sdela, you don't mention where you live in the country? That helps us a lot. You are watering very frequently, what kind of soil do you have, clay, loam, sand, DG? Your tree looks pretty wet to me, you may be overwatering your tree, and you're now dealing with some soil fungus infection of the roots (Root Rot caused by Phytophthora). Copper would not be the micronutrient to apply for chlorosis, and I doubt salt in your water or soil would be causing this, that is not the usual symptom we see with too much salt. You usually see burning of the leaf tips. Please tell us where you live and what kind of soil you have, that would help us out quite a bit. Also, what are you fertilizing with, and how frequently.

Patty S.

I live in South Texas and the soil is clay. I fertilize it every 3 months with Ultragreen Citrus and Avocado Food. I also use compost tea, i spray it around the leaves.

Thanks,
Sal

Okay, thinking we may have soggy citrus here. I would dig very carefully down below the soil to see how much water is being retained in your heavy clay soil. This may simply be an issue of too much water. Allow the tree to dry out a little bit, if you find that things are soggy down below the soil surface. Fertilizer sounds great, compost tea on the leaves should be fine, as long as it's not too concentrated.

Patty S.

Well I usually let it dry a bit on the top soil before I water it. Not that I think it, I had a lemon tree before that and it died kind of the same. I was thinking it might be grubs eating the roots?!? Should I remove the mulch?

Here's a pic I took just now

And the compost tea is concentrated. I guess I will start diluting it.

I believe Patty's thinking is spot on - "soggy citrus". Please let us know if you do an exploratory dig and what it reveals.

I too am in heavy clay soil and am amazed at how long it retains moisture, and how long it takes to re-hydrate. I am still rather new to (young) Citrus in clay, and in my experience my small trees (that have been in the ground for nearly a year) appear to do better when the soil is allowed to cycle a bit. By "cycle" I mean allowed to dry slightly between soakings. For me that means: flat area = one to two watering/soakings a week; slope = every 2-4 days depending on temperatures. [the above assumes no rain]. I have found that letting the soil dry too much damages the roots. The clay soil shrinks when too dry and i believe the movement causes some of the roots to break/shear.

BTW: note that your soil may be affected by how much your neighbor is watering! If he/she is dousing the lawn with lots of water, the soil near your tree may get some of that moisture.
BTW2: rehydrating / soaking my clay requires long, slow water application - or drip.

A suggestion: cut out all that grass well beyond the canopy.

Please do update us with the recovery / progress pics and good luck!

This post was edited by Becauseican on Wed, Aug 7, 13 at 12:11

I haven't water it since last week. Waiting for a complete dry soil and I will start deep watering cycles weekly on this tree.

I don't have neighbors on that side of the tree. its an alley. I do have a Persian lime tree and a citrus tree next to this tree but they are spaced about 4 to 5 feet away. The other trees are doing just fine. The lime tree has about 10 fruits on it and the citrus is flowering. This is one is the troublemaker.

I will post any updates.

Thanks for the responses Becauseican and Patty!

Give your Rio Red plenty of room. Here's mine after 5 or 6 years. It's the one on the right, the other two were planted at the same time, and all were about the same size.

Here's an updated photo. Still havent seen much change. The leaves got a little greener. I water it about once a week.

Continue fertilizing. And, I am suspecting due to the amount of water in the soil and the general overall affect of your tree, you may have phytophthora going on in the soil (root rot). You can easily treat this with AgriFos (phosphorus acid). Apply in a concentration of 1 Tbsp per gallon. One application now, and a second application in 4 weeks. Be patient, it will take some time for the roots to recover and see new flush. You can find AgriFos on amazon.com. Excellent treatment, organic, very effective. I have finally had success with 3 of my trees that are planted in an area of my yard that has pockets of phytophthora, and I was on my 3 set of trees there until I finally ID'ed the issue. I am now seeing recovery after about 2 months after the application.

Patty S.

I have ordered the Agrifos and it will be here on Monday. As soon as I get i will apply it.

Hey Patty (hoosierquilt):

Did you get my email?

Thx

P,

ok i got the agrifos yesterday. how do i apply it?also should i apply it to my other trees?(just for prevention)

Thanks
Sal

Its been 15 days since I applied the agrifos treatment. Yesterday I was gardening and I noticed the tree had alot of tiny sprouting. All over the branches. I was just thinking about cutting off some of the branches so that it could start regrowing. Never mind now, lol!! Wow this stuff works awesome! Should i still continue applying it in 15 days?

Yes, absolutely. And, then treat at least once a year, especially in the spring, when temps are prime for growth of phytophthora.

Patty S.

Here is a snapshot. All the branches are covered with new growth.

Thanks Patty!!

Sal

Great, no be sure there is no grass under your tree, as it will complete for nitrogen with your little tree (and win). Also, be sure you're fertilizing your tree as well as applying AgriFos. That will help it to develop a nice canopy.

Patty S.

phosphorus acid Thanks a million Patty

sdelafuente looks just like my meiwa kumquat did a month ago. Now it looks great. So will yours. If you keep reading the citrus forum you will see answer to problems you will see in the future. You will still have problems you will have to ask about but your tree will be much stronger when they strike.

Good luck

OK for some weird reason the tip of the branches are turning brown. On Tuesday, I clipped several of them off and now today there are more. What is causing it? Should I worry about it?

Sal

I am another dosage with agrifos. Sprayed it all over the trunk and branches and dumped another 3 gallons in ground. I hope this saves it.

I think it might be a good idea to let the tree settle a bit. No pruning for a while. I see blooms and few/no leaves which tells me the tree thinks its dying; it wants to make seed. Be patient. The blooms might last as long as two to four months, or even longer, and then you should see new leaves develop.
My guess is that your roots were damaged and the tree now needs time to regrow them. Check the soil, keep it a bit moist but not soggy. I had a few trees go through this and it is a slow process. It can take a year.
Also advice above about continuing to fertilize... yes, and what seems to have worked well for me is the application of Foliage Pro - 1 Tablespoon per gallon, one gallon each week.
I had been using Citrus-tone and Grow-Power, but the recent change to the once weekly FP application kicked things into gear.

Good luck and please do update us!
- George K.

Thanks George!

You are welcome!

Patience and keeping a light moisture appears to have worked. As an example, the roots of my Valencia were severely damaged from a huge shot of (liquid) fertilizer and then letting them go dry. 80-90% of the leaves dropped and it went into a coma. It took 9 months before flower buds appeared this past April. It bloomed heavy but appeared to continue to decline and branches brown off. This week i see the first sign of new leaf growth. 12 months!

I neglected to mention that i also added a bit of soil acidifier to the soil and vinegar (1 Tbsp/gal) to the FP application. This change appears to have got things growing within 1.5 weeks. I am trying to verify it across several other troubled plantings so will update when possible. However, initial observation appears to confirm. Unfortunately, I will never have enough data to determine if the soil acidifier or vinegar made the definitive difference. Having said that, multiple folks on this forum have had great success and I am thankful they have shared!
NOTE: my situation involves Carizzo rootstock (like 6.5 pH) and very alkaline irrigation water 8.6+.pH