Brown Tips on Mandarin Tree Leaves: 7 Ways To Fix Them

Brown tips on mandarin tree leaves signify that there is something wrong with your citrus tree. You have to check the trees if they are healthy.

The trees turning brown may signify that they are sick or growing in a bad environment. To learn how to easily fix your trees, read this article.

Why Are There Brown Tips on Mandarin Tree Leaves?

– Overwatering and Root Rot

This is very likely, especially if you are growing your mandarin and lemon trees in pots. When you overwater them, the soil gets soggy. You may think that this is better for your trees until their roots start dying. Their roots will continue dying of suffocation until you reduce your watering rate.

The more roots die, the more microbes they will bring into your pot, as microbes want to decompose all the dead organic materials Around. These microbes, especially fungi, might start attacking healthy roots even when your plants are still alive. When this happens, it means that your mandarins now have root decay.

 

– Dehydration

What happens when you fail to water your mandarin and lemon trees? They become dry, as they no longer can find enough water to stay fresh and healthy. Because of this, you will see brown or discoloured spots, especially on the edges of the leaves. Dehydration mostly affects young trees and if your trees are dehydrated, you have more things to worry about than brown tips.

For example, your plants will start dying because they can no longer find water If the plants are dehydrated because you water them with hard water, they might be filled with toxic chemicals, as the water is filled with too many minerals. Therefore, you have to act fast if dehydration is the problem.

– Sunburn

Sunburn, which usually occurs when mandarin or lemon trees are too exposed to the sun, has similar effects to the plants to dehydration. It makes the leaves look and feel very dry when you touch them. It also gives them brown tips, as they will start drying out. When you give your plants more light than they need, they just get warmer and this can lead to them getting sunburnt.

How many hours of sunlight do your trees receive daily? How old are the trees with brown tips? Note that older trees hardly get sunburnt, as they are most likely adapted to the growing conditions of the environment.

– Lack of Nutrients

Every plant—even mandarin or lemon tree—needs nutrients to grow and survive. When there are insufficient nutrients, you will lose your plants. However, you can tell that your plants have insufficient nutrients by seeing a few symptoms. For example, the presence of brown tips can indicate a lack of nutrients such as iron.

A twig dieback occurring in the plant, the plant leaves becoming pale, and other weird occurrences can signify the lack of various nutrients. These symptoms will lead to the stunted growth or death of your plants if you don’t act fast. Therefore, check if the mandarin soil is nutritious enough for your trees. Also, try remembering when you last fed your trees.

– Nutrient Burn

Your mandarin and lemon tree has a lack of some nutrients does not mean that you should overfeed them to make up for the other nutrients. If you overfeed them, you might be putting your trees in more harm than you can imagine. When you overfeed your trees, they will get yellow leaves in less than a day. Afterward, the leaf edges will turn brown and dry. The symptoms are very similar to that of dehydration.

Your trees are dehydrated because instead of collecting water from the soil, they are collecting only nutrients. The excess nutrients in the soil are sucking out all the moisture from your plant. This is very harmful to plants and you don’t want it to happen. Therefore, you have to act fast.

– Overcrowding of Your Plants

Are you growing your mandarin and lemon trees too close to other trees? You may want a full garden, but this is counterproductive. When you overcrowd your trees, the humidity of the room will exceed the need of your trees and this can be harmful. It can also increase the temperature. Lastly, it can increase the rate of pest infection, as pests can easily move from one tree to the next.

In an overcrowded garden, you will most likely witness fruit drop, brown leaf tips, root decay, etc. If you are growing your plants in pots, this problem is easy to fix. However, it does not matter how you are growing your plants, you have to act fast for the sake of your plants.

– Presence of Pests

As mentioned earlier, the presence of pests can be very harmful to your trees. Aside from invertebrate pests such as spider mites, citrus canker, and citrus scab that directly eat the leaves or suck the leaf juices, microbial pests such as sooty mold and powdery mildew can cause brown spots in your mandarin plants. Therefore, be extra watchful for pests.

One way to prevent pests, especially insect pests, is to carefully observe and isolate every new tree before you mix them with other trees. Check for brown tips in the leaves and try to find out why those tips are brown. Without a good reason, isolate the tree before introducing it into your garden. Note that different pests have different symptoms on your plants.

How to Fix the Brown Tips on Your Mandarin Tree Leaves

To fix the brown tips on your mandarin tree leaves, you have to be sure to maintain good watering and feeding routines. Also, remember to space your trees so that there will be enough air for them. No matter what, don’t stop considering the growing conditions of your mandarins.

– Maintain a Good Watering Routine

Remember that your Meyer lemons and mandarin roots can suffocate if you grow them in completely damp soil. Keep the soil slightly dry always. Before you water your plants again, ensure that the soil is less than 50 percent moist. You can tell by using a moisture wand. However, if you don’t have one, use your fingers and try to feel the moisture of the soil.

Water your trees every two to four days depending on the size of the pot and age of your trees. The larger the pot (and for trees growing in the ground), the more days you should wait before watering your trees. If you mist your trees with water, ensure that their leaves get dry within a few hours.

– Maintain a Good Feeding Routine

You also have to wait until the right time before you feed your citruses. Surely, every plant needs nutrients. However, don’t forget that they need nutrients in moderation. To feed your plants, go to a garden store and buy a fertilizer best for citruses, fruit trees, or potted trees. Ensure that the product you buy is suitable for mandarins.

Fixing your citrus leaf with brown tips is easy. If the tips are brown because of nutrient deficiency, spray foliar spray on the leaves so that they will receive the nutrients quickly. If the tips are brown because of nutrient burn, you have to flood the substrate of your plants with water so that the soil can be less nutritious.

– Always Consider the Growing Conditions

The growing conditions of your trees are always worth considering. Remember that your tree leaves becoming brown is a sign that there’s something wrong with the growing condition of the trees. Check the temperature, humidity, soil quality, and other factors in the environment. Also, compare them with the optimal requirements of your trees. For example, mandarins love growing in an environment with 65-85 degrees Fahrenheit.

If the temperature of the environment is significantly different from the needs of your mandarins, the trees will get stunted growth and you don’t want that. Therefore, continue checking the growing condition of your mandarins.

– Fix The Soil

When was the last time you fixed your soil? If the soil is unsuitable, fix it. Soil is unsuitable when it has pH problems, pests, no nutrition, and other factors. For example, if the soil is too compacted and no longer drains water, it needs fixing so that it does not lead to the overwatering of your plants, turning your citrus leaves brown. To fix your soil, you have to amend it.

You can use pH up and down products to change the soil pH. As for the loosening of the soil, use perlite. For nutrition, use compost or other similar products. For pests in the soil, either bake or change the soil. This requires you to remove your trees from the soil.

– Space Your Plants

Remember that spacing your plants is always important. For plants growing in pots, you can simply move a few pots to new locations and you are good to go. You can also prune some plants to ensure that air reaches all the leaves. As for plants growing in the ground, your best approach may be thinning or transplanting them.

You may choose to prune their branches, but if they are growing too close to each other, the branches will always grow back and entangle one another. Just ensure that each plant has sufficient space and air reaches their leaves.

– Repel Every Pest

It is time to get serious with the pests attacking your plants. To kill these pests, go to a gardening store and buy a plant-safe pesticide. Aside from ensuring that the product is safe for your plants, you also have to ensure that it is suitable for the pests attacking your plants. This means that you have to identify your plant pests.

What type of pest is attacking your plants? To be sure, you have to check the mandarins throughout the day (even at night) for pests. Also, observe the color changes in the leaves. These are what you will describe to plant experts so they can help you with pest identification.

– Prune the Brown Leaves

After fixing and treating the brown spots and tips in your plants, you have to remove all the damaged leaves. This is because leaves that have become brown will no longer turn green. To keep your trees healthy and beautiful to the sight, prune off all the damaged leaves.

Conclusion

Now, you can fix your trees if need be, right? Before you go fix your trees, remember these points:

• Before you fix your trees, ensure that you know what is wrong with them first
• Your citrus trees may be growing in a place with unsuitable humidity and temperature if they are turning brown.
• Mandarin and lemon tree leaves turning brown can be a result of an improper watering schedule.
• Treat your trees with diseases before other trees get infected.
• After fixing your trees, prune off the brown, damaged, and dead leaves.

Remember to continue caring for your trees. Happy planting!

References

• Citrus – Gardening Solutions – University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. (n.d.). https://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/plants/edibles/fruits/citrus.html
• Growing citrus indoors. (n.d.). UMN Extension. https://extension.umn.edu/houseplants/growing-citrus-indoors