TLDR: Citrus keeps turning black and oozing resin. But I can't find the problem. I thought it must be root rot, but they look perfectly healthy:
Long version:
Because my first and second citrus trees fell victim to root rot, I started using a very airy substrate made of pine bark, perlite and some humus/worm castings in a 5:1:1 ratio for all my plants (figs, pineapple, cherimoya, monstera, etc.) with little adjustment. You may recognize this as 'aroid mix'. But it works surprisingly well in my indoor space with a west-facing window and terracotta planters (and my tendency to overwater).
But I can't wrap my head around citrus.
It always starts with rapid growth, followed by very suddenly dropping and crisping leaves, black stems and finally death.
I thought I must be root rot again, which I need to mind during winter. But today, when I dumped my fifth (!) tree, I found only perfectly healthy roots and nice smelling substrate.
I think it must be a pathogen… but what?
I am at a loss. I keep killing my citrus trees and I don't know why. :'(
EDIT: replaced "5:1:1 mix" with "5:1:1 ratio" for clearification.
If I read the cited sources and they turn out to be a bunch of untested hypotheses based on poorly conducted studies… I'll be mad.
Just skimming through it makes a bad first impression.
…I'm not even trying to be derisive. I'm just really angry at how much "there's a study" has become "there's proof". And I shouldn't even be mad because communicating that difference should be the authors' job.
If you value your time, don't read any further because I'm just going to vent a little:
So I lack any formal education (apart from ficking school). The best thing I can say about myself is that I can hold and mostly understand a conversation with people who are actually educated in their field.
But some studies are bad. Like bad-bad. So bad that I think, most people who can read should be able to recognize their flaws if they actually read them.
For example:
I read a study a while back about genetic (as opposed to learned) prepositions of monkeys in relation to their biological sex and preference for toys.
The methodology was bad, but here's the shittiest part imo: At the end of the study, the researchers found that of the 130 or so monkeys, only about half showed any preference for any kind toy. So the researchers excluded the unbiased monkeys from the test. Of the remaining monkeys, still only the males showed any preference for the "male" toys. So the females were also excluded. In the end, only 30 monkeys actually counted, because they showed the hypothesized difference in their preferences. And even those only showed a delta of 10-30% in the time they spent with the toys.
The study should have concluded that most monkeys don't give a shit if a toy has wheels (like a shopping cart, which apparently makes it a "male" toy) or if it's soft, like a plush (which is "female" because boys would never touch a plushy, of course).
Instead, they found that their hypothesis turned out to be correct, after disregarding anything that invalidated their hypothesis.
Where did I get this study from? From social media, of course. Where a bunch of meat heads "proved" that all women genetically want to be tradwives and trans people don't exist or some shit.
Fuck everything about this.