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Lemon & Lime trees

moonshinemoonshine Posts: 22
in Problem solving
Both my lemon and lime trees have this problem - is it lemon scab or something else?  They are both otted and sit out over the summer, but are in the greenhouse for the winter.  I've tried garlic spray for bugs, but it's ongoing.
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  • tui34tui34 Posts: 3,493
    Hello Moonshine

    @Nanny Beach is the citrus expert.  My lemon tree looks a bit like yours at the moment - maybe just winter ails!!  I don't worry about.
    A good hoeing is worth two waterings.

  • Nanny BeachNanny Beach Posts: 8,719
    edited March 2023
    tui34,am flattered!! It's difficult to tell from the leaves if it's scab .... much easier to see the growths on fruit. It's a virus,so you won't eradicate it with garlic spray. It needs a special copper based spray.Tell me your feeding watering regeme. Where abouts are you?
  • moonshinemoonshine Posts: 22
    We are on Arran - west coast Scotland.  In winter just occasional watering and regular watering and feeding with a citrus feed in summer
  • moonshinemoonshine Posts: 22
    I also forgot to mention that I sprayed with a neem oil / horticultural soap mix last year.  I have also used an organic fungicide.
  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    edited March 2023
    It looks like an insect that lives within the leaf tissues.  A leaf miner.  It has probably pupated, emerged and flown away.  Possibly not without laying some fresh eggs.

    A systemic insecticde would be the only type that would work when the larval stage is still alive.  

    As is often pointed out to me, vegetable oils and soaps/detergents will kill insects by blocking their oxygen absorbtion.  Neem oil is no different, but its smell acts also as a deterrent.
     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
  • moonshinemoonshine Posts: 22
    Ok bede - that's interesting. I guess I should keep up with the fungicide?
  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    edited March 2023
    I have never had any problems with fungus on my lemon.  In fact I have never needed any treatment.  Scale insect came once and I just wiped them all off.  

    Copper fungicides are the only approved "organic".  which surprises me as a chemist knowing how toxic copper compounds are.  Do you really have a problem or are just trying to prevent one.  I might try Iron rather than Copper.  A spray of seaweed reinforced with sequestered iron might be my choice.  Iron as dilute sulphate of iron solution seemed to work on my problem (on grass blades - not toadstools)..
     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
  • moonshinemoonshine Posts: 22
    I was using fungicide when I didn't know what the problem was.  Your explanation of leaf miner makes the most sense, but I'm not so keen on using systemic insecticides unless there is an organc alternative.

  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    I don't grow citrus, but I very much doubt a greenhouse would be anywhere near warm enough for any of them on Arran.
    Even those in warmer part of the Uk usually bring them indoors.

    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • moonshinemoonshine Posts: 22
    We know of people here who very successfully grow citrus Fairygirl - and our plants are healthy enough excepting this leaf problem.  I reckon if it was cold there would be no leaves in the photos at all.
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