Need help with a lemon tree not thickening and growing

Nailbag

My lemon tree is about 2.5years old. For the past year or more its really struggled to get thicker and grow any taller while my lime trees and shrubs are thriving within the same area due too some form off health issue. As you can see it does produce small fruit, which I tend to pick off a lot of buds to keep that to a minimum.

During the warmer months I have to watch and treat for ants, which is easy but I can't get a head of what is always eating the leaves or causing leaf curl or yellowing and treating with Eco Pest Oil. I've also tried others. It gets a regular feed of granular slow release feed thats watered in and the ground cover is kept away from the trunk. It does get some new growth, but mostly don't amount to much. And I trim off badly affected branches.

Would greatly appreciate some advice on how to get more healthier growth.

Regarded, Nailbag

MitchellMc

Hi @Nailbag,

Your lemon tree looks quite healthy and produces a significant amount of fruit. You might like to remove all the fruit so it can put that energy into growing. Also adding some organic compost to the area would hurt. What's the drainage like in that area? Does it differ at all from the next plant along?

Is that the lime tree next to it on the left? There's a chance that at least half the growth on the lime might be from a sucker, as indicated by the large gnarly lemons(?) growing from it. If you take a look at the base of the graft line, you will see that there are two trunks. Follow them up and see if you can see any differences between the grow from these trunks. If each trunk has different leaves or fruit, then this is a huge flag that one is a sucker from the grafting stock.

If it does turn out to be the grafted stock growth, once it's removed, you'll find the lime and lemon are around the same size.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Mitchell