I have a Meyer Lemon Tree that used to be doing well, but has lately been losing most of its leaves. See How to tell if indoor lemons are ready to pick for what it used to look like. I had it outside for a while, then brought it inside when it got cold. Since then, it has been not doing well. Around the time of when I brought it in, I harvested two big lemons from it. The first image shows what it looks like. The second is a closeup. There are lots of new buds---are those for lemons or for new leaves?
1 Answer
It is responding a stressor, like not having enough light. Less light is the trigger for trees to loose their leaves in the fall. Those leaves change colour, because the plant cut off liquid to leaf. As the leaf stop making energy it shows it real colour. The colour it has without photosynthesis.
Your plant should be at your brightest window and have a grow light. It needs that extra light to survive indoors in winter. Imagine where it is from, it gets sunlight year round. You need to provide the same. Once you get more light on the tree it should releaf.
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Thank you for the reply. The funny thing is that it is next to a window and does have a grow light. But I will be able to take it outside in a few months as well.– bill999Commented Jan 12, 2020 at 21:08
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I have one more question about light, then I will delete or augment my answer. How many hours is the light on for? What kind of grow light is it? Brand name and wattage and I can look up the type? Commented Jan 12, 2020 at 21:18
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Thanks. It is on for about 17 hours per day. IPOWER Full Spectrum LED Growing Light and Flowering. Power: 36W.– bill999Commented Jan 12, 2020 at 23:45
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Studies have shown that plants grow best under a white/yellow light vs coloured. They call it full spectrum because they include red blue and white lights, together they cover the entire spectrum, but it's not balanced. To get enough light each bulb should be full spectrum. You could increase to 18 hours, but you can't run those diodes more than 18 hours, before they need to cool down. You could run them at night. You have some natural sunlight in the daytime. If you ran the lights for 17-18hours, but make sure it includes all hours there is no sun. The lights are not strong enough Commented Jan 13, 2020 at 1:30
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disrupt the nightly sleep cycle of the plant. This would push up the amount of light by 7 hours. You need more light. 36W is not strong enough. And coloured lights makes it even weaker than a 36W white light. Not that watts matter. But, they give us an idea of the intensity. Commented Jan 13, 2020 at 1:33