I don't see anything wrong with those grapefruit trees.... they look healthy to me.

As for blocking the view of the neighbor's, I'd try a Traveler Palm for that purpose. You'll have to provide a little protection when you have a frost.

I would suggest Mango or Lychee trees...you will never have any problems giving them away or even selling them :o)

Down side is you will have to protect them from the occasional frost/freeze when they are young...

*edit*
Meant to comment on how beautiful your yard looks!! Very pretty!!

This post was edited by puglvr1 on Thu, May 2, 13 at 10:42

I would LOVE to save my trees, if that's possible! (I've been told it's "greening" but not by a professional)

Here's the photo tour:

This picture was taken in 2007. The little lollipop tree on the right is what we now refer to as the "Giant Grapefruit," since the grapefruit is the size of bowling balls.

This is what it looks like today:

Closer views of leaves:

This picture was also taken in 2007. This is the shored-up "Small Grapefruit." This tree used to only have about 6-8 grapefruits per year.

Here is how it looks today:

It holds 1-2 grapefruits through to the end of the summer, then they rot. It flowered fairly well, as it always does, but now the tiny fruits are falling off the tree, as they always do save one or two.

Close-ups of the leaves:

Another pic from 2007. The taller tree in the upper left corner is a Loquat. It has since died of unknown causes. The tree next to it, the smallest one, is an Ornamental Orange (with a twisted, braided trunk and tiny oranges) Next to that is another orange tree that has since died of frost/unknown causes. The smaller tree on the slope is another orange tree, which we call the "Small Orange." It was the only one of all those orange trees that had sweet fruit. Now it gets almost no fruit at all... perhaps 3.

Here is the same tree today. Very sparse.

April 2007 picture of the Meyer Lemon tree. (Notice the mostly-dead Live Oaks in the background, which the neighbors had removed shortly after this picture was taken

Same tree today:

I don't know really anything about citrus trees, but they all look so much worse than when we bought the house. We've lost SO many trees!
Right after we first moved in, our neighbor had those Live Oaks removed because they were 'sickly.' Ever since then, we've lost trees at an alarming rate: 2 Loquats, 2 Orange trees, a large Magnolia tree, another mature tree we never ID'd (had fern-type leaves), a grapefruit tree in the front yard, and a small stand of bamboo (if you can believe it), and half the Silk Floss Tree (as noted in another thread).

At first, we thought they were all having different problems, but when you think of it all at once, it's a bit gag-a-maggot.

Anyone have any advice? Input?

Hi Shear, beautiful gardens.

Some of my fruit trees look similar with the discolored leaves. I assumed it was some sort of nutritional problem. I bought some fertilizer but haven't put it down yet (you just reminded me).

As a newbie to Florida gardening, the only thing which hits my eye are the trees in the lawns without protection from mowers or weed-wackers. Is it possible the trees are getting damaged from those when the lawn is cut? Also, nitrogen in lawn food isn't the best for citrus (as far as I was told).

As far as shade, I was told Mano or Avocado Trees are fast growers. I planted one of each. They do get tall though.

Jane

They say that every tree has greening, but I don't believe it's a death sentence. I've read some promising articles about growers treating (not curing) infected trees with nutritional sprays and invigorating pruning.

Also, citrus trees can be naturally alternate bearing. Just because you had an off year one year doesn't mean you won't have a good harvest the next year.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.thegrower.com/news/citrus-greening/Research-bolsters-foliar-nutrients-role-in-citrus-greening-management-131343848.html

Azomite is supposed to be helpful, too.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.qualitygreenspecialists.com/index.php?p=1_24_Azomite-Stops-Citrus-Decline

Thanks, Jane.

I'm sure my trees are nutrient deficient, as they've only ever been "fed" by TruGreen and that was years ago.

I agree for sure about needing to pull the grass away from the trees. The two grapefruit and one lemon though don't have grass growing around them. They did when we moved in and actually looked better! (Part of the reason we've lost some things is because the previous owners only used this as a vacation home, so when they were gone for 8-9 months of the year, they had the sprinklers come on every single night and I can't remember if they stayed on for way too long per zone, or if they were only on for a very short time per zone.

I don't want anything tall there because the upper window is for a guest room that is as dark as a cave. Also, the Wisteria on the arched trellis over the side garage door likes to "reach out and touch someone," so I need to be able to reach to get it to let go.

Jack, I think I've heard that before somewhere about every tree having greening. That's probably true, especially in FL, eh?

But the big grapefruit tree and the lemon tree bore TONS of fruit every year up to and including this one. The one that's dropping fruit has never been much of a fruit bearer, though it tries. The small orange in the middle of the yard used to have a lot of fruit, but hasn't for the past three years.

I'd love to hire someone to come tell me what's wrong and what to do, or just do it for me. How much does something like that cost?

It is easy enough to find out if your tree is nutrient deficient. It almost certainly is if you haven't fertilized. They need several pounds of fertilizer multiple times a year.

Some of your leaves look like greening, and others look like zinc deficiency ( see this link for pics http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ch142). The easiest way to figure it out is to go to lowes or Home Depot and pick up some of the southern agriculture nutritional spray, specifically one that has zinc. Next time your tree is putting out new leaves, wait until they are about half expanded, then spray. If the new leaves look significantly better, then the problem is lack of nutrients, and starting a regular fertilizing regime should help. If the spray doesn't help, then it is probably not nutrient deficiency.

Of course if you are just tired of fruit trees, then that's a different thing. I have a Hong Kong orchid that I love. Big, unique leaves, and beautiful flowers for several months of the year.

Nice job on the rest of your yard - very pretty!

Well, if they were my trees, I'd remove the grass around them and start a nutrition program to include a systemic insecticide for fruit, and give them a year or two before giving up on them.

I'll take that advice, as I really love them and want to keep them. Just gotta figure outmthe timeline/system/ plan.

Is there anything I can do ~now~ to help with the nutrient deficiency? The trees won't re-leaf for another full year.

I am tired of fruit trees.... don't get me started... so no matter what I re-plant, if I absolutely HAVE to, I don't want it to bear fruit. Wish I could get rid of about 5 of my 7 Loquat trees, etc...

Bridget, I don't know where are you located? but the best bet is to go to any botanical place around your area and see if you like the landscape, size, colors, etc.

You also have to decide what you want your landscape to do for you, beauty, easy care, food? then you can narrow down your choices. When there is an abundance of fruit is fine as long as the trees are easy to care for and easy to save the harvest or give them away. Unfortunately, citrus are hard and expensive to take care for these days and loquats are just not prime fruit, one is plenty!

We have a service that do all the things like lawn, pest control, etc. They also provide service for taking care of fruit trees but for that, they are very expensive! but at least they are experts and let us know if there are problems and what we ourselves can do about that. The orange groves around my house are heavily using every spray available, they are commercial and having harvests is very important to them.

Taking any mature tree out is also a hard job to do, we just had to take out a nectarine in the front yard that just died this season, it is next to my neighbors shrubs that were loaded with some kind of insects and disease last season, we asked our service to spray for that, the problem went away and I thought that was the reason for the tree to die. When we took it out this week, we found out that it died because it was not draining. Same thing was going to happen to the fig that I told you about it that was in the pot, at least I saved that one.

You have a long road ahead, either keeping the trees and taking care of them or replace them, make a plan....and keep us posted on what you decide to do. As a consolation, we are always changing something too.:)

Silvia

Right now I would remove all the grass and plants all the way past the drip line (you can use RoundUp... it won't hurt the tree). Citrus trees do not like anything around them but bare soil. No mulch! A very light cover of pea gravel is okay if you can't stand the sight of bare ground under the tree. You will need to keep weeds down manually or with an occasional RoundUp spray.

After the grass is gone, I'd apply a regular granular citrus fertilizer according to label directions (May is when the second feeding of the year traditionally happens).

I'd also do the systemic insecticide at that time and repeat according to label directions.

About six weeks after you apply the granular fertilizer, I'd start a liquid micronutrient spray regimen with a product formulated for fruit trees. Look for something containing zinc phosphate or magnesium phosphate. KeyPlex Direct makes a spray that I'm trying this year. I've only done one cover spray so far, so I can't evaluate results, yet.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.keyplexdirect.com/our-products/207.html

Silvia, I'm in Titusville. I want the smaller trees in my landscape to provide shade to the things planted nearby, and to not be too messy. (We have enough leaves with the Oaks!) I want the large trees, those Oaks, to shade my house. I want them to be pleasing to the eye, but I don't need flowers necessarily.

Eventually, I want to learn to vegetable garden, and I've chosen my spot for that, but in this area, I just want "pretty." We're not big fruit eaters at all. The 7 (now 5) Loquat trees, 3 (now 2) Grapefruit trees, 4 (now 2) Orange trees, and the Lemon tree all came with the house. I will admit I also have two baby citrus trees, though. Probably a mistake, but my mother gave them to me so what could I do? So add another Lemon tree, and a Lime tree.

I was originally hoping to plant new ornamental small-ish trees near these Grapefruit trees, and when the new trees were well-established, cut down the citrus. Brutish, I know… but I just can't see hiring someone to come tear out these smaller, albeit mature, trees.

Jack, thank you for taking the time to spell it all out for me. I really do need it made quite simple or I get overwhelmed because I just don't "get" nutrients, micro-nutrients, when and how to fertilize, etc. Even the "systemic insecticide," I'll have to write that down and ask someone at the garden center.

No mulch?! *Groan!* I just PUT it there! LOL! For pete's sake I've got a long way to go. Thanks again.