Forum home› Problem solving
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Mandarin Orange Seedling Brown Tips on Leave

Rustyshakleford0123Rustyshakleford0123 Posts: 4
edited April 2023 in Problem solving
Hello, I am fairly new to citrus plants and started growing a mandarin orange tree from seed ~8 months ago. I have been noticing brown tips on the main leaf starting to form which are slowly getting bigger.


Through the winter I had it under a grow light, and in March it started growing and sprouting the new small leaves. A few weeks ago, I noticed the brown tips starting to form. The plant growth seems to have really slowed since then.
The brown tips seemed to get noticeably larger when it was under the grow light so I removed it from the grow light 2-3 weeks ago in case it was getting "sun-burned". The brown tips have been slowly getting larger even since I have removed it from the grow light.
Could this be a sign of poor nutrients in the soil? I started growing this with miracle grow, and I didn't think it could consume all of the nutrients in the soil yet due to it's size.
This is in a clay flower pot with a hole in the bottom for drainage. I usually let the water dry out slightly prior to watering.
I would appreciate any experience or suggestions on how to treat this.

Posts

  • Rustyshakleford0123Rustyshakleford0123 Posts: 4


  • philippasmith2philippasmith2 Posts: 3,742
    To begin with, that looks to be rather a large pot for the size of the plant.  I'd be tempted to re pot into something of a more suitable size but obviously you will need to decant to see what size the rootball is and whether the roots are healthy.
    Citrus are not really ideal as House Plants - or at least not for very long.  They want to be trees.  It's possible that the lights have affected the leaves as @pansyface says .  You may find it useful to have a look thru the several threads on the forum which are concerned with various Citrus.
    I'll give @Nanny Beach  a prod as she grows lots of Citrus and see what she says :)  
  • Rustyshakleford0123Rustyshakleford0123 Posts: 4
    Thank you all so much for your feedback. I'm hoping it was just the light as the main leaf tip dry spot is starting to get a little larger. It's currently in a 4-inch pot, so I might try to re-pot it to a smaller one. I moved it to a window where it won't get a full direct sun throughout the day to try to give it some time to recover.

  • Nanny BeachNanny Beach Posts: 8,719
    Hello Phillipa, consider me prodded!!! Unless you have a Victorian orangery, with lots of shading, and Phillipa is correct,they aren't house plants. Yours are tiny,do you have them in proper citrus compost? I do have a mandarin amongst other citrus. Although they grow in hot groves in Spain, grown here,they dislike direct sunlight. I don't feed till they have flowers
     Keep it out of direct sunlight,spray the leaves with rain water. You may be lucky some years down the line to get flowers, very unlikely to get fruit. We have a grapefruit my husband grew from a pip 30 years ago. It flowered after 10 years,has never flowered since.
  • philippasmith2philippasmith2 Posts: 3,742
    Sorry @Nanny Beach  I did try to be gentle  :D   Your comment made me think back to my Citrus grove in Spain but I honestly can't remember whether we had Mandarin as such.  Too long ago now ( and brain too old as well ). 
  • Nanny BeachNanny Beach Posts: 8,719
    No problems Phillipa,Dove usually gives me a nudge. They aren't easy plants to look after. Hubby grew a lemon from a pip as well, after a year it just upped and died. The grapefruit is his baby. Friends/relatives refuse to believe it's not a graft. I used to have seeds growing on the dining room window sill 30 years ago,we always had grapefruit for Sunday breakfast. He pushed a pip,and at some point a lemon pip into one of the pots., and off they went 
  • Rustyshakleford0123Rustyshakleford0123 Posts: 4
    Thanks for the suggestions a few months ago. I haven't given up on this yet but it looks like through the past months the leaves are still turning brown. I took it out of the grow light back in April and kept it in a partially sunny window but that seems to just slow the browning leaves. I've been waiting for the soil to dry between watering it but I'm starting to suspect that it could be root rot. I haven't dug up the roots yet to try to repot since I did not want to further stress the plant. Do you think this would help, is there a certain soil that I could re-pot it in? Thanks!

Sign In or Register to comment.