Good Morning, Here is a photo of my sad minneola. It has been thriving, but suddenly started dropping leaves like crazy and many of the attached leaves are curling. Does anyone have advise on what may be going wrong? I'm sick that I may have killed the poor little guy. Please advise. Thank you!
It might be chlorosis(iron deficiency). My navel was looking like that for awhile and I put citrus food on it, and within a month it was looking dark green, shiny and full leafed again. I give my citrus a shot of ironite now and then too. That helps prevent yellowing of the leaves. Not sure if thats what your problem is, but you could give it a try. Just don't overdo it on the ironite and don't combine it with the citrus food. I'd personally use the citrus food first. I used to live in Diego and its a wonderful place to grow citrus. You just have to watch out for that caliche(hard pan). That will do in your trees just like that. Theres nowhere the roots can go. Good luck on your tree.
The most common reason for leaf drop is moisture stress due to an irregular watering schedule. From what I can see, the older lower leaves still look green and healthy. Am I right?
You could have a combination of water stress and lack of fertilizer. With chlorosis, the veins would remain green, but the surrounding tissue yellows out. Nitrogen dificienct leaves look like some of those leaves — pales leaves and or yellow edges with green centers.
You've had a long wet winter and spring. It's possible that the tree has lost roots due to too much water. Allow the top 2-4" of soil dry before watering again. Fertilize lightly until the tree recovers.
Another possibility: aphids or scale. Check the underside with a magnifying glass. If you have some sort of pest, identify it before spraying. Your county extension agent should be able to identify it if you can't.
Judy is right about the fertilizer. When you fertilize, use citrus food as it also contains the micronutrients that citrus need. Sometimes, that's not enough and something like Ironite is needed. Ironite provides those micronutrients. Did you fill the hole and let it drain when you planted the tree? Unless your soil is very sandy, you may have a hard pan which is almost impervious to water. Water sits around the roots way too long, removing the oxygen the roots need to remain healthy and the roots die. About the only way to correct this problem would be to dig up your tree, dig through the hard pan, do the water test by filling the hole with water (Should drain within 2 hours.) and replace the removed soil with good top soil. Then replant the tree. Before you do this, eliminate all the other possiblities first. Digging through a hard pan is hard work.
Last option: Dig it out and put it in a pot, nurse it back to health, take care of any soil problems and replant it this fall. October is a perfect time to plant trees.
Hope your tree recovers.
Thanks very much Judy and Betty! I really appreciate the advise. The tree is actually a new tree planted about two months ago in a landscape overhaul. My landscaper did replace all the soil and dug a proper hole. The existing soil was all clay, although the water was draining pretty well. The watering schedule is on a timer, set for every other day. I did look closely at the leaves and see some bugs, so maybe it's a combination of pests and lack of fertilizer. I'll work on both things and see what happens. The lower leaves do look pretty healthy, so hopefully all is not lost. :) I'm such a novice at gardening, but learning a lot everyday! Thanks again!
Watering every other day seems a bit much. It's best to give it a good deep ( Down to 3 feet) soaking to encourage the roots to go deep than to give it a little bit too often. That only encourages shallow root development. Check to see how much water the tree is getting every time it's watered. Since you mentioned that its been in the ground only about 2 months, it is also having to cope with a new environment.
Bettydee,
Yep, I'm lurking here, there, everywhere, learning more and more about citrus!! You seem like a wealth of information, thanks! ~ Suzi :)
Hello,
I tried the furtilizer and reduced the amount of water to my tree. I also rinsed off all the leaves really well in case there were bugs (not that I saw any, just being thorough). The package said to re-furtilize a new tree ever 45 days - does that sound about right? How soon before I'll know that it's working?
Thanks again for the great advise!
It is possible that the old leaves may not ever show any signs of getting better, but new growth will be a nice healthy dark green if the fertilizer is working. What kind of fertilizer did you use? Is ther fertilizer a slow release type, pelleted or water soluble? The type of fertilize affects how often you fertilize Soil type also affect it. Sandy soils lose the nutrients faster than clay soils. Follow the directions on the package.
Citrus put out a flush of leaves, rest, then put out another. Be patient. You may not see results until the next flush of leaves occur.
Good Morning,
I'm not sure if anyone is still watching this thread, but I thought I'd send a follow up. I finally have some encouragement from my citrus! You were so right on many accounts. I gave it furtilizer and treated it for spider mites (that was what it had). I used neem oil on it which works wonders and is my new favorite pesticide. I also started deep watering it about every 2 weeks. I lost a lot of leaves before it showed any signs of life, but all of a sudden I have tons of new buds! I was so tickled to discover them! Here is a photo and I hope it continues to recover.
Thank you so much for your advice and help! It is hard to be patient, but definitely worth the wait. The flowers on this little tree smell wonderful!
Have a good day!
cnswift~
It looks like you performed a miracle. But are you sure your partner didn't just swap it for a new one?
haha, that's hilarious! No, that would be something that I'd do but not him. :)
Hope you're sure!
Can someone identify this problem. I planted this mineola orange tree about a month ago. It has been putting out new leaves like crazy, but now the newest ones are brown on the underneath. I looked for bugs and only found one leaf that had tiny black bugs (which I removed). I did not fertilize this because I am under the (maybe wrongful?) impression that one does not fertilize until the spring to allow the roots to form rather than leaves. Help please!! Karen
Have you used a magnifying lens to look at the underside of the leaves? It is possible that the tender new leaves received some kind of physical damage or suffered from drastic changes of temperature. Barring that, it could be a disease. You have a very good citrus research center in Florida, take a sample to your local extension agent who will be able to get an anwer for you.
As to fertilizing in the fall, it is usually not recommended because tender new leaves are easily damaged by frost. If, however, the lowest temperature seldom goes much below 32ºF, at least one dwarf citrus tree grower in California says that the growth gained by fertilizing in the fall far outweighs the damage done by the few times the temperature dips below 32ºF. I think it depends on how often you get freezing weather. I don't fertilize my citrus after September. I live outside the ideal citrus growing areas in zone8b. My citrus are in large pots that are taken into a greenhouse for the winter.
We did have a few cold nights so perhaps that did it. Thanks for your help. Karen
