We are in your same boat as far as purchasing neglected acreage with established fruit trees.

I need to learn to prune something other than figs and grapevines. Got those down!!

I would google "Rejuvinate Citrus Trees" and see what you get. Google can be your best friend!

I'm sure someone will respond here, but also try the fruit and orchards forum.

Suzi

You don't say where you are other than So Cal & zone 10 but most of SoCal can have issues with sunburning bark this time of year if you trim your trees. For example I'm in Upland, 30 miles east of Los Angeles. My area shows UV level as 11 (extreme) for the last few days.

I don't know anyone that has any good results with anything growing under citrus in most SoCal soils. I assume you need to get rid of the iceplant. There is lots of info about this in most of the books on citrus. I know none of my neighbors that are trying to grow grass or ivy around the old citrus trees are doing anything but killing their trees. Citrus need to be watered deeply but not often. If your sprinklers are watering every day and the sprinklers are hitting the trunks, they will be killed.

I bought a house that has the remains of a citrus grove in my "back, back" yard as do the rest of the houses on my street. Mine were nearly dead from the previous owner doing the wrong things and now 6 of the 7 are doing well. I'm getting ready to plant 16 more.

Desertdance, USDA zones are 1-11 so if you are saying you are zone 19, I assume you are trying to use Sunset zones. Just click on the zone link when you post and it shows you info about the zones.

This post was edited by GregBradley on Tue, Jul 2, 13 at 17:05

Debbra, first off, if you can post photos, it really does help us to better help you. Without photos, I would say to first, clear our the ice plant. As Greg has mentioned, it is competing for water and nutrients with your poor citrus tree. Next, make sure the watering situation is fixed. Your trees should be on a drip or micro-drip system. Again, as Greg mentioned, do not allow your sprinklers to hit the trunks of any of your citrus trees. It encourages rot. Next, make sure you've got a nice well formed around your citrus trees at or somewhat beyond the tree canopy. That's where your feeder roots reside for your trees. That way, the water can collect and seep down to the feeder roots. Mulch your wells, keeping the mulch away from the trunk (again, to prevent moisture from collecting and causing rot). Next, fertilize your poor tree with a good quality citrus fertilizer. Fertilize again in 4 weeks, and then put down a 3rd application in another 4 weeks. Water the fertilizer in well, and never apply fertilizer to a dry tree. Remove all the fruit, let the tree put it's energies into re-developing a canopy. Don't prune anything until you see leave flush, and can clearly determine dead from living branches. Then, prune away all the dead branches, making sure not to leave stubs of branches, nor prune so closely that you prune into the branch collar (the flare right where the branch connects into the trunk). Citrus trees require little pruning. Just removing dead wood mainly from the interior of a mature tree, or some very minor pruning for shape. Remember, citrus are tip fruiting trees, so if you over-prune, you're not going to end up with any fruit :-) And, I don't recommend going over to the Orchards Forum, you're much better off on the Citrus Forum for citrus questions (you'll get sent here if you post there about citrus.) And, you can see how I have my zones for California. USDA zones are basically worthless here in California due to all our micro-climates. I differentiate between the two, since there are certainly other folks on the Citrus forum who reside in other states, so that helps them to better understand my climate in general. But, there must be 10 Sunset zones within the USDA zone 10 here in California!

Patty S.

Is it too late for this tree, then?

That tree has NO bark! What is the history of this?

The "tangerine" tree in the back only looks "fine" in comparison to the tree in front. I would say it is struggling.

You need some advice by someone that knows a lot more about citrus but I'm wondering if that iceplant is taking most of the water and nutrients away from both trees.

That tree looks dead to me. It might have suffered some kind of attack from insects or disease.

When you scratch it, do you see green? If so, it might have a chance of recovery. If it's diseased, though, you would need to find out the cause, and address that issue first. I would remove all the ice plant competition, fertilize it, prune it back and put it on a regular watering regime.

I just re-read your first post, and noted that you think the irrigation may be faulty. The neglected 1.5 acres we just purchased is covered with drip irrigation lines, many of which have leaks or are plugged up. We had no idea which station ran which line and we had to hire a professional to figure out the mess. He would turn on a station, then put one color of flags by each outlet. He did this over and over until he got it figured out. He was then able to determine where the leaks were. Some of the lines had to be replaced completely! There were big breaks in major plumbing underground from someone digging and not fixing the break.

Good luck with your tree.

Suzi

This post was edited by desertdance on Sun, Jul 7, 13 at 9:03