via the roots and evaporate it out vis the leaves. They need water.

Always recall mine grew best when I worked away.
Came back Friday - watered plants,
Left Sunday - watered plants.
Next time they saw water was the Friday. They seemed to thrive on it.

[fluffybunnyuk]

I keep lots of citrus trees. You'll find its the low winter sun/temperature thats causing it.
Make sure its south facing. I'm guessing you forgot to buy it a xmas present... Go buy it a heat mat and keep the soil temp at 14-15 deg c.
The reason is the soils too cold, so the roots dont work, suddenly the sun tricks the leaves in photosynthesizing for spring, and the plant finds it hard to draw water up, and voila stressed plant. Plant rebels and drops leaves.
Feed it warm water get a thermometer and make sure the waters 15 deg c.
After a month or two of this , give it some summer fertilizer. It'll motor back to recovery.
Hope it helps

[fluffybunnyuk]

Once the roots are warm enough at 15 deg c. It should start slurping up water. When it starts shouting for more water, its usually a sign its growth spurts kicked in.
Keep off the fertilizer until the demand for water goes up. The first feed is usually an iron feed, i usually get the signs in light green veiny top growth over winter.
Then when its ready for its next watering i give it some fertilizer.
I keep going through to september time fertilizing once every 4 waterings, at which point I wean it off fertilizer.
I always found fertilizer addicted citrus to be weak plants, vulnerable to winter. It took me about half a dozen dead plants before i got the message.
So long as you get a foot of growth a year your ok with young plants. So measure it from soil to tip.
If its on par for growth then ease off the fertilizer. less is more.
If its growing new leaves, a leaf wash can be good once they get established, just to warn insects to stay away.
Painting from soil to first leaves with white latex paint or tree paint is good.
Think of yourself under a duvet. Why do you stick your feet out? cos you like something being cool.
The same with a citrus tree it likes being 15-16 deg c on the soil, and baking hot 20-30 deg c on the leaves. cool feet , hot body

[starloc]

Winter leaf drop , with cold roots if you get strong light on the leaves the leaves will overheat and drop, usually made worse by poor formula compost that holds too much water so gets colder.

water evaporating lowers compost temperatures by something like 10 deg c so even in a warmish room compost temp is low so root activity slows right down

As above , heat mat solves it , warmer the roots , the more light can be on the leaves

I have treated them many different ways , lots of methods of growing them work, a lot depends on rootstock and the variety of plant , things like lime trees and very hard to keep leaves on the the winter, lemons much easier and oranges easier, calamondin and grapefruit are easier again

I have 3 ways I look after the citrus at the minute

1, put by south facing window in unheated room, usually above minus 10 deg C inside.... but single glazed and no heating, I raise the plants so sun heats the pots and only reflected light hits the leaves , I have lost maybe a few leaves between October and now, just standard old leaves falling , plants still grow and flower, fruit stays on. I have Christmas lights on them to minimise frost damage on the bits closest to to the windows when it drops tom-25C, over 1 meter away the frost on the windows doesnt hurt them

2, in south facing window with 1000W of metal halide lights in unheated room , metal halide comes on in the evening for 2 hours on dull days, heater mat under the pots, roots at 14C with heater mat , plants grow fine , but I do get leaf loss, but not many drop, the windows still cause frost damage when ive forms due to very cold temps outside

3 in heated room, about 25C to 40C from wood burner stove, led lamps on 10 hours a day, roots at 27C on heater mats , massive growth , never flower without drought stress as no chill hours, need to mist them twice a day or I get leaf drop

if you have strong light, you need warm roots, but you also need cold room at night ( but not the roots ) to make them flower

I use fertiliser all year long to keep the plants strength up, citrus are heavy feeders

You must let the compost dry at the top between waterings , you can not water to a schedule always by testing a bit down in the top of the compost is dry, then soak the compost, never repot until May or June time in the UK ( approx ) citrus are evergreen and only repot when they are in strong growth

Citrus are naturally plants that grow under a canopy from other plants , they don't need much light

[ameno]

Citrus are naturally plants that grow under a canopy from other plants , they don't need much light

Is this true? I read that citrus needed good light over winter to encourage flowering. That's why I bought a grow light for mine (admittedly not a strong one; just a 100w full-spectrum compact fluorescent tube), since it has never flowered (grew it from seed 10 or more years ago. Don't remember exactly what it is). My conservatory, where I overwinter it, doesn't get the best light. It's south-east facing, so ought to get good light, but the ceiling panels are very yellowed with age, so the light quality is poor. All the veg seedlings I grow in there always end up growing leggy.
Mine never loses more than maybe a dozen leaves all winter, though, despite the conservatory getting pretty cold (down as low as 3c on really cold nights, although more usually it's 6-10c). The leaves do, however, yellow quite a lot, which was another reason for the grow light (I thought insufficient light was likely to blame).
I even left it outside on the patio all winter last winter (although I brought it in on nights where 0c or lower was forecast) and it didn't lose its leaves. It clearly didn't like it, though. Very yellow. Took all summer to recover. I brought it in at the beginning of November this year.

I also bought two more citrus this year, one satsuma and one yuzu. Both are apparently more cold tolerant than most citrus species, and both are actually grafted, unlike my original one (the satsuma even arrived with fruit), so hopefully it will be easier to encourage those to flower.

You clearly know what you are talking about, so do you have any tips for me, especially regarding the yellowing over winter (I did also think it may just be the cold, but using the grow light does seem to noticeably reduce it, and it has noticeably greener leaves come spring, albeit still somewhat yellowed)?