Fighting soil salt toxicity

LemonBonsai

Shohin
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How often do you water? Citrus like it on the dryer side. Yellow leaves on citrus often indicate too much water. If you say you aren’t fertilizing that much, likely not fert burn or salt build up.
When I started I kept citrus on the dryer side and ot dodnt work out at all. They didnt like it at all.
 

LemonBonsai

Shohin
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So everyone is saying Ph due to deficencies. However im having trouble understanding because my leaves match perfectlly what citrus leaves that have high salt content look like.
1636780960804.png

These are citrus leaves that have high salt concentrations, these are mine.
20211112_183547.jpg

Identicle pattern with brown tip.

Meanwhile this is what citrus leaves look like that have magnesium deficency.
1636781080879.png

Manganese deficency looks a little closer IMO but the fertilizer I use has micro nutrients in it manganese being one of them.
1636781163152.png

Finally although I agree my citrus need a boost in certain minerals as stated above iron and nitrogen I dont believe my yellowing problem is because of a deficency. In the past I have tried upping the dosage of my fertilizer when I first started noticing the yellow pattern and it made the situation worsen, and quicken.

I will be looking to give them a boost though, was thinking of adding coffee grounds to the soil to give a nitrogen boost, i will look into iron supplements.

Water PH: looks to be about 7.5, according to digital ph reader(I know not the most accurate). Will probably add a bit of white vineagar to bribg it down to 7-6.5
 

Shibui

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Citrus like warmer areas. They often show chlorosis here in winter because the roots cannot absorb enough nutrients from cold soil. Normally it is temporary and growth in spring returns to normal color. Underfeeding would only make the problem worse.

Good luck with finding a solution.
 

sorce

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Why RO water?

It seems odd, costly, sterile and problematic.

Sorce
 

LemonBonsai

Shohin
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Why RO water?

It seems odd, costly, sterile and problematic.

Sorce
My only options are RO, or tap water, which is softened water
 

LemonBonsai

Shohin
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Softened sounds safer than abrasive enough to destroy copper pipes.

Sorce
It sounds safer yes, luckily roots arent made of copper. The reason RO can destroy copper pipes is because RO water has a low TDS level and copper so happens to have a weakness for low TDS liquids, as the copper will leech into the liquid, so not necesarily abrasive. Soft water can also damage copper pipes, however it also has a large amount of sodium chloride which doesnt aound like it would help my problem
 

Firstflush

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With all this, I applaud you for growing citrus in Canada.

If it were my problem, I would use a good micro fert like a kelp extract or emulsion a few times over the winter to see if you can turn the issue around for spring. Kelp is typically under 1 for NPK.
 

Leprous Garden

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Matching up the pictures might not be the best way to try and diagnose. Leaves can show all kinds of symptoms, many of which are shared between numerous causes.

If your fertilizer doesn't have micronutrients, leading to chlorosis, then fertilizing with it more won't really help. You would need a new fertilizer regimen to see an improvement.
 

MichaelS

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So everyone is saying Ph due to deficencies. However im having trouble understanding because my leaves match perfectlly what citrus leaves that have high salt content look like.
View attachment 407820

These are citrus leaves that have high salt concentrations, these are mine.
View attachment 407821

Identicle pattern with brown tip.

Meanwhile this is what citrus leaves look like that have magnesium deficency.
View attachment 407822

Manganese deficency looks a little closer IMO but the fertilizer I use has micro nutrients in it manganese being one of them.
View attachment 407823

Finally although I agree my citrus need a boost in certain minerals as stated above iron and nitrogen I dont believe my yellowing problem is because of a deficency. In the past I have tried upping the dosage of my fertilizer when I first started noticing the yellow pattern and it made the situation worsen, and quicken.

I will be looking to give them a boost though, was thinking of adding coffee grounds to the soil to give a nitrogen boost, i will look into iron supplements.

Water PH: looks to be about 7.5, according to digital ph reader(I know not the most accurate). Will probably add a bit of white vineagar to bribg it down to 7-6.5
Magnesium deficiency has little to do with pH. Citrus can take a lot of fertilizer. Twice as much as many other plants. (the mix need to drain well) The only way I could get dark green leaves on some seed grown Citrus myrtifolia was to give them nutricote + blood and bone + liquid feed almost every watering + acidified water (citric acid pH 5-5.5) Very hard to keep leaves green in winter though. That picture of the 3 ''high salt content leaves'' is bullshit. They have magnesium deficiency and probably potassium as well in the first one. Note! giving extra N only to Mg deficient plants makes it worse. If you have trouble, use a good 2 part hydroponic fertilizer and use citric acid to bring the pH of the final solution to 5. 7 is too high for citrus. 6 is border line.
 
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leatherback

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i also dont let citrus dry out very much, i find they respond well with never ever letting them dry so I dont let them dry out.
Winter vss summer care might be different.

I am surprised you do not let the rootball dry out slightly before watering.
 

LemonBonsai

Shohin
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Winter vss summer care might be different.

I am surprised you do not let the rootball dry out slightly before watering.
I mean I let it dry slightly but I never let them dryout. Ive heard that people let the whole rootball dry for a day or two then water, when I tried that last year my grPefruut tree did not like it at all
 
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