Why citrus leaf curl

Hi Kevin, thank you for getting in touch. It is a shame your trees have guava moth! Prevention is the best method of control. Use a fine mesh curtain netting is suitable to surround your fruit so the moth cannot get into lay its eggs on the fruit. Secure with tape to the supporting branch. Remove fallen and rotting fruit, and dead leaves and mulch from under the tree as often the moths lay eggs in these areas. Guava moth pheromone delta traps with sticky bases are also available from garden centres and rural suppliers.

Hello Jenna. My citrus leaves are curling and slightly yellowish on the edges. I have covered it from the frost. We have had a lot of rain in ChCh could it be that? It is 2 years old. The little lime I planted this year is also covered but some of the new shoots have been attacked by the frost despite being covered.

Will it be okay in the spring? Many thanks. Hi Dominique, it sounds like your soil is lacking in some sort of nutrient, more than likely it is iron or zinc. Feed with citrus fertiliser in October, once the frosts have passed. Apply Tui Organic Seaweed Tonic at least once a month, this will give the roots a boost but not force too much top growth, which you want to avoid over winter.

It will also help your trees cope with the cold weather. Hi, I put my lemon tree in a pot and planted it using citrus potting mix. For the past three weeks it has been fine but four days ago the leaves started to curl and fall off. I have watered it frequently and the soil seemed damp but not boggy.

I thought that I might have over watered it and left it for two days but the curling continues. There are no bugs etc near it and the leaves remain green but turn brown at the tips. Please help this is the second lemon tree I have tried to grow which been unsuccessful.

There are other environmental factors that can cause leaf curling. Your soil may be lacking nutrients. Frost and extreme hot weather can also contribute to leaf issues. Keep an eye on the weather forecast and plan to protect your trees from harsh weather with shade cloth or frost blankets. Take a look at this article from GardenZeus , a site we contributed to a while ago.

It goes into more detail about why leaf curl occurs. Will the leave curl go away when watering is regularly? It has been about a year after I have repotted in a larger pot. I used a cactus, palm, citrus soil which has great drainage.

However, I have noticed that after watering, the top surface looks wet but when you turn it, it is still dry. I am thinking that to soil is doing a great job of draining but is leaving root ball dry. Leaf curl is usually caused by either a nutrient deficiency or a pest infestation. Look for leafminers on the leaves and treat with beneficial nematodes We get ours from Arbico Organics. As far as watering goes, it looks like your soil might be hydrophobic, which means it takes very slow watering to get it to actually start absorbing water.

Then you have to keep it moist from there. It should be moist after watering. You could be watering too fast — meaning the water is draining down the sides of the pot and running out the bottom instead of soaking in.

Water very slowly and see if that changes things. I live in Goliad Texas. We moved from Austin Texas about a year ago. While in Austin my two Lisbon Lemon trees were doing wonderful with thick dark green foliage. My Lime tree was doing wonderful too.. All in pots. Got to my new house and they didnt fair so well. Leaves started discoloring, yellowing, curling and falling off. I thought maybe it was the pots so I planted them in the ground. They did a little better but still not as well as in Austin.

I did notice some white bugs on them and on one occasion, ants. Is there anything I can do for the curling leaves? I read one page that said to cut off all the branches with curling leaves and let it start over. Not sure what to do. Hi Caren, sorry to hear about your tree. The white bugs and ants are a sign of tree weakness. You can cut off the affected stems to help reduce the population. Worm castings help do both.

I recently bought a dwarf lemon tree, it had 4 beautiful lemons and full of green leaves. I kept it indoors bc of cold weather. When I took it outside it was still green and blooming with flowers. Fungal diseases can also cause citrus leaves to curl, lose color, wilt, and even drop prematurely. The most common citrus fungal diseases that cause curling leaves are botrytis disease and bacterial blast. If your plants already have sap-sucking insects such as aphids, mealybugs, and scales, you may also notice a black fungus that appears as a moldy coating growing on the underside of the leaves of your citrus trees.

This fungus likes to grow and feed on the sticky substance that the insects produce, and may contribute to the curling of leaves of citrus trees such as lemons and oranges. When citrus leaves curl inward, it is probably a sign of lack of enough water. You might want to check around the base of the tree whether it is potted or grown in an outside garden to see if the soil is dry. Drought usually causes leaf curl in citrus trees, only that the leaves do not lose their green color as is common with nutrient deficiencies.

The easiest fix for this problem is maintaining a proper watering routine for your citrus trees as explained under treatments below. In some citrus trees, especially potted orange trees, ovewatering can also cause leaves to start curling and even wilting or drooping.

Leaf curl is not the only problem since you may start to notice discoloration usually yellowing and falling. Other symptoms may occur due to root rot in citrus trees, such as stunted growth, dark spots on the stems and leaves, and even dying. Soil amendment, applying an insecticide, and maintaining a proper cultural care program can help prevent and fix curling leaves in citrus trees. However, to deal with the problem successfully, identify the cause of the curling leaves first and address it specifically.

To treat leaf curl that comes with a yellow discoloration in lemon and orange trees, correct the soil pH to 6. Citrus trees are among the plants that like coffee grounds.

Therefore, a natural way to amend the soil and fix curling leaves in citrus trees is to apply coffee grounds to the soil to improve its pH and also feed the plants with the nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus they release. A great way to fix the curling leaves in citrus trees is to water mature plants deeply once every 10 days. Allow the soil to dry out in between the waterings to prevent overwatering the plant.

Apart from maintaining a good watering schedule, apply mulch around your citrus trees to prevent excessive water loss from the soil when temperatures are high especially in the summer. This will ensure your plants maintain healthy leaves without curling and yellowing.