I have a tiny baby citrus tree. I don't really know what kind of citrus it is yet. I don't remember exactly when I bought it but I do know this is it's first fall. I've kept it outside in the planter that I bought it in. It was doing great with new growth and everything. It had about 6 or 7 or so little balls of fruit growing on it. All but 2 of the fruits had fallen off. I figured this was because the tree was too young to bare that many fruits. Anywho, when it started getting too cold I brought the tree indoors. Since then I've kept it indoors only.

I keep it in a 46 gallon bow front fish tank with a small plant light hanging over the tank. It was doing great. The two fruits have grown a bit larger and have changed from green to yellowish/faded orange. I would say the fruits are lemons but I noticed the oranges in the grocery store are really yellow for being an orange. Not to mention the shape of my fruits are no where near the typical shape of a lemon.

The citrus tree kinda began to drop it's leaves before I brought it indoors. When I did bring it in and put it in the fish tank the leaves started to look healthier. It even bloomed one more flower which gave out a new tiny ball of fruit. But not long after the flower wilted away from the fruit did the fruit eventually fall off. The other two fruits are still hanging on. One fruit is about two times bigger than the other. Though, both fruits are of the same color. Both fruits are right next to each other and they are weighing down the branch quite a bit. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to pick the fruits off now or wait?

I've been giving it the same care since I've brought the tree indoors. But for some reason it is dropping it's leaves like crazy! There are only 29 leaves left. There were soooooo many more leaves than that to begin with. And there is not any new growth happening anywhere. Some of the leaves will fall off green and then turn brown and dry up. Where the other leaves will turn brown and crispy while still on the tree.

So.... As I mentioned before, I've kept my tree in the same planter I bought it in. I haven't added anything to the soil. I thought about maybe transplanting it but I've been told not to mess with it while it was barring fruit. Sorry about the length. I tend to love to write/type. But anywho, Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

heya and welcome!! gotta comment on your name...hyperferret is a little redundant, isn't it?? i've got four of the sofasharks - how about you?

on to your question. could you post a pic? of the tree as well as this tank you've got it in.

i think they need a good amount of air circulation and you might want to place it somewhere where it isn't confined. also, now that it's inside, it probably doesn't need as much watering as it did when it was outside. or it could be that the light is drying it out too much (if it's too close to the tree).

my neighbor has 2 - a meyer lemon and a lime. she keeps them in a northwest-facing window in the winter and they get plenty of good sunlight - most of it is indirect, a few hours of direct. and i think she does a deep watering once a week.

Sounds like a need for humidity, maybe? Air?
Sounds like a Meyer lemon rather than an orange.
A picture sure would help, if you can post one.

Ferrets are called sofa sharks???
I really did laugh out loud reading that !

Okay, first the ferret thing... I'm confused, "hyperferret is a little redundant, isn't it??", as in I use the name too much? As of right now, I don't have any ferrets. It's actually been about 3 years since I've had one. Before, I've only had 3 ferrets. 1st Misty ~ my albino, 2nd Kiela ~ my sable, and 3rd Celleia ~ my butterscotch. My last one, Celleia, was diagnosed with Epizootic Catarrhal Enteritis. The vet said she would die before her 1st birthday. I changed vets and Celleia died right after her 4th birthday. When she did pass away she died of Adrenal Gland tumors. Yep she did good! She was a stubborn strong fighter. She was also just straight up stubborn too. LOL It took me soooooo long to train her anything! Ferrets are still my #1 favorite critter!!!! I'll get another ferret one of these days.

Now, back to the plant! I would so love to post a pic on here for you guys to see exactly what I'm talking about. But, um, .....I don't know how. I see where I click the "image" buttton but I don't know the url of my pic.

Oh and by the way, Deborah L., you'd probably get a kick out of all the different kinds of nick names they have for ferrets!

It's that I got a sudden visual of the ferrets running around on a sofa sticking out their teeth like little furry sharks-made me laff !

Hyperferrret... what you need to do is go to www.photobucket.com open a free account up load your pictures... and then you can copy the url directly here..

Does it have any thorns? My lime tree has thorns but no leaves they all fell off Lemon is doing great...

photobucket is a good hosting site...they've got a freebie service as well as a pay. once you create an account and upload pics, it gives you links that you can copy and paste right into the post. use the one that says IMG.

by redundant i meant ferrets are hyper, so hyperferret is redundant. i've never heard of ece killing a ferret. is sure is tough to get rid of though and dealing with it can make their immune system more suseptible to secondary infections...if treated properly they will get past it. adrenal problems are common...and age 3-4 is when they start to become evident.

well, that's kind of what they DO do!! LOL! it's called the happydance or wardance. when mine does it, he hops, so i call it the hoppydance.

sofashark, carpetshark, fuzzbutt, wuzzle, fert, there are a ton of nicknames for these sweet little ones!!

i think you're right, deb, about it being a meyer lemon too. we won't know for sure until hyperferret gets a pic up.

rita, did you have the lime outside and maybe brought it inside too quickly? or if it was already inside, maybe it is too close to the heater vent? keep watering as you normally do and it should bounce back. the trunk looks like it's in really good shape so you can probably save it.

Alrighty now. I did the photobucket thingy. Lets see if I can get this thing to work. By the way, if this does work ... you guys may regret telling me how to do this. It could get dangerous, I'm a photoholic! Another problem I've had before is how to fix the size of the pic. Lets start with how it looked when it was healthy.

Woo ~ Hoo!!!! It worked! Cool Beans!

Okay, so how many pics can I post on here? Or maybe a better question, how many pics can I post before I start to get on someones nerve. Hee-hee. Now the lighting really is better than what appears in the pic. The only digi camera I have is the one inside of my camcorder. As you'll see, it does a lot better with pics taken in natural sunlight.

Anywho, Here's what I have now:

Here's the tank.







Here's what a lot of leaves and stems are doing.





Here's a close-up of a healthy leaf.



Trying to show the size of the fruit.

I at first thought your tree is a Meyer, but it looks like my orange tree now, from the look of the leaves and the fruits.
I'm not sure but it looks like the leaf has been burned from too much light too close.
See that little fiddle/violin shaped leaf thingie at the base of the leaf?
That's an orange tree. My dwarf Valencia orange has those violin thingies too.
Did the tree come with any paint marks on the trunk?

Yeah Buddy! I'm lovin this picture sharing thingy! Folks, just to let you know ... I am okay.

So I took the citrus tree outside to get a couple more pics before I pulled off the friut. Decided to take off the friut cuz I didn't think they would change much more in color. (They still had some green in certain spots.) Also figured that would allow more of the nutritiants to go towards the tree itself.

First, this is the plant light I am currently useing over the 46 bow front fish tank.



Now, here's my tree.



Close-up on my two friuts.



The biggest friut before and after I split it open.





The smallest friut after I split it open.



Ahhhhhh ... relief from the heavy fruits!



Back into the 46 gallon bow front.



I really didn't know what to expect when opening the friuts. Being that they were small and oddly shaped. They had a very sweet and juicy taste too!! I'm such like a little kid over being able to watch any (this citrus tree and my vegetable garden) of my plants grow. I soooo hope I can keep it alive during winter.

So, now that you can actually see what's going on. What am I doing wrong? Was it because of the fruits? What can I do to get the tree back to a healthy state as it was before?

Violin things, never noticed that before. Cool. Nope, there was no markings what-so-ever. And the only tag present was just stating that it was a citrus tree. That's why I didn't know what it was till I split open the fruits. I just now noticed I forgot to use spell check up there, oops. About the leaf looking burnt. I also thought maybe that was a possibility. But the leaf shown in the pic is located furthest from the light. ???

OMG you went totally picture crazy!!
I just leave mine in the window .. seems Pretty happy right now..
But the leaves on my lime did the same exact thing.. I think it also did not help that the cat was trying to eat it either..

I brought them inside Quite a while ago.. they were both doing great.. Then it just shriveled and gone!!!

It could be that the tree has been overwatered. Esp with that big saucer underneath holding water for longer. Citrus need excellent drainage and if there has been water sitting in the saucer for any length of time it could have the effect of causing leaves to drop. It actually looks like a fungus has hold of the plant now. You could try soaking the soil with a copper based fungicide, twice, a week apart with no other water in between and then leave the soil to dry out. If you get a few new leaves starting, go easy on the water, esp thru the cold months when the tree isn't doing much.

Yeah, I am quite addicted to photography. And I just LOVE sharing photos. Yep, that's me. Now, actually I tried to limit it down to just a few but... I just couldn't handle it. LOL

So, on your lime tree. What is the white rim around your soil? Should I be adding something to my soil?

My plant would never make it if I put it be a window. Way too many cats! Half of them would just eat it, the other half would just have a blast playing with it. That's why I thought of putting it in the 46. You cats can't reach that, HA HA! :p

That was what I believe is residue of the wonderful water we get here in the city. :rolleyes: It seems to seep into the clay pots,that is why I try to stay away from them.. I use compost tea to water them from my worm farm.. The plants seem to really love it..

it definitely needs to be out of the tank - not enough air circulation...

you'll just have to put it in a spot where the cats can't get to it (yeah, right, i know...my rusty is eating my av flowers...he just LOVES them) or train them to leave the tree alone.

you can spray some bitter apple on it or put netting around it so they can't get to it. or just spray them with a sprayer bottle filled with water/vinegar mix every time they go near the tree...eventually they'll get the point.

Worm farm .... you have a worm farm? How's that work? I have bitter apple; I used that for ferrets. That won't somehow effect the tree or any fruit it may bare in the future, will it? Okay, I know, I gotsta find a spot where the cats can't get to it. But one more last try ..... What if I were to get a tiny little fan of some sort to mount on the tank to create my own air circulation? Spray bottles soooooooo don't work on my cats. Mandy, for-real just sits there soaked and dripping wet while giving you that glare, "I ain't movin! You spray me once more...and your asking for it!"

Wouldn't the vinegar burn their eyes? If I sprayed at all it would be with only plain water.
I don't spray anyway, Pepper loves water and it would be cruel to confuse her.

worm farm

This will answer your question!! Maybe one of those little tiny fans?

if you've got vinegar in the mix you don't spray it in their eyes.

it's more for the smell than anything else...

place it up on something so its so crowded your cat can't get up.I go through this war in the winter.He's housebroke,but thinks a plants same as outdoors.sharp objects get their attention.mine runs just SEEING a raised beer bottle.I got good aim& he knows it.I know my bottle will move faster than me& so does he.He's stopped in 3 seconds.


I've had a ferret too long time ago.Traded my neighbors kids for their iguanna.they negleted their iguana cause we're always at my house playing with my ferret.a neighbor has 14 of them.now THATS a hoot.don't need TV at her house.has bulit in entertainment.

orange sceants deteer cats.

i'll have to try the orange scent thingy...crowding shelves does no good when it comes to my rusty...he's a master at knocking things off if they're in his way (and sometimes even when they're not...he just likes to watch things fall)

LOL on not needing tv with 14 ferrets in the house!! ain't it the truth!!! actually all ya need is two of them...they'll keep ya entertained for hours on end!!

Good news and bad news...... Bad news first: Last post I made, I only had 29 leaves left. Since then I've lost 9 more leaves. Good news: I haven't lost anymore leaves yet. So far it's stuck with 20 leaves for quite a while. (other 9 leaves dropped pretty quickly and close together) Also: About the black on the leaves and tips of the branches, good news ... um sorda, kinda. The "Death of the Black Grip" (DBG) hasn't spread any further on the branches nor has it formed/appeared on any other leaves. Now, the two branches that have the DBG that I have pictured on here, should I cut those off? If so, does it matter if I cut it straight or should I cut it at an angle like as I would when cutting a rose?

All the leaves that had the black fungus (what I'm calling DBG)has already fallen off. I can see little tiny tiny tiny green nubs on the branches and near where previous leaves had fallen. Are these new leaves trying to come up? If they are, then they are taking FOREVER to grow! I've bought a spray bottle and I mist the tree several times a day like crazy. Lol, I also blow my breath on the tree hoping the extra carbon dioxide along with the oxygen would somehow help it grow stronger faster.

I miss haveing a ferret. ....sigh.... One of these days I'll have another or two.

yes, the green nubs are new growth, it's basically a slow-growth time, so they may take a bit to get going. a good misting 2 times (maybe 3 if your house is really low on the humidity) a day should be plenty!


i just love this pic...




rusty (the cat) and finola absolutely adore each other!

oops! sorry it's so big!!

New growth!


That is an EXTREMEMLY *CUTE* picture!

hey, just looking at the picture of the citrus with the black, shriveled tips of the stems sent me a gut-wrenching memory - i have seen this 2 times with dearly beloved plants... i am NO PRO but i have learned the hard way that i OVERWATERED them... so, just wondering if any of you more 'pros' think that is a result of overwatering....

just wondering if any of you more 'pros' think that is a result of overwatering....
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Well, it was actually suggested almost 2 months ago. However the topic got poached by ferrets or some irrelevance so i lost interest. Dunno what the pro's think though.

Yeah, sorry for the topic becoming ferretized. Guess that would be my fault for my member name being "HyperFerret". BUT! ...I always went back to topic. ...Again, sorry for not staying on topic.

Now, about the tree. ...It's dead. Oh. It's so dead. However, I still have the plant ... for some reason. Anyways, I took it out of the tank and still made sure it had plenty of light. And the over watering bit. Once someone told me it might possibly be the fact that it was being over watered, I quit watering it. So I'm not sure if that was it. Still wish I knew what I did do wrong. This Spring I really want to get another one and try again. Wish I knew what I could do different this time.

you sure its dead?? My lime dropped all its leaves and I just left it in case the possibility was still there... It has 4 leaves now

Uh... It has no leaves what-so-ever. The trunk and limbs are all brown, not a bit of green. And I've only tried just the tips but when I bend the tips of the limbs it gives a nice crispy SNAP! My tree is nothing more than just a twig sticking out of a pot of dirt. Not to mention, I totally quit watering it after I was pretty sure it was dead.

bummer!! sorry to hear that!! My cat or kid had at my tiny lemons and now I only have one left.. but still hoping it will hang on and grow big and yummy!!

I water mine 3 times a week... unless the heat is on and they dry out more.. then maybe 3.. but I let t!hem get pretty dry before I water them

"This Spring I really want to get another one and try again. Wish I knew what I could do different this time."
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DO you have room to plant a lime in the ground?
If not, just get one and plant it in a really big pot in PREMIUM POTTING MIX in good sunlight. By 'really big' i mean like a half wine barrel. Make sure you only plant it as deep as the pot it comes in. Protect from wind, esp very hot or very cold wind and mulch it. Liquid fertilise with fish emulsion or similar once a fortnight while it's got new growth and throw in a tablespoon of slow release fert once a year. .