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I got an email from the Yates Gardening Club today that reminded me about the sooty mould I used to have on my lemon tree.
It looked like this:
If you ever see this kind of black ash on your citrus leaves or lots of ants, make sure you tackle the problem. It's caused by scale insects which are sap suckers and will likely kill your tree. You need to use a pyrethrim-based spray to smother and suffocate the insects.
Cath
You mentioned previously that you hadn't fed anything to the plant in three years, @enginibraimi. Have you been feeding it the items you've just listed?
Trees don't like constantly wet feet, so you might like to look at installing some drainage to remove water from the area. In some locations around Australia, we've had some wet years, and many established trees that were previously doing well have started to die. If you've experienced some rather wet years, there could now be a moisture retention issue with the soil.
Mitchell
Thanks for clarifying, @enginibraimi. I can see now that you didn't feed the plant in the first three years.
Since you have been feeding the plant, it would be best to look at other reasons why it might not be performing well. I'm interested in your comment about the soil being wet all the time. A tree can not survive in soil that is wet all the time. I understand that the drainage has not changed, but weather conditions in many areas have. In Sydney, we've had trees that have been established for 20+ years that have the same drainage and are now dying due to waterlogged soil.
Key areas to look at would be fertilisation, watering and insect infestation. Your fertilisation seems to be adequate, and there are no obvious insect infestations apart from a little sooty mould. That removes the two issues and points towards the watering. The plant is either overwatered or underwater. The fence has moss growing on it, indicating the area is very wet. It would be my opinion that the plant has waterlogged roots and is suffering from this.
Mitchell
Is there anything I can do? It's all over there tree now. We spotted it to late and now I feel like chopping to all down. Hubby got carried away when pruning 🫣
Hello @daveedeann
Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. It's wonderful to have you join us.
I'm sorry to hear that you've sooty mould on your lemon tree. If you go back to the start of this discussion, I recommended using Yates 750ml Ready To Use Nature's Way Citrus And Ornamental Spray. My number one tip is to spray under the leaves so that the entire tree is covered in the spray. At this point I can't make any guarantees that your tree will recover. All you can do is to try and treat the infestation and hope that the tree is strong enough to recover.
You'll notice that the discussion also talks about watering and waterlogged soil that leads to other diseases so it's important to keep an eye on these symptoms as well.
If you need further assistance, please let us know.
Eric
HI @daveedeann
At this point in time, I recommend not pruning any further as it will be detrimental to your plant's wellbeing. You can remove the dead leaves and dry branches but no more than that.
If you need further assistance, please let me know.
Eric
