Lime tree dropped its leaves.

which is a real disappointment for us as its in its 4th year and was looking to start bearing a decent crop. It has dropped almost all of its leaves and the ones left on it are brown and curled. Is this a "bounce back next year" or a rip it out and start again? The orange tree and grapefruit either side of it are still fine. They all get watered evenly. Advice please.

Dead sorry

Do you feed it regularly?

root rot, various reasons.

Watering these plants can be a little tricky. If you give the tree too much water, you’ll find your lime tree dropping leaves, but if you don’t water it enough, you’ll also find your lime tree dropping leaves. The trick is to find a happy medium. When you have lime trees that are planted, you should water them once a week or so to prevent lime tree leaf drop. Living in a dry area, there isn’t much rainfall. Make sure you plant the tree where there is good drainage and soak the ground well. If the drainage isn’t good enough, you will also find your lime tree losing leaves.

Overwatering can cause leaves to curl or cup INWARD. Also, stress from very hot weather will cause leaf cupping

Crown rot is a disease caused by a soil-borne fungus which can survive in the soil indefinitely. This fungal disease is often favored by wet conditions and heavy soils. While symptoms may vary from plant to plant, there is often little you can do once the disease occurs. Signs of Crown Rot Disease While the crown or lower stem of plants affected by this disease may exhibit dry rotting at or near the soil line, most other symptoms often go unnoticed—until it’s too late. Rotting may appear on one side or only on lateral branches at first and eventually spreads to the rest of the plant. Infected areas may be discolored, usually tan or dark colored, which is indicative of dead tissue. As crown rot progresses, the plant will begin to wilt and quickly die, with younger plants being more susceptible to death. Foliage may yellow or even turn a red to purplish color as well. In some cases, plant growth may become stunted, yet the plants may still continue to put out blooms, albeit few. Tree may develop dark areas on the bark around the crown with dark sap oozing from the edges of the diseased area.

Yes. every three months or so. We are on the North Shore so the clay soil probably isn't the best for drainage. I did give it a decent hole when we planted filled with garden mix and some compost. I water all our citrus at the same time so seems odd that the ones either side haven't suffered same fate.

When we lived on the Shore with clay soil we added lime. As far as watering goes, we had 5 months of rain so there is plenty of under ground water, which is why most trees are surviving. Lime trees like blood and bone.

Exactly what I give it every three months. We might just have to cough up for a more mature tree to start. We've been patiently waiting for 3.5-4 years for this to start producing, it was growing really well too and now all the leaves are gone I can see lots of fruit buds on it too! Thanks for the advice. it looks like this one is lost.

When replanting keep in mind that a "decent hole" in heavy clay can hold water and act the same as planting the tree into a bucket and with the very wet winter just passed it is possible that the lime tree drowned for this reason. How does the ground slope in its location compare to that for your other citrus?

Also a heavy flowering and fruitset can often be a warning sign as many flowering and/or fruiting plants will do so if under stress. If a plant is in danger of perishing its retaliation will be to attempt to reproduce.

They are approx 3m apart on a gentle sloping bank. I did think of that "bucket" analogy. when planting them. I guess the only other way is to build them up in a bed.

If the slope allows you could slot the hole downhill and backfill the slot with something fee draining so that the planting hole isn't so prone to holding water.

Thanks for that. I'll see how it goes, I'm clinging to the hope that a few leaves and a few fruit bud not looking completely dead might revive. If it turns into a replant then I'll follow your advice.

I did the same to our lemon tree by giving it a feed of some unknown fertiliser that someone gave me.All the leaves dropped off and it looked decicdidly dead but eventually new leaves came out and it is covered in little baby lemons again.Give yours a chance and ease off the water,if its got no leaves it won`t be transpiring much?

don’t waste your time, it will take years to get somewhere close to looking ok, if at all. Just rip it out. Sounds like it was overwatered