My Oroblanco tree is getting more yellow and dropping leaves. I tried foliar feeding (with foliage pro) but it seems to make the buds bigger and more, and no improvement in leaf. In fact the leaves got more yellow. Photos attached. What is the best course of action here? It’s been like this since the last year when I planted it. I was hoping it will show improvements this spring but nothing so far. Wondering if I should remove all the buds?
I am not watering it because it’s already moist (but not too wet) and it’s clay soil.
My tree is in full bloom now. Same stage of bloom as yours. I’d say to just wait. You can pinch off half of the blooms if you want. Whenever there is a leaf fall, citrus responds with huge set of blooms. But the tree won’t set all of them. So, even after the tree forms tiny fruitlets, many of them will drop.
I don’t have the answer, but I am curious on what it is. Have you performed a soil test? Seems like a healthy tree immediately adjacent should imply it’s not soil but perhaps if rootstock is different, they could respond differently. Yellowing probably not super abnormal for wet winter (although it’s been mostly dry here in SF Bay for a few months), but looks fairly defoliated as well.
I have a very healthy more mature lemon tree and lime tree, with less mature but also healthy mandarins about 20 feet away. But, I planted a satsuma nearby (think about a triangle with the 20 ft the hypotenuse) and that performed poorly. I’ve since dug it up and am babying it in a container, with minimal progress but in the right direction. Either tree was doomed somehow as bought or the soil was poor in the spot… cultural practices the same obviously.
EDIT: My oroblanco graft (hard to pick out but most of the center part of the tree in the photo) is blooming like crazy at the moment while still holding some fruit, so concur on timing of the blooms. If I were you, I’d trim those given the energy they’d require for even one fruit.
I’d paint the exposed trunk with white latex paint. On the expensive side you can get the IV Organics paint or on the cheapest side, get an interior white latex paint from big box store and mix it with 1:1 ratio of water. I hope the tree recovers.
From my experience, it is poor soil. In my previous house, I had a spot with grey colored caly soil. The citrus tree in there struggled for a long time. I had a lot of vermicompost which I needed to get rid of before putting the house on sale. I spread it all around the tree and it started growing gangbusters.
Although it looked healthy, The root system didn’t look strong for the tree size and due to the clay soil that never fully dries out, this rootstock may not be adapting well. I doubt it has developed strong roots since planting.
I am going to remove all buds and see how it does this year. If no improvements, then I will pull it out and try it in a container.
