Please help save my lemon plant

[PenCreed]

I have a meyer lemon plant (not big enough to be a tree) and it's losing its leaves! Before they started falling off, a lot of them were curled up - apparently this can be under-watering OR over-watering. I think I may have over-watered it as the earth in the pot felt dry, but then water just pooled in the pot-holder. It lives on my south-facing kitchen window-sill, in full sunshine. I've wrapped the pot in bubble-wrap to try and make sure it's warm enough through winter. I've reduced the water, and I fed it last week in case that helped.

What else can I do to save it? Help!

I would give it a chance to recover - when you do water it, give it lots and then leave it to dry out a bit. I think they should dry out before watering again.

I water mine once a week, let it dry out and give it a good watering, make sure it’s getting plenty of sun (mines in my daughters bedroom window).

Plenty of light and plenty of humidity
but NOT wet soil

I think I may have over-watered it as the earth in the pot felt dry, but then water just pooled in the pot-holder. If the soil gets too dry, it loses its capacity to hold on to water, and any water you give drains straight through without giving any benefit to the plant. Best thing to do in these circumstances is to soak the pot up to its rim in water for an hour or two to give the soil a chance to re-wet. Then leave the soil to dry out before watering again.

From your comment, it sounds that there's a fair chance it was too dry, and that your watering didn't help because the water ran straight through.

Check that you haven't acquired any pests. Most likely are scale insect - oval shaped light brown scales particularly along the veins on the underside of the leaves - and red spider mite - peppery dusting of tiny bugs around the new growth, and possibly fine spider-like webs.

How long has the lemon been in the pot? How old is your potting medium? How big is your pot? Is it rootbound?

Perhaps consider a complete repot with loads of appropriate, fresh soil, giving a little root trim in case of root binding and a bit of a prune. If it has been in the pot for ages, also consider scrubbing the leaves front and back with a weak soap solution because the stomata (its breathing holes) can fill with dust. The scrub will also dislodge any bugs (scrub the branches too).

If the water is running through and pooling yet the soil feels dry, use a little surfactant such as purpose developed Wettasoil (in Aus but the UK must have the same) or a little dish detergent. This allows the water molecules to spread on contact with a solid surface rather than staying in their ball and running through. If you are really desperate with this, soak the whole pot in a bucket of water with surfactant until the bubbles stop and then allow to drain well. Good potting medium will include this as an ingredient but if your pot is exhausted, I reiterate the need for a repot.

It's supposed to be a tree in the ground so the roots will continue to want to grow so regular repotting in a larger pot or perhaps a root trim will be necessary. Whatever you trim at the bottom will need to be copied at the top. Plants do best when root and leaf are balanced.

I had exactly the same problem and just could not get it right...

Searched online and found some info here that might be of use, theres some helpful pics in there too.

tree2mydoor.com/blogs/content/caring-lemon-tree

Hope this helps some! :)

Quick update, plant now has zero leaves! But does have lemons which are slowly ripening so it’s not dead. Yet. I repotted it into a bigger pot with fresh compost - the roots actually seemed quite small for the size of the branches. The branches without fruit are turning brown so I’m going to prune them back a bit. So I’ll see what happens! Thank you all for the tips so far.