Once foliage on a lemon tree lose its deep unripe color and old leaves turn yellow - green , timely action is needed to forestall further declension . A dousing of a chelated , or at once absorbable , liquid plant food is applied . The year - round fertilizer regimen must be modified as well to forestall future yellowing of leafage lead from nutritive - poor grunge .
Immediate Fertilization
Step 1
Purchase a chelated liquid fertilizer from your garden center . Ask if there is a special recipe available for citrus plants . The chelate fertilizer is a concentrate with easily absorbed micronutrients , such as Fe ( Fe ) , magnesium ( Mg ) or manganese ( Mn ) , that is dilute into body of water and spray onto yellow leaves . If no special " citrus tree mix " is available , any chelated iron fertilizer in liquid form will suffice .
Step 2
Read the product label directions and dosages . assemble the appropriate materials , such as a pail , sprinkling can , spray feeding bottle or small heart orbackpacksprayer . These item allow you to mix the appropriate dosage and amount of solution to hold to your lemon tree , based on its size .
Step 3
Place water in a bucketful with assign pint or gallon increments to an amount directed on the product recording label . Add the right amount of smooth chelate fertiliser into the water - filled pail and stir .
Step 4
Pour the chelated plant food solution into the spray nursing bottle or spray canister . Reapply the eyelid to the spray applicator and take it to the lemon tree diagram .
Step 5
Douse the foliage across the entire tree with the solution until you seed beading of liquidness begin to drip off the leaves . Focus on both new and older leave , even wetting folio undersides and dark-green stems . forefend spraying the foliage when direct sun reach the leaves or when rain is have a bun in the oven within 12 hours . Spray the lemon tree at dawn .
Step 6
decant out leftover chelate plant food solution onto the soil under the stinker Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree so that tree root absorb nutrients , too . This is a sound way to dispose of supererogatory result from the mixing bucket .
Preventative Fertilization
Create an yearly impregnation regimen and agenda for the lemon tree diagram to forestall leaf yellowing in the future .
Scatter magnesium sulfate around the tree al-Qaida in a like personal manner at least twice a class , once in spring and again in late summer . Magnesium sulfate is unremarkably known as Epsom salt . Apply 1 to 2 cups Epsom salinity under the tree , spreading it out like you are sprinkle dinero on cooky . Do n’t worry , you ca n’t over - fertilize or damage plants with Epsom saltiness . Just station the crystal at least 6 inches out from the trunk and outward .
Broadcast cure manure or other constituent matter to a depth of 1 to 2 inches on the soil under the lemon Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree at least once annually , such as in late natural spring . Keep the manure or mulch at least 2 foot out from trunk of the lemon tree tree diagram .

Tip
Test your grime pH. Soils that are neutral to alkaline ( pH above 6.8 ) tend to inhibit uptake of certain nutrients that keep leaves green in citrus . Ideally the soil around the lemon should be slightly acid . Do not spray chelate liquid on citrous fruit leaves when temperature are live or the sunlight is acute . stream the swimming solution onto the ground near the tree trunk out to the leaf canopy ’s dribble crease so that the roots absorb the nutrients and move them to the leafage . An annual preventative spray of chelate mineral onto the lemon tree diagram ’s foliation in recent winter , such as late January , ensures greenness as spring arrives . Also follow citrus plant food recommendations for covering and formulas as lean by your local Cooperative Extension authority restrain your outside industrial plant healthy year - orotund . Indoor houseplant lemon Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree need fertiliser applications in spring and summer . Do n’t fertilize from belated fall to midwinter .