Here's a picture of my Lemon... located in the same area as my orange (they're all dwarfs)

and here's my clementine

Okay, the theory with planting trees is not to amend the soil, but to plant in your native soil, then top with compost, or your amended soil and mulch, making sure you don't plant too deeply (should see the top of the root flare), and allow for a nice well at the drip line (edge of tree canopy), allowing the water to fill around the edge of the well, which is where the feeder roots exist. What are you fertilizing with? Looks like a micronutrient deficiency, possibly manganese, so make sure your citrus fertilizer contains micronutrients. You can apply a micronutrient application as well as your regular fertilizer. It's not unusual in S. California, for citrus to look a little chlorotic after a cold, wet winter. Due to our soils and soil pH, this can cause conditions in the soils to make it so that citrus cannot take up certain micronutrients. We mainly see manganese affected, and to a lesser extent, zinc and iron. So, as the temps warm up, this should start to dissipate. You'll see new flush push out, and these older, chlorotic leaves eventually drop. As the tree gets older, this will be less apparent. By the looks of your soil, it appears to be pretty sandy or possibly DG? I would encourage you to top dress your trees with some compost to improve the organic materials in your soil, which will help retain more nutrients. I am also on mostly DG, so I try to top with compost once a year.

Patty S.

Hi Patty,

Thank you for your response. I've traditionally fertilized with Vigoro Citrus and Avocado... I recently switched to EB Stone/Greenall Citrus and Avocado, because I was told it had more micronutrients.

I really don't know what the soil makeup is, but it's definitely not sandy... it's a bit more compact. The soil you see is a top coat compost that I purchased from Summerwinds, and applied in the winter... I can't remember the name, but it was organic and had a California sign on the front. What is DG?

Some folks locally said to try iron chelate and epsom salts... you think this looks more like a manganese defficiency? Is there something you recommend for micronutrients? When we were growing up, my mother used to put steer manure once a year.... Recommendations?

The GreenAll fertilizer is a 14-4-8, and the Vigoro is a 6-4-6. I just added some Iron chelate.... and bought epsom salts, haven't applied yet... I heard I should add a tablespoon per gallon per tree.

Oh, and found out that DG is Granite... not sure in Northern Cal... I just know that it was fairly compacted soil that I needed to soften when I dug the holes... I did the drainage test on each hole before plantin.

thanks

Is there any animal manure in your compost. If your tree is on poncirus trifoliata, the animal manure can be toxic.

Your citrus looks very similar to how mine did last fall (and some still do). Too much food! When i planted them, I amended the soil, i added fertilizer per package schedule/recommendations, and wound up burning up the roots (by the time the July heat hit).
The plant cannot take up nutrients with burned roots and so indeed the leaves show signs of deficiency..... and salt toxicity.
I stopped fertilizing last July and have been deep watering since (flushing the soil) and most are recovering or in a state of bloom and flush. There are still some that are just starting to show signs of growth (I call them nubs). Those that endured my feeding for 2 or 3 years are worse off than those planted last May.
I moved / transplanted a couple of them to new locations in the yard (without adding fertilizer or amendment to the soil), and those transplants are doing better than the ones that have not been moved.

I am absolutely convinced that citrus need far less food than we throw at it!

Thank you... I was wondering if it could be too much food or water. I'm not regular in the feeding, but have been feeding heavy when I do.

Could it also be root rot from over watering... anyway for me to rule that out?

When I first got started I had lost over 100 seed grown kumquat trees when a friend told me to go to google images. then type in seed grown kumquat tree and press enter. What this did is display 100's of thumbnails to pictures I could click on to open sites specializing in citrus/ fortunella grown from seeds. Mouse over the thumbnails and click on the ones that list at the bottom "forums gardenweb.com". Since kumquats from seed are the hardest to grow you get the most discussion on problems you have now and the one you will have in the future. It is through this forum that I was able to get the help needed keep 1 meiwa kumquat tree alive out of 200 sprouts that came up. The knowledge I gain enabled me to recognize problems before any damage was done. Reading of other citrus / fortunella adventures is fun.and the picture are fascinating.
Good luck that a very nicely shaped tree

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