The tree will likely recover on its own and at its own speed. Unfortunately, the fact that it is a large tree is not in its favor, however. The larger the tree, the longer it takes to establish itself into the surrounding soil.

Woody plants really don't want to (and shouldn't) expend energy on anything but establish their roots for as long as it takes and won't take up stored energy sources for new leaf production. Since your tree has been defoliated, I expect that it might be forced to use stored reserves for leaf development, at the sacrifice of roots.

I'd sure baby your tree for the upcoming year, perhaps finding a source of compost (rather than fertilizer) with which to topdress the soil around it. Fertilization during the first year can force a tree to grow new leaves faster than would be normal for a plant in stress....not a good thing.

Fabio,

We are fortunate that we live where there's plenty of sun and warmth this time of year...your tree hopefully should recover? I had a very severe case of leaf miners in the summer, I trimmed a lot of the branches off to try and get rid of them...I pruned it very hard! 7-8 months later the tree has filled in quite nicely, hopefully the tree will bloom in several weeks. Good luck with yours, but I'm sure it will do fine. BTW...how is your Mango tree doing? Mine had severe Hard Freeze Damage...just waiting to see if it will recover?

Rhizo, you have always been very helpful and give great advise. As a matter of fact, I just read one of your posts from a while back on root pruning a Calamondin tree. I just bought a 3 gallon from Wally world...marked down to $9.50. I will try and grow it eventually as a small tree
(somewhat Bonsai)I use that word very loosely. I just want to keep it in an 8" pot and maybe next spring, I will go a little smaller?(trim the roots a little more)...I get a lot of advise from Al also, but your post was very helpful and I just wanted to say "Thanks".

Here is the picture after I hard pruned my Kumquat 6-29-08
{{gwi:570464}}

Taken today...recovered quite nicely:
{{gwi:570466}}

Thanks for your responses...

When I got the kumquats from the nursery they said it will produce at least twice a year.. but I have not found consistent information on this. What is your experience with them?

puglvr1,

Well, still waiting to see.. after the burning of the leaves (all leaves), it was attacked by some bugs that were drilling on the trunk.. I got an insecticide recommended for those and sprayed like for about 2 weeks, and have been watching closely and found no more of those bugs yet... I hope I found them on time...

For now I can see the tree is trying, I just found some signs of new growth (but to early to tell yet).. still crossing my fingers...

Hope your are doing well.

Best regards

I'm glad your mango is showing some possible new growths...I wish you the best of luck, I am in the same boat as you, lol. Waiting and hoping it will recover. Hopefully, you did get the bugs taken care.

I used to have a Kumquat tree about 6 or 7 years ago when I lived in the west coast of Fl, planted in the ground. My experience with that particular Kumquat was it only gave me fruits once usually it ripened around Dec-Feb. I would get flowers around spring and eventually the fruits formed...but seem to take a long time to ripen. This time I am trying it in a pot as I have my Mangos and lycees in the ground. I know it needs the cool/cold temps to turn it orange color...like most citrus. HTH

My Meiwa Kumquat is covered with fruit at various stages of maturity almost year round here in southern California. Luckily we don't have deer around here. The only real pest on my Kumquat are scale insects, but the bush is stronger then them and survives their attacks without me spraying. It is about 20 years old and is about five feet high and six feet wide. It produces several hundred fruit a year.

just bought a kumquat shrub, 3 gal. pot. has blooms and small fruit on plant.
should I grow in pot or plant in ground?? we get temps. upper 20's in winter.
Savannah, Ga.
thanks

I guess it depends on how big you want your tree to get. According to my Citrus book, Kumquats are suppose to be be able to take temps around 18°(guideline), so upper 20's shouldn't be a problem at all.

Many years ago,in my old house, I planted one in the ground, and it grew pretty fast and got pretty big compared to my potted plant that I have now. I remembered trimming it once a year because I didn't want it to get too big.

If you have the space and want a bigger size tree, then planting it in the ground would probably be the way to go. You will certainly see a lot more fruits also.

Good luck!

I have 2 Kumquat trees that are growing great but the fruit seems to be dry when Eaton.Any help would be greatly appreciated.