By Madameann
East Sussex, United Kingdom
Is anyone an expert on lemon trees? I've had a small tree for 3 years now, have had some lovely lemons (they made wonderful limoncello!). It lives outside here in France during the summer, overwinters in the greenhouse.
It has had sooty mould and scale before which I washed off, but this is totally different. Some of the leaves have been chewed by a leaf cutter bee which nested in my garden chair, but I don't think this has anything to do with that.
- 24 Nov, 2015
Answers
I don't know what that is, but it isn't a leaf cutter bee! They take nearly perfect circular "bites" out of the edges of the leaves. This lookes like some kind of caterpillar damage, plus a fungal leaf spot.
25 Nov, 2015
Thank you both. I didn't put a picture of the bee damage, as you say they are clean bits. I think you may be right Bathgate, we did have a couple of weeks of very wet and windy weather. Have now cut of the nasty bits, given it a feed and tucked it up in the greenhouse for the winter. I'm off to Florida!
26 Nov, 2015
Not Arizona? :D
27 Nov, 2015
I've never been there, is it good? My sister has a second home in Fort Myers so am going there for 3 weeks. Gardening is a bit different there!
27 Nov, 2015
Bit different here, too! Southern Arizona in winter is usually sunnier than Fort Myers, Florida, a bit warmer in the day, and a bit colder at night, and with lower humidity. That goes for Yuma, Ajo, and the Phoenix Metropolitan Area, where I live, while Tucson is usually around 10ยบ F colder (but still beautiful). You can swim, as long as the pool is heated, and you can ski by driving into the nearby mountains--less than 2 hrs. drive time.
28 Nov, 2015
I went to a conference last November in Scottsdale next to Camelback. It was very arid but had a rugged beauty that was hard to ignore with the red rock formations and saguaro cacti in bloom. There's no place like it.
28 Nov, 2015
I've seen this before on plants suffering from prolonged periods of wet & cold weather - making them susceptible to various other scourges. Lemons need at least 8 hours of unobstructed direct sun per day - as they have in Florida. That alone would eliminate many problems.
25 Nov, 2015