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blueboy1977

Small new branches and new leafs falling off

blueboy1977
11 years ago

My N-33 is trying to put out a fall push of growth but the new branches and tiny leafs fall off while still green? Any ideas??? I did a very light app of citrus fert about 4 weeks ago and a week later sprayed the plants with some micro nuts but thats it. Im thinking the fert may given them alittle push but we have a couple cool fronts since then and temps went from averaging mid 90s down to mid 80s every since the fert app. Is this weather related???

Comments (5)

  • houstontexas123
    11 years ago

    depends on what the night time temps drop down to. i'm guessing the 80's temp youre giving us is the daytime temps. last week we had a cold front, night temps were in the upper 50's low 60's.

    tiny new growth may have been too tender to withstand those temps, while older mature growth have no problems down to around 30'.

  • johnmerr
    11 years ago

    Please post some photos; there a lot of things,,, the most common being anthracnose that can cause this problem; some are pretty easy to cure... others not.

  • jean001a
    11 years ago

    How old is the plant?
    In a pot or in the ground?
    When planted?
    How do you determine when to water? Then how much do you give the tree?

  • blueboy1977
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    It was planted this past spring in the ground. I have mostly red clay and sand soil here and drainage isn't super good but okay. There is slight slope for excess water to drain off so the roots don't stay saturated. When I planted it I mixed up the top couple inches with more sand and raised the planting area a couple inches higher than the surrounding area. Then a inch layer of home made compost topped with a couple inches of pine bark mulch. The root system seems fine. When I fertilized it a few weeks ago I pulled back the mulch to take a look and the roots were just below the mulch and spreading in all directions, nice and white too! I watered it once a week in the summer with a hose slowly for 20 min or so. Now that's it's cooled off every 2 weeks unless it rains.

    Here is a pic of a couple small branches that fell a few days ago. They were green when they fell but have started do dry up as you can see in the pic. They are only a couple inches long.
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    This is we're they actually feel from on the tree
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    Some new growth that decided to stay on
    {{gwi:636596}}

    Tips of the new growth. On one pic you can see where the new leafs aborted or just dried up?
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    {{gwi:636598}}

    {{gwi:636599}}

    {{gwi:636600}}

    {{gwi:636602}}

    I assume navels are rather slow growing? Not as much growth as I am seeing on my satsuma, Meyer or rio red?

  • johnmerr
    11 years ago

    Oranges tend to grow slower, and in spurts, than do Meyers or grapefruits. Your tree looks pretty good; keep doing what you are doing. Your "losses" look like anthracnose; or could as well be due to a slug/snail or just to momentary drought stress from growing too fast when it was too hot; you can treat with a copper/horticultural oil spray; but in this case, I probably wouldn't bother; it is now an historical issue. Anthracnose favors hot and humid conditions; the biggest problem is that you can't use oil sprays when it is hot; it will burn your leaves. In my case I put Bayer Silvacur twice per year, at the beginning of the rain and 6 months later; it is a little pricey, but I don't have problems with molds, anthracnose, etc.