new verigated lemon losing her petals...

I just started gardening in south florida. I planted a verigated lemon over the weekend and it had several blooms when I put her in the ground, and several buds. Over the last couple of days the existing blooms have dropped their petals, and several of the buds have opened and started dropping their petals as well. Does anyone know what I may have done wrong? I followed the instructions to the tee as far as planting it. Also, the tree is in full sun, and I water it 2 times a day per the nursery instructions.

I don't think you did anything wrong, planting is a bit stressful for plants, so they'll often drop their blooms so they can focus on getting their roots going. So if that's the only problem you're having, I wouldn't worry at all.

give it time, plants needs to grow roots first, and after a few months, use some osmilte (sp?) or transplant food (low fertilizer that won't burn roots) .. DO NOT USE MIRACLE GROW. my friends citrus trees died from that junk.



careful of root rot in citrus trees, let me get you the info:

for any plant:

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu//extension/TCEHomeVegFruitNut.html

Lime trees:

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu//citrus/limes.htm

I've used MG with no problems--my guess is your friend added the wrong amount or something. There are definitely better fertilizers out there, but MG doesn't kill plants if it's used according to instructions. With any plant it's better to wait a little after transplanting before you fertilize. You could try using some Superthrive now though, it's a vitamin/root stimulator product that many people swear by when transplanting things, it helps get the roots off to a good start.

I agree with Ecrane, buying pot plants then transplanting them is a bit of a shock, especially citrus plants, even the journey home could send them into shock as the flowers and buds are very sensitive to movement at this stage, your plant will settle down and send out new flowering buds once it has time to settle itself into the new environment you have now made for it, the worse thing you could do is over fuss it at this stage by giving it too much feeding, too much watering and generally babying it to death, I also use MG all the time for what we call indoor plants here in Uk, but you guy's can grow them outside, like a lot of gardeners, they over do the feeds thinking they are doing the plants a favour, I always start my feeding each year by using half the recommended dose, then adding the full dose next time as the plants dont go into fast growing instantly, but there are lemon/lime feeds specially made for citrus plants that will have the right balance of nutrients already mixed, I would check with where you got it from to make sure you dont kill it with kindness, some plants dont like being fed when in flower but prefere it before or after flowering, especially fruit plants, in fact with some edible fruits, you need to be careful what you feed them or you could end up eating chemicals from the feed you added, worth while doing a proper check at the garden store, over feeding could cause the flowers to drop or the fruit to crack open because the skin could not grow as fast as the plant needed. good luck. I feel sure your plant will settle down with time. WeeNel.