I live in South Florida, and my navel orange Tree leaves all fell off. we are under water restrictions that limit me from watering it to once a week, for 2 hrs. It produced fruit that looked small. I see no evidence of bugs, and the limbs don't appeared to be dried. When the leaves fell off, they didn't change color, just looked dried. The soil condition is dirt/sand mix. Could this condition be due to the current drought conditions/watering restrictions.
It does seem that drought is a major factor. Perhaps the amount of watering doesn't allow for deep enough soil penitration to reach enough of the root system. Maybe one of our resident experts here can shed more light. Cheers, LPN.
i have seen products like tree bags that hold water and release it slowly over a few days you could also use a few 5 gal buckets punch a few small holes in them so they release the water slowly water normally on the day you can than fill the buckets at the end of that day. to bad citrus donot take to well to mulching. i have heard of people doing it but most i have seen end up dead from the mulching. to bad there is no way to shade the soil to help keep the soil a little cooler for the drought season. that would also help conserve a bit of water. if you have a well and have access to a storage tank you could fill the tank up and set up some sort of dripp system off of that for the days you cannot run the irrigation. not sure of the legality but its basically just a really big tree bag.you could also make a mound of dirt around the outside drip edge of the tree till we start getting some rain that way more water can build up and stay where it is needed.and for sure i would not fertilize till after we start getting some rain i am mid state west coast but am also still in drought conditions.hope this gives ya a few ideas
