MMICKELS
Aluminum Knight
Reged: 01/20/04
Posts: 36050
Loc: Land of Shake and Bake
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My dwarf lime tree seems to be having problems. It's in a large container that gets plenty of sunlight. There seems to be a colony of ants that have taken up residence (I think they're Argentinian ants, but I'm no entymologist). The tree has buds and fruit, but has lost most of it's leaves. Any guesses or suggestions are appreciated at this point! 
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Mark
I'm going outside to stand, so if anyone asks I am outstanding.
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Dennis
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 12/30/03
Posts: 1320
Loc: Westford, Mass
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Google to the rescue:
http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/arg.htm
Hope it helps before it's too late!
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Dennis
Nexstar9¼GPS
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desertstars
Reged: 11/05/03
Posts: 41911
Loc: Tucson, AZ
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Quote:
My dwarf lime tree seems to be having problems. It's in a large container that gets plenty of sunlight. There seems to be a colony of ants that have taken up residence (I think they're Argentinian ants, but I'm no entymologist). The tree has buds and fruit, but has lost most of it's leaves. Any guesses or suggestions are appreciated at this point!
Mark, what makes you think the ants are the source of the tree's troubles? Ants of this source eat sugary/high carb material, and aren't likely to go after leaves. If they are visibly cutting up the leaves, they are defintely not Argentinian ants. Can you describe how the problem first showed up and quickly it progressed?
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Thomas Watson
Author of Mr. Olcott's Skies. Available in paperback and ebook from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
@desertstarsbks
Under Desert StarsEither Way, It's Reading
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MMICKELS
Aluminum Knight
Reged: 01/20/04
Posts: 36050
Loc: Land of Shake and Bake
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Tom, the tree started to drop leaves at a fair rate. It had been hot, but I've kept the soil damp. I usually fertilize the thing every couple of weeks. I have noticed (I'm home now) leaf buds coming up, but I am at a loss to understand why the leaves fell off in the first place. I have baited for the ants (difinitley Argentinian thanks to the link provided by Dennis). There were about three small offshoot branches (I'm sure there's a name for them, but I don't know it) that had died. I pruned them. This poor tree was run over by my wife in her van last year and I've been nursing the thing ever since (It blew over in a windstorm and she backed over it). I't's been the only plant I've ever been able to have any degree of sucess with, and now thats questionable.
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Mark
I'm going outside to stand, so if anyone asks I am outstanding.
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Carol L
Reged: 07/05/04
Posts: 6968
Loc: Tomahawk, WI 45N//89W
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Hi Mark, just a few wild guesses here..
Could you have over-compensated for the heat and over-watered the tree?
I'm no chemist, but assuming the ant bait isn't in the pot itself, maybe the tree requires a specific ph level which is being altered by the residual bait on the bodies of the ants [or perhaps through a by-product of the ants themselves]?
Maybe the tree was stressed by the heat and went into survival mode by shedding the leaves and diverting its' energy into the root system?
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Carol Lakomiak, Tomahawk WI
Writing Sky at Night magazine's astrosketch page since June 2009
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rboe
Reged: 03/16/02
Posts: 63466
Loc: Phx, AZ
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Could it be root bound?
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Ron
NS11GPS
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MMICKELS
Aluminum Knight
Reged: 01/20/04
Posts: 36050
Loc: Land of Shake and Bake
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After the van "accident" the tree was repotted in a larger container. I'm not sure how to ascertain what the definition is of rootbound. The ant bait is such a small amount that I can't imagine it having an effect on the PH of the soil, although anything is possible in the world of my brown thumb!
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Mark
I'm going outside to stand, so if anyone asks I am outstanding.
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Carol L
Reged: 07/05/04
Posts: 6968
Loc: Tomahawk, WI 45N//89W
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How about contacting a local garden center, county extension office or arboretum?
Ron might be on to something, too... some plants prefer being root-bound. Btw, root-bound is when there appear to be way too many roots for the size of the pot. When you pop a plant out of a pot and can hardly see the soil because of all of the roots wrapped around and around the inside of the pot, it's pot-bound.
If lime trees prefer being pot-bound, maybe it had a bad reaction when you put it in a bigger pot, in which case Ron gets the Einstein of the Week award. 
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Carol Lakomiak, Tomahawk WI
Writing Sky at Night magazine's astrosketch page since June 2009
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desertstars
Reged: 11/05/03
Posts: 41911
Loc: Tucson, AZ
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Keeping the soil damp in warm weather is a good idea, so long as you are watering enough that water flows freely out of the bottom of the pot. If this doesn't happen, salts from you water will gradually build up in the soil and damage the roots. If salts were a problem, the leaves would have turned brown around the edges before falling off. This browning could have looked like a thin trim around the edges, or the leaves could have looked like someone tried to set the tree on fire. Or anything in between. (Anything you can tell me about what the leaves looked like before they dropped would help.)
I don't think this is related to the repotting or the accident. Limes are not the hardiest plants going; if those incidents were going to cause problems, you'd have been yelling for help before now.
Forget about the ants (unless they've invaded the house, which this species is known to do).
Carol is right on in suggesting that you check out local sources. You should be able to track down your local extension agent by putting "agricultural extension" and the name of your county into Google.
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Thomas Watson
Author of Mr. Olcott's Skies. Available in paperback and ebook from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
@desertstarsbks
Under Desert StarsEither Way, It's Reading
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MMICKELS
Aluminum Knight
Reged: 01/20/04
Posts: 36050
Loc: Land of Shake and Bake
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The leaves that fell off were green and looked healthy enough.
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Mark
I'm going outside to stand, so if anyone asks I am outstanding.
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desertstars
Reged: 11/05/03
Posts: 41911
Loc: Tucson, AZ
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Citrus trees will sometimes drop a bunch of leaves all at once, to make way for fresh growth that's more efficient at photosynthesis. But this sounds a little extreme.
Since there are new buds opening, give it a mild dose of nitrogen fertilizer, something like Miracle Gro at half strength. Encourage the new growth, but go easy on the fertilizer.
How much sun does it get?
As far as root binding goes, citrus can tolerate a lot of that, and in fact, some people believe you can harm a small, container grown citrus by potting it up too often. I'm inclined to agree, based on experiences with related species.
Another possibility is that the tree is not strong enough to support the fruit hanging on it. I would have expected fruit drop instead of leaf drop to have come of this, but plants are notorious for not reading the same books as the rest of us. If the tree does not seem to be bouncing back quickly, consider removing the fruit as a last resort. Better to sacrifice one harvest and save the tree.
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Thomas Watson
Author of Mr. Olcott's Skies. Available in paperback and ebook from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
@desertstarsbks
Under Desert StarsEither Way, It's Reading
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MMICKELS
Aluminum Knight
Reged: 01/20/04
Posts: 36050
Loc: Land of Shake and Bake
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Tom, the tree gets lots of sun. I'm thinking it might just be dropping the leaves to make way for new growth like you said. The limes it produces are about half the size of the ones in the store. I pick em on a fairly regular basis, so there's not a ton of em on the tree right now. Thanks for the help, and congratulations on your new posting milestone!
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Mark
I'm going outside to stand, so if anyone asks I am outstanding.
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desertstars
Reged: 11/05/03
Posts: 41911
Loc: Tucson, AZ
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You know, it sounds to me like you're taking pretty good care of that tree, so I'd suggest going on as you are, with one exception. Such a dramatic leaf loss suggests the tree is not as strong as it should be. The next time it flowers, I would greatly reduce the number of fruit it is allowed to set. Whatever yield you've seen, let it produce no more than half that number (just nip half the flowers off). You'll still get some limes, but the tree will be better able to apportion its energy between growth/maintenance and fruit. See if a couple of seasons of this doesn't make the tree a bit more stable.
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Thomas Watson
Author of Mr. Olcott's Skies. Available in paperback and ebook from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
@desertstarsbks
Under Desert StarsEither Way, It's Reading
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MMICKELS
Aluminum Knight
Reged: 01/20/04
Posts: 36050
Loc: Land of Shake and Bake
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Thanks Tom, that's what I'll do.
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Mark
I'm going outside to stand, so if anyone asks I am outstanding.
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