Help needed with sad lemon tree

[MissJimJam]

Hoping someone might be able to help. I rescued this lemon tree from Lidl in the spring. It was doing really well over the summer. But the last couple of months the leaves have all started to fade to this pale colour and some have even started to curl a bit.

It seems to need a lot of watering and soaks the water up twice a week, otherwise the soil gets incredibly dry. I bought a liquid citrus feed the other day and have fed it a couple of times, but to be honest it’s looking really sad.

Up until now it has been kept in the kitchen / dining room where it is really sunny. But I’ve now moved it to a darker room.

Any help with what might be wrong with it would be really helpful! Thank you in advance.

Check for scale bug.

And it won't like the dark. Lots and lots of sun.

I'd also repot it. I had one from Lidl and it was just in ordinary soil, not citrus compost.

Definitely looks infested. Spider mite?

Needs treated and moved back to sunny location

This is a good tip. My little lemon tree has scale bug and is looking very sad. I tried to pick them all off, but they're back. Does anybody have any ideas on how to get rid of them? I'm considering putting it outside on a cold night to kill the scale bugs but suspect that may kill my lemon tree too!

Edited to add: those mottled leaves look like some sort of deficiency to me, OP. The specialist citrus feed will hopefully correct this eventually. In the mean time, try coddling your plant by watering with rainwater instead of tap water.

Scale bugs are tricky. Most contact pesticides can't get through the scale. There are nematodes, but they're very fiddly to use so your best bet is systemic insecticide and sacrifice any current fruit, or mechanical removal (soap spray and fingernails to scrape them off - recheck every few days).

Thank you all so much! Upon much closer inspection, I’m convinced mites is the right diagnosis (coupled with a need for more citrus feed).

We are going to repot it in some citrus compost, clean all the leaves and branches down with a dish soap / water solution, hose it off and repeat for the next few weeks. And then keep feeding with the citrus feed. Hopefully we can bring it back to good health!

Appreciate all your replies ☺️

Citrus are special needs plants. Keep it outside all summer but obviously now the frosts have started it should be inside all winter, but move it to sunny position. Repot in bigger pot in citrus compost which is free draining. Water only once a fortnight in winter with citrus feed and only once a week in summer. Water thoroughly so it runs out the bottom but don’t let it stand in water. You may need to treat as advised above for infestation or infection though we had same issue and it went away with proper care as I have described.

To summarise.

• Remove existing fruit.
• Check for infestations.
• Repot in proper citrus compost, Remove as much of the original soil as possible.
• Water only with rainwater.
• Feed it (should feed at least every fortnight through the summer; normally you'd not feed in the winter, but as the poor thing has been starved I'd keep feeding to build it up).
• Find a cool position with as much sunlight as possible. Consider adding a growlight for winter.

Good luck.

If it gets through the winter it needs a few weeks outside/in an unheated conservatory at the end of winter to help trigger flowering - you want it as close to 5°C as possible without it getting frosted.

@ProfessorBinturong @DrNo007 thank you so much for all your tips and advice.

@MissJimJam Stop feeding it. Plants don't need food like people do. They need chemical nutrients to assist them in photosynthesising, which essentially means they make their own food. They do that in the growing season from spring to autumn, so don't give it anything it doesn't need at the moment. If you repot it, there will be enough in the way of nutrients in the new soil anyway, until at least next May.

Agree with a pp to check for pests, particularly scale insects and spider mite. Over the winter, it needs to be in bright light in the coolest room you have, somewhere between 10 & 15 degrees, and keep it away from radiators.