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Joined: May 2020
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Hello everyone! I am new to this forum and I am desperate for help. We have a grapefruit tree in a pot inside our home for about a year. I’ve noticed that it has very tiny white speks on the leaves. At first, I thought that it was dust or dirt and I was wiping it with water but it keeps on coming back.... the leaves also started falling.... I’d appreciate if someone could identify this pest and tell me how to get rid of it. I have a 12 month old baby and we’re trying for baby number two right now so I’d much prefer to use natural methods to get rid of it, if possible. Thank you in advance.

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Northern Star
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It looks like a manganese deficiency. Have you fertilized it lately?


~~Tam~ You can bury all your troubles by digging in the dirt.
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I did not fertilize it lately as it was winter here. I was definitely overdue to fertilize it so I did yesterday. 😊 I hope this will solve the issue or part of it. I looked up the manganese deficiency on google and it could explain the shape of the leafs (the waves on it) but would it also leave some type of white dust on the leaves? If you look closely at the pictures, you can see some very tiny white dots(1-2mm) on the leaves and some are in concentrated areas. If I wipe it with a wet cloth, it goes away like dust but comes back shortly after....would a manganese deficiency cause that as well?

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I should have said manganese and not magnesium in my prior post.

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Northern Star
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Yes, that is what I was going by...the white dots are usually a maganese deficiency. I also see some yellowish leaves telling me it is low in phosphorus. I am from Northern NB so I know about the Winter thing....I usually fertilize my plants in February. I hope your plant thrives...we have a mandarin seedling growing from seeds we started this Winter.


~~Tam~ You can bury all your troubles by digging in the dirt.
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I can’t thank you enough for your response. I will fertilize all my house plants at least once in the winter from now on. I’m in the province of QC so the winter also last forever here... I would have never known about the manganese deficiency. I really hope that will solve the issue with our grapefruit tree but I am very hopeful. Good luck with the mandarin seedling! I love to grow stuff that we can eat. 😊

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Northern Star
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You're welcome.


~~Tam~ You can bury all your troubles by digging in the dirt.
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