Citrus mishap

[Kellybean]

Hi all,

I've had a 2ft-high calamondin tree growing happily in a big pot in my lounge for the past 6 months or so. I've only ever given it small trickles of water and it has been fine so far. However, last week we went away on holiday and with the weather being warm I gave it quite a bit more water than I usually would.

When I returned, to my horror it had dropped lots of leaves, and I mean LOTS. The floor was covered - there must have been well over a hundred. It had also lost some fruits - but these were quite large and looked about ripe, so I'm not sure whether they would have fallen off anyway. There are still some small green fruits on the tree, but the leaves now look quite dry and are starting to roll up at the sides.

Have I killed it?! I'll be gutted if I have. I'm not planning to water it for a good while to try and let it recover. Any suggestions as to what I can do would be very gratefully received - I won't be trying that again!

Thanks for your help!

[starloc]

Did you leave it in a saucer of water? or just soak the pot before leaving?

If you just watered it a lot, it will probably be fine , it may just be upset with the change! , they get upset if you change things, i have some i soak well every now and then, and some i dribble a bit of water on evary week, if i change over the way of watering they have been known to chuck loads of leaves off

[Kellybean]

Hi Starloc, thanks for your reply. I just gave it a good soaking before I went - there was a small amount of water in the tray underneath, but not much.

It's still losing leaves now. I reckon it must have lost at least half. Having said that, it probably does look a bit better being much less bushy, plus I suppose it can't hurt to have some more airflow through the (remaining!) leaves. I have always sprayed the leaves every day and it seems to like this.

I guess all I can do is wait with my fingers crossed!
Thanks again for your help

[starloc]

its always best with citrus to not have a saucer, or if you do to raise the pot with some bits of wood so if water drains into the pot it runs from the pot and doesnt stay on the roots