Indoor Lemon Tree Problems... White granuals forming

Greetings- I have been growing a 20" lemon tree in my living room for about a year now. We had nice flowers around NYE and then some hearty leaves have formed the size of a small adult hand which is great considering they were the size of a quarter initially.

Just recently, I noticed a precipitate on the bottom of my leaves. It was white and almost felt like sugar in consistency. The plant looks weak and a couple of lower leaves are getting yellow.

Does anyone have a suggestion?

It sounds as though your plant has spider mites.
You can shower off those you can see, but you'll need to keep a close 'eye' on it, as it will likely develop more (their eggs hide every and any where!)

You'll also need to increase the humidity around the plant.
If you're able to, you can mist the underside of the leaves several times a day, or use a saucer with some gravel to elevate the pot (use a separate saucer under the pot, itself) and place some water in the saucer with gravel.

The ideal spot for one of these during the summer would be outdoors, but, wow, it sounds as though your tree was really thriving in it's current location, considering blooms and such large leaves.

Did it produce any fruit?

Dsid,
When you say it feels like sugar, do you mean the grains of sugar, or the stickiness? Citrus trees are very prone to scale insects, which cause stickiness, and are very difficult to eliminate. I suggest looking at the leaves in strong light with a magnifying glass to see what it looks like. Spider mites have fine webs, and reddish tiny spiders. Scale is a black or brown flat blob that doesn't move, but can be anywhere on the plant, including the stems. Also, if you have fruit developing, or flowers, they can have sticky nectar.

Keep us posted.

Susan in Minneapolis

If spider mites is your guess, I concur. I will take a look at the plant when I get home from travel and inspect at greater detail. It had tiny, tiny little webs on it maybe 10+ weeks ago. My thought was to get it outside for the summer, but it has been record breaking heat & sun on a daily basis here in MT. The plant did not produce any fruit this, my first year with it but I really thought it was going to because of the amazing blossoms. The sugar is both granular and sticky. I guess I will be doing my research on Spider mites now. I have too many houseplants for an infestation, so I better act quick. Curious if you recommend hitting it with Messenger, or a complete potting soil makeover? Any suggestions is appreciated-

dsid,
This is a bit of a segue, but I find that blossoms on my lemon tree seldom produce fruit indoors, unless I hand pollinate, which is quite easy to do. Outdoors for the summer, nature takes over. Also, most of the small fruit that develops drops off, and just a few remain to produce the "crop".

Also, I don't think changing soil will help with mites or scale, just attacking the pests repeatedly to catch the various generations.

Susan in Minneapolis

Thanks Susan- I read up a little last nite on spider mites. I plan on giving it a good few good showers & get it outside. It's pretty dry where I am so I am a little concerned about the humidity, but I guess lemons grow in AZ and I know we have more moisture then they do. I had not even thought of the hand pollination & if I get flowers again will certainly get involved in that.

I have to agree with Susan about the failure to fruit indoors.
Mine have only done so when summered outdoors, too, even though they've *bloomed* indoors.

Seems that every cultural guide I've read for growing 'potted' citrus states that they need additional humidity and are prone to spider mites without it.

Hope I'm not hijacking this thread, but I thought it a good place to post this question...

Can I grow a lemon tree by saving seed from a grocery store lemon, and potting them up? I do alot of stuff indoors, but have never tried the fruit trees. If so... any special instructions on drying, holding, and germinating the seed?

Thanks in advance...

Karen

Wild,
You probably could do that, but if you are hoping for fruit or blossoms eventually, I don't think that will happen. A friend has a grapefruit tree she grew from seed, keeps indoors for the winter and outdoors for the summer. It is over 6 ft. high, and more than 10 years old, and no blossom has ever appeared. I suggest getting a cutting from a plant that is intended for home use; they are rather easy to root, and then in time, you may have blossoms, although I find them to be slow growing. If you are hoping just for a green tree, I think your method will work.

Susan in Minneapolis