To: NAFEX Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [NAFEX] Weird potted citrus problem
Date: Tue, 25 Dec 2007 17:04:48 -0500
I've had a myers lemon for years. It lives in the yard during the
summer, and comes into my dining room in a pot for the winter. This
year it had some problems in the yard, the dear decided it was tasty,
so it was trying to regrow to replace the missing foliage just when
the weather suddenly turned cold. So I got more frost damage than
I've ever had on it, even though it wasn't all that cold. Then I
brought it indoors, and did a much better job of keeping its root
structure than I usually do. (Usually, I lose an awful lot of the
fine roots when I repot it at the end of the season.) Then stuff got
very busy, and I neglected it for a couple of weeks, so it dried out
more than I usually let it dry.
Which is all building up to the weird part. Two weeks ago I watered
it very heavily, to re-hydrate the soil. The poor thing is still
sort of in "active growth mode", to make up for the deer damage. The
next time I looked at it, it had suffered extensive cracking of the
bark, apparently from where the wood swelled as it re-hydrated. I've
never noticed that before, and I've certainly let it get too dry
before. I can only hypothesize that the cracking had something to do
with it being in such active growth.
Anyhow, that was two weeks ago, and I can already see some callousing
under the cracks, and it continues to grow vigorously - lots of new
leaves, shoots, and even some flower buds. I think it's going to be
all right. But if anyone has any warnings, suggestions, or insight
into what happened, I'd be curious.
Hoping you all had a merry Christmas. Time to go downstairs and play
"guitar hero" with my son. :-)