Is my Robada dead? It has not leafed out yet 
I made cuts on multiple branches and I do see green… but the buds are crumbly and dry and falling off…
Its a 4 in 1 planting and this is the only tree that has not leafed out yet… There are also dead branches on the other trees in this 4 in 1 planting (Tomcot, Moorpark, Orangered)
The trees were very healthy and growing vigorously before winter but just didnt leaf out… I am completely lost here… Any help appreciated?
I had similar issue with apricot. It ended up to be crown rot and it died. Remove the mulch, expose the crown and check. If it is sick, I would remove it immediately and may be use some fungicide on soil and other trees to prevent spreading.
Thanks! Tried removing the mulch - but dont see any issue with the roots… nothing seems to be rotting.
Then I don’t know… Voles?
Thank you, I dont know… may be its rot and its deeper down than I dug…
Just sad to see this one go… 
Mine was right under mulch, and it was very obvious - orange colored, oozing rot. Give it some time, if you do not see obvious rot. I had my first apricot tree planted in fall. In spring, it was not showing any signs of life till mid may. And it had some kind of wound on the bark when it arrived in fall, so I asked for replacement. By the time replacement came, the first one sloooowly woke up. Second one I planted in a different spot and it was growing like crazy but died next spring from the crown rot. The first one, despite the wound that now took half of the trunk diameter and about 6 inches long, continue to grow and even gave us few fruit last year… Go figure 
With help from @anon89542713 and @Richard (offline chats) I have been trying to find out why the Robada died. Sadly the Parfianka next to the Robada has not leafed out as well. However both the Robada and Parfianka are sprouting now from the Rootstock. I guess that’s useless to me.
Possible reasons Ive heard so far
Given that I have a tiny lot, I have to replant in the same spot. What can I do to not kill the next tree as well?
I was thinking of
Appreciate any other pointers!
Thank you!
Can you swap the kinds of fruit trees you plant there first? What i have done as i had a high attrition in my apple trees from ordering the kind fireblight enjoy. I dig up a good cross section and turn the soil and apply beneficial bacteria and fungi (Specifically stuff with Trichoderma and beneficial bacterias) as well as turn in a large amount of compost, I would cover this with a mulch that can breathe but cover from sunshine and then water this well as needed (not swampy but always moist). I would also turn in food compost high in nitrogen and bury this for the worms and try to do this for a month or two atleast.
Usually pomegranates are propagated by cutting – not grafting. Are you sure it’s rootstock?
Your right, no root stock for Parfianka, its the potted tree from DWN. So the sprouts should be Parfiaka as well I guess.
Citation rootstock is highly susceptible to crown gall, so this might be the reason, but this is just a guess. I’ve lost a few apricots on Citation and not sure why. Now, with a few years of experience, I dislike Citation for practically everything; prefer apricots and plums on Myro 29C or Krymsk-1 (if dwarfing is needed) and peaches/nectarines on Ishtara.
Thank you @RichardRoundTree @Richard and @Stan
I can do everything your suggesting on one tree. On the other one, since its a multi planting situation - I can only try to do as much as I can without hurting the roots of the other trees in the same spot.
Thanks I’ll try to avoid citation when I replant. Interestingly, my healthiest trees with zero disease are the ones on Nemaguard!
So should I just go ahead and pull out these trees or wait some more? The cambium is still green in many places…
It’s interesting how rootstock performance varies in soils. Citation has worked well here and Nemaguard does poorly. Mazzard is preferred over Colt for cherries elsewhere but the reverse is true here. I look forward to trying Stan’s recommendations for apricots and plums on Myro 29C or Krymsk-1 (if dwarfing is needed) and peaches/nectarines on Ishtara.
Maybe if you can borrow a fence post puller you can tie it to the tree and ideally rip out as much of the tree as possible roots and all with the least damage or just spade around it and leave the roots close to the other trees and you can apply some fungi to break down the roots or enzymes and mulch. However I have no idea if your tree is dead and I always try to leave things if i don’t have a immediate replacement and give them another shot, it just doesn’t seem apricots are a very long lived tree in some places and possibly the sooner you start over the sooner you can replant.
Had the trees pulled out today.
Here are some pics - I dont see anything out of the ordinary…
Please let me know if you see any possible root causes (pun intended 
) for the issues with these 2 roots.
Thank you!!!
You should have tons of new white roots branching out from the trimmed roots. I don’t see any white roots there so i would assume its been dead for a while or just a total failure to thrive
