Dying Citrus Tree

Discussion in 'Citrus' started by GrapefruitTreeGuy, Sep 5, 2007.

  1. GrapefruitTreeGuy

    GrapefruitTreeGuy Member

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    Location:
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    I have a citrus tree in my backyard that I needed to move. I believe it is some kind of variety of grapefruit, possibly a citron, as it has a very thick rind. The tree has not been doing well since I moved it, and we have recently been hit by a heat wave. Someone suggested I treat it with vitamin B to promote root growth, which I have, but it seems to be doing little. I have been watering the tree multiple times a day and it is still dying. I really want to save what was once a beautiful tree. Any suggestions?
     

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  2. skeeterbug

    skeeterbug Active Member

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    Major suggestion-- don't water it every day! Short of cutting it off at the ground, that is the quickest way to kill it. You do need to cut back the top to balance the roots lost during the transplanting--- I would suggest removing 1/2 to 2/3s of the top.

    Don't water unless the soil is dry at least 2-3 inches deep.

    If you can get a shade cloth you could put it over the tree for a few weeks.

    Skeet
     
  3. GrapefruitTreeGuy

    GrapefruitTreeGuy Member

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    Thanks Skeeterbug.
     
  4. Starr

    Starr Member

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    I agree with Skeeterbug it sounds like your tree is drowning, let it dry out - try a week no water, maybe bring it inside if it is hot outside.
     
  5. mr.shep

    mr.shep Well-Known Member 10 Years

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    Location:
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    Soaking the roots in an antioxidant helps stave
    off the shock of severely cutting the roots in
    order to move the tree but now the Vitamin
    B1 will not help much unless you let the
    ingredients in the solution help you and you
    cannot do that by continued, every day
    watering. A good time to apply the
    B1 in solution is the day after you water
    and then not water for at least two days
    afterwards. For this tree you will want to
    provide about 3 gallons of mixed solution
    each time you want to apply it.

    You should water your tree often now
    hoping to see some turgid leaves with
    some water pressure to them. As long
    as you can see some green in the leaves
    you have a chance to help this tree snap
    out of its doldrums stage at the moment.
    For Maples here in containers that get
    fried I will water them daily to help
    bring them back but I do not water
    trees in the ground every day that have
    a silt loam to a clay loam soil. In a sandy
    loam or a sand soil then you may have
    to provide moisture almost daily to an
    injured root system as the percolation
    rate of the water away and out of the
    root zone may require it.

    You should not water every day or every
    other day depending on your soil type but
    you can deep water one day, give the tree
    some rest and then come back in three days
    later now after the initial transplanting.

    You are not located in an area in which the
    tree succumbing to a root rot is likely but
    can happen. Some people in this forum are
    running a little too cautious of water mold
    root rots when in our dry climate with low
    humidity and with our soil temperatures
    such as they are right now, we are more
    likely to get a dry rot from irregular or
    overly frequent watering rather than see a
    wet rot. Most people in this forum have not
    grown Citrus here to know how we are
    different than many other locations for not
    getting or even seeing a water mold fungus
    (principally a form of Phytophthora) develop
    unless the fungus is already in the plants
    system through propagation or we have a
    water logged soil with very slow to no
    drainage and little to no air movement.
    Another nice thing is that most saline to
    alkaline soils with warm soil temperatures
    do not see much water molds come about
    in the first place and your soil in and around
    where you are in Santa Clarita is known for
    being on the alkaline side (just look at what
    is left of the native vegetation around your
    area).

    Getting ample sap flow is your target at the
    moment. Not sure how long ago you dug up
    and moved this tree. I wish you had asked
    what not to do before doing it but I can relate
    to that.

    The time to prune the tree back by half or even
    by a third was the day or two, the first week,
    after you cut the roots, freed the tree from the
    ground and moved it to its new location. Now,
    you are kind of in a position to leave the tree
    as is or you may kill the tree by increasing the
    shock level it is already in by overly pruning
    it now. If you feel the need to prune this tree
    then snip back the top about 4 inches all the
    way around or just leave it until you see
    some leaves start to nod again (as opposed
    to the droop stage they are currently in) and
    later become erect again. You have no turgid
    leaves to work with right now and you just
    have to wait until you have water uptake
    imbibed by the roots and get some sap flow
    throughout much of the tree. A good sign
    is that the tree has not sloughed off the
    uppermost top growth just yet. The collapse
    of growth will normally start from the top
    and then work itself down. An allover
    collapse all at once is what you do not
    want to see right now. You have to
    perk this tree up, not hurt it again by
    overly trimming it back now or by over
    watering it with daily waterings. Give
    the damaged roots time to breathe and
    heal otherwise you may not be able to
    bring this tree back where you are
    located.

    Citrus roots are a little more delicate
    than many other tree roots are. If the
    root mass has been severely injured
    then you have to baby this tree for a
    while. You do not have adequate root
    system now to generate new top growth
    from an application of Nitrogen, all the
    while being at the expense of the root
    shoot development that already has
    been weakened. For your tree to have
    success after the transplanting it is the
    roots, not the top that you have to be
    most conscious of. When the roots settle
    and start to function again and grow you
    will have some new top growth later but
    for now you cannot force the issue wanting
    top growth as you will lose even more root
    system of what is left of it if you do. The
    top growth that dies out can be and should
    be trimmed out of the tree back to live wood
    but I would not go any further than a light
    trim for right now. Unless you feel the need
    to do a pruning instead but a pruning at this
    stage now is risky by the looks of your tree.

    Jim
     
  6. skeeterbug

    skeeterbug Active Member

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    Location:
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    I will defer to Mr Shep-- he has more experience with citrus and your climate than I.

    The shade cloth is still a good idea-- it will reduce the water loss from the leaves.
     
  7. mr.shep

    mr.shep Well-Known Member 10 Years

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    Location:
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    Skeet, you did just fine as always. Your
    active and well intentioned participation
    has been a real credit for many people in
    this forum. We should try to side with
    caution much of the time when in doubt
    or when we are trying to help people. I
    like the idea of using a shade cloth cover
    also as that will help protect the already,
    weakened leaves from sun burning any
    further and to help prevent more leaf
    desiccation until the leaves can perk up
    some.

    Jim
     
  8. Millet

    Millet Well-Known Member 10 Years

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    Location:
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    The first mistake that was made, for which now the poor tree is paying the price, is that no pre-transplanting thought was given, before the tree was dug out of the ground. When transplanting a small tree such as the one shown in the above picture, you should have taken a spade and severed the roots in a circle around the tree at approximately the drip line. This root pruning should have been done at least a month to six weeks prior to moving the tree. By spading, MANY hundreds of new lateral fine roots would have developed along the present root system, starting approximately 4 inches back from where they were severed, this is known as The Four Inch Rule. These newly developed roots would have done much to assist and aid the young tree throughout the actual transplanting and the period after. - Millet
     
  9. Laaz

    Laaz Active Member 10 Years

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    Location:
    Charleston z9a SC
    I would agree, that tree has major root damage. Is this a grafted tree or a seedling ?
     
  10. GrapefruitTreeGuy

    GrapefruitTreeGuy Member

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    Hello Laaz,
    I'm not sure. The tree was here when we moved in. I do know that it's between 6 and 7 years old.
    Thanks
     
  11. Laaz

    Laaz Active Member 10 Years

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    Has this tree ever produced fruit for you ? I would remove just about all of the top of the tree & foliage.

    Leaving all of the foliage on will drain the tree of all nutrients. If the roots can't support it the tree will surely die. If you give the roots time to recoup without the strain of trying to support the canopy you may be able to save it.
     
  12. GrapefruitTreeGuy

    GrapefruitTreeGuy Member

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    It has produced fruit regularly. I stopped watering it a couple of days ago and will research a little more before I subject it to the additional trauma of pruning it, but it could be the next action I take. Thanks
     
  13. mr.shep

    mr.shep Well-Known Member 10 Years

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    Location:
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    If you had enough root system left when
    you dug out the tree then once you get
    some turgor pressure back into the leaves
    you can prune this tree back some hoping
    to trigger new growth.

    For now you have to monitor this tree to
    see if it wants to come back and you will
    see the signs the tree is trying by the
    leaves starting to lift themselves up
    again from their current droop state.

    Much of the time it is not a problem to
    move a Citrus tree of this age but what
    complicates matters for us is when we
    dig the tree out of the ground and move
    it in 90 degree weather and then we get
    hit by 100 degree weather rather soon
    after we moved the tree. The tree is
    in peril on two fronts, the roots being
    injured and the leaves being hurt by
    increased evapo-transpiration loss.
    All you can do is water the tree well
    and often when this happens. Once
    you see some signs of life coming
    back into the tree you can then prune
    the top back some if you want but
    here is where Citrus differs from
    most woody plants. Citrus do not
    put out immediate new growth after
    having the top pruned back.

    Without new root growth you will not
    generally see new growth in the tree
    itself after this kind of transplanting.
    All you want is for the top to hang in
    there while the roots are trying to
    establish themselves to the new
    location after they had been injured.
    When the roots recover or start to is
    when you may see new growth come
    back into the head of this tree but you
    have to wait for a while until you see
    the new growth emerge. It is not a
    simple case of pruning back the top
    and seeing new growth emerge from
    the trunk or in the lateral branches of
    the tree soon afterwards after a top
    pruning. For now it is the roots that
    control how this tree does for now and
    what this tree will do for you next year.
    All you can ask for is that not all of the
    softwood dies out of you and as long as
    you have water movement in the plant
    you should not see allover golden-brown
    to golden-yellow colored softwood. I've
    seen Citrus have leaves one day,
    drop them the next and by the third
    day much of the younger shoots have
    turned color already and a day later
    were brown and dead. You did not
    see much of that in your tree yet,
    which is a very good sign that your
    watering this tree like you did after
    the moving of it really helped but
    you did get caught with higher
    temperatures real soon after you
    moved this tree. It is the multiple
    combination of events of the roots
    being injured, the water pressure
    loss in the leaves as well as the
    increased transpiration loss and
    leaf surface injury is what all hurt
    your tree at a bad time. Now, the
    tree has had some time to settle
    and with the lowering of the current
    temperatures there will be less
    water loss in the tree and in the
    leaves, so you do not have to
    water this tree as much as you
    once had to. Now, you have to
    wait for the roots to get growing
    again and once you see the leaves
    perk up then you can consider
    pruning this tree if you want to.
    You do not prune out green
    growth in a tree that is already
    in shock. You are less likely to
    see new growth emerge soon if
    you do. The problem you want
    to avoid unless the tree stays
    in its current state is that when
    pruning a tree in shock we can
    lose more green growth later on
    as the plant sloughs off portions
    of the tree to better sustain lower
    and middle areas of the tree. We
    prune out top growth by a foot and
    the tree might slough off another
    foot of growth afterwards. You do
    not have two feet of allover growth
    in this tree to risk losing. Why try
    to force the issue when you have no
    turgid leaf growth to prune back to as
    shown in the photo of this tree?

    Jim
     
  14. Millet

    Millet Well-Known Member 10 Years

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    Location:
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    One further comment. When transplanting this tree to its new location, a hole was dug, which, of course, created a basin. The roots of a citrus, in fact all tree roots, cannot absorb nutrients nor even absorb water without first having a supply of oxygen present in the root zone. Therefore, although the tree is in need of a supply of water at this time, over watering, which eliminates soil oxygen, will be a death knell to this tree. The basin created when the hole was dug, frequently acts as a lake and retains water when watering is too frequently applied, and especially if the hole was dug larger than the root ball. - Millet
     

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