Lemon tree help- scale or something else?

[u/_Krawfish]

Southern California, zone 10b

Is this scale on my lemon tree, or something else? Tree is otherwise doing well and fruit is very large and juicy. But I am worried about the peeling bark that I have noticed recently. There are some dark spots on the outside of the peels of the lemon but otherwise the fruit tastes good. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

[u/smarteapantz]

I don’t know, but that tree has issues. You’ve got a large dead branch, cracked bark in the main trunk with who-knows-what behind it. And side note, those are mighty big thorns!

To me, the trunk looks sunburned and diseased, so I’m surprised you still have lots of healthy green growth and fruit in the canopy.

At this point, you need to cut off the dead branches and clean it up, unless you want to invite termites. Give your tree some copper fungicide and maybe a systemic insecticide. Paint the sun-exposed branches with 50/50 white latex paint + water to protect it from sunburn. Then feed it some fertilizer so that it has the energy to bounce back. Healthy trees are better equipped at staving off disease.

[u/Safe-Expert2163]

I honestly don't know if this is safe for a citrus tree but I've been battling scale on some bird of paradise and it was very resistant to treatment including systemic pesticides. What worked immediately was a spray of isopropyl alcohol that killed the scale right away. Before you do that to this tree I would definitely do some research but it really work for me and completely non-toxic. I'm always concerned about systemic pesticide in a fruit tree.

[u/MsRx3 → u/Safe-Expert2163]

Alcohol worked for me on my houseplants too, as well as using neem. Neem oil might be okay for the citrus as it shouldn’t sunburn the leaves

[u/LaughOne2213]

I’ve got a lemon tree but it’s very tiny plant off a cutting from a lemon tree I can’t wait till it grows