Phoenix Tropicals Gardening

[AlnShirlene]

We have a tree as described above and its in a good sized pot with well drained (maybe too well) soil. The leaves on it are now getting crispy on the ends, its in distress for some reason. It gets full afternoon sun, can anyone give us ideas? thanks.

[phoenixtropicals]

So you are growing a lemon tree in a pot in full sun in the AZ heat. That is a tough one to answer.

My short answer is to move it to the shade because that is a really difficult situation for a lemon tree here. Once you have it in the shade, a once a week soaking (maybe twice) and no fertilizer whatsoever would most likely be the best approach for it. You could give it a tiny amount of fertilizer later once it starts to look healthy again, but in a pot you really want to be conservative with that. Then in October, I think you should put it in the ground. On the other hand, I think you can get away with keeping it in the pot only if you move it to the shade in the summers.

My reasons are as follows. The roots are going to get really warm in full sun in a pot which can't be that good for it. Painting the pot white will help with this some. Also, I'd imagine you'd have to water it more often than is optimal for a citrus because it dries out very quickly in a pot. It will never really adapt to the heat here in a pot because it will be unable to grow deep roots, so you are stuck with babying it.

There is one other possible single reason why its burning. It could be that you just overfertilized it. If that is the case, make sure that you wash extra water through the pot when watering and stop fertilizing it at all.

Let us know how it goes.

[AlnShirlene]

we forget to mention that it is a varigated pink lemonade and also a dwarf, not meant for in ground. thanks

[phoenixtropicals]

Dwarfs can go in the ground. They are often good courtyard plants etc. How well it does will depend on what rootstock its on and how well that rootstock matches our soil. Most citrus rootstocks do okay around here but sour orange is the best for oranges by far, and I don't know what they use for lemons. Maybe rough lemon. Having it in a pot is of course is very interesting too. I actually have a photo on the website of the plant you have I think. http://www.phoenixtropicals.com/filoli/variegatedLemon.html
Yesterday, I also noticed they were selling it on this site.
http://www.easytogrowbulbs.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=1214 Is that where you got it? When you first said "Pink Lemonade Tree" I thought maybe someone had swindled you, but evidently the lemons actually are internally pink. It'll still taste like a regular lemonade though, unless you add grenadine to it.

[aron11]

Thanks for share…