If leaves are yellowing on a citrus tree, it may be a sign of nutrient deficiency, but it may not be, depending on which leaves are yellowing.
Older leaves yellowing are quite normal as long as it’s only happening to a very small number of the very oldest leaves. Evergreen trees such as citrus will drop their oldest leaves and replace them over time, but it happens with so few leaves it’s barely noticed. Before they drop their leaves, they extract all the mobile nutrients (the ones they can move out of the leaves) to redirect into new growth, causing the yellowing of the leaves. One of the mobile secondary macronutrients is Magnesium (Mg), which is a key component in the green pigment chlorophyll which plants use for photosynthesis. Without the green pigment chlorophyll, leaves turn a yellow colour.
If young leaves are yellowing along with older leaves, and a large number of the leaves on a citrus tree are yellow, it’s a sign of nitrogen deficiency.
Citrus trees are heavy feeders and need to be fed with a good quality balanced fertiliser, so if they run out of nutrients, they start sacrificing old leaves to be able to put on new growth, and when this happens, a large amount of older leaves will start to turn yellow while new green growth emerges.
By feeding citrus trees at the beginning of spring and autumn (September and March in the Southern hemisphere, the reverse in the Northern hemisphere), citrus trees stay healthy and productive and nutrient deficiencies are avoided.
Other articles on citrus problems and how to fix them:
- Citrus Problems – Why Citrus Fruit Drops and Flowers Fail to Develop
- Citrus Problems – Why Is My Citrus Tree Dying?
- Citrus Problems – Why Citrus Fruit Splitting Occurs and How To Prevent It
- Citrus Nutrient Deficiency – Yellow Leaf with Green Veins
- Citrus Problems – Citrus Yellow Veins on Green Leaf in Winter
- Citrus Problems – Citrus Fruit Has Thick Peel and Hollow Core
- Citrus Problems – How to Control Citrus Gall Wasp, Methods That Work
More articles on Garden Pests, Diseases and Problems
Even when I grew citrus in the 1990, the expressions of nutrient deficiencies were not easy to decipher. Citrus do not have many problems in home gardens, but in the nursery, nutrient deficiencies are something we need to stay ahead of.
Hi, i was reading about the things that my lemon tree could be missing it has a huge amount of flowers and they are just failing to stay they keep dropping only a few fruits managed to survive out of the 30 that dropped there are 3 left maybe and its still full with flowers so is it possible to save them somehow?
Hi Frankie, I’ve written an article on the topic which also covers why citrus flowers drop – Citrus Problems Why Citrus Fruit Drops and Flowers Fail to Develop. Hope this helps!