Hi, 5 years ago I moved to an Oakland Hills home with a lovely 8 ft. orange tree in the front yard facing west. Lots of direct sun. Every year around Christmas we'd get lots very sweet juicy oranges. Last year we got a few oranges the size of golf balls and this year almost nothing too. There's dead branches and some yellowing leaves. We've been watering it about once a week during our dry months and have applied Ross root fertilizer 25-10-10 about twice a year. Any help? It looks like there was a thread posted possibly pertaining to this dilemma but in 6 pages of looking through threads I haven't come across it. thanks, Dan
Maybe a nearby garden center or the local Cooperative Extension Service branch office can help you identify the problem. Don't fertilize again unless it is determined that a nutrient deficiency is involved. And if additional fertilizing is indicated use a fertilizer that addresses the specific deficiency identified. And throw the root feeder away - you want to broadcast granular fertilizer over the entire root area, not inject pockets of solution that do not reach most of the roots.
First you need to remove all of the dead wood from the tree. DO NOT apply any type of pruning paint, or wound healing paint to a citrus tree cut. Let the cuts heal them selves, without any assistance. I agree with Ron B concerning the use of a root feeder. Your tree will receive a lot more benefit from a granular fertilizer that is broadcasted EVENLY from the trunk out to a foot beyond the drip line. NEVER apply fertilizer directly against the trunk. You are underfeeding your tree. Nitrogen, potassium and magnesium are all water soluble fertilizer elements. They are leached every time you water the tree, and soon leach beyond the reach of the root system. Citrus trees are very shallow rooted trees. Citrus are HEAVY FEEDERS, and are nitrogen hogs. For a tree the size, and age, of your tree it needs to be fertilized three times a year. In ground citrus trees that are 5 years old or older, are normally fertilized 3 times a year with either a 8-8-8 or a 10-10-10 formula fertilizer that also contains trace elements. You posted that you live in a city called Montclair, but I have no idea where that is. If your area has cool/semi-cold winters with occasional warm periods, you should apply the fertilizer from March 1st but not after the middle of September. If you select 8-8-8: Apply 3 applications evenly timed between March and Sept. Applying 5.8-lbs. each application. If you select 10-10-10: Apply 3 application evenly timed between March & Sept. Applying 4.7-lbs. each application. If you wish to obtain a soil analysis you certainly can, however, citrus are such heavy feeders personally I would not go to the time and expense. Especially as you have been watering the soil once a week. If you wish to post a good clear close-up picture of the problem leaves we should be able to further diagnose any deficiency. Good luck to this tree.- Millet
Mineral content of soil needs to be known before accurate fertilizer recommendations can be made. Applying a product with an unsuitable formulation is wasting money, doing this repeatedly for years will exceed the cost of a soil test. Producing a toxicity and damaging the soil system or the plant is also a possible result of excess fertilization.
As I said, Danimal can certainly take whatever advice he wishes, and he can follow whatever course of action that he so desires. In the particular case of citrus I personally would not bother. I currently grow over 100 citrus trees, and have grown them for the past 18 years. But each to their own.- Millet
Hi, thanks. Montclair is a section of the Oakland Hills in California across the Bay from San Francisco. We're at about 1000' feet up in a "banana belt". Lots of sun pretty much year round, "Mediterranean climate", rainy season from Nov to May (usually) and dry all summer and fall. I'll prune and do some asking around locally about our soil before I fertilize. It's just weird the tree went from great to blah in one season. The pictures are from this morning. Usually the oranges would have been ripe about a month ago. We haven't had any really unusual climate fluctuations, over the year maybe a couple of extra weeks of hot days - but for us "hot" is 90. I thought I saw in a thread that citruses don't get along with grasses. We've had the same grass growing under half of it since I moved in. thanks again
Danimal, I doubt that the problem your orange tree is experiencing is due to a nutrient deficiency. Your tree's problem is more serious, and looks to be suffering from disease. The rapid rate of decline experienced by your orange tree also points to a disease, rather than deficiency. You should take some of the infected leaves to your local county agent. You might give them a telephone call before your visit. However, a county agent in Oakland might not be as knowledgeable on citrus diseases as one in commercial citrus producing areas, such as Kern county, or through out the San Joaquin valley. The primary effect of many of the common citrus leaf spot diseases have symptoms such as defoliation, including reduced yields and even smaller fruit size. Yield reductions of 25 to 50 percent can be common, and losses may be even greater in higher rainfall seasons, or higher rainfall areas. - Millet
