Help with an Orange tree

[kenbo1000]

Can anyone help me with a problem I have with my Orange tree. It has started to shed its leaves at an alarming rate.We had plenty of fruit, however it shed a few because they split. My problem is, I don't know how often to water it or how much water to give it. We have two Lemon trees and they don't seem to have any problems. The lemons just seem to survive without any watering. I tried giving the Orange tree a good soaking but this seems to have made it worse. I have been on various sites but the information is mostly for California. Some sites say water once a week and other say don't water unless under extreme draught conditions. Can anyone give me advice as I don't want to lose a mature tree.

Thanks.
Ken.

[anto3]

we had the same problem,so a friend told us to put a small drop of washing liquid into a spray bottle and spray the leaves with this a few times a week, Worked great for us

[canarybird]

The dish liquid in a spray bottle is to combat white fly and has nothing to do with the watering schedule.
Also the spray should be rinsed off with a hose the next day or the sun will burn the leaves which are covered with the soapy solution.

Ken ... the citrus trees here in Canaries have not been doing well for a long time due to a plague on the leaves, but if your leaves look otherwise healthy (especially if they're clean on the underside) then perhaps it's a watering or feeding problem. You could try digging down about 10 cms into the soil under the tree and see if it's dry or humid. If it's dry, you need to water especially if the tree has been producing fruit and needs to replace both moisture and food elements.

Overwatering and underwatering sometimes produce similar symptoms. Are the leaves curled from side to side and looking like a canoe? That could be underwatering......do the soil check by digging down. Overwatering will cause the leaves to yellow and drop. It's often more common than underwatering. Lack of nitrogen also produces yellow leaves. Have you been giving it any fertilizer ?

We have an old and established grapefruit tree which after pruning a couple of years ago, has produced masses of dark green leaves thie year and exactly two grapefruit. My neighbour's grapefruit tree has produced an overly bountiful supply of fruit but her leaves have turned yellow, when they were always green. We don't water the tree according to a schedule but it does get a light dousing with the hose about twice a month. It needs more when it's producing fruit.

Not sure if this has been any help, but checking the soil and the leaves should give you some clues. I'll ask my Canary gardener and get back to you if a few days. He has land with many orange trees.....which also have not produced any fruit this year. But I'll find out for you what is the norm here for quantity of water.

Canarybird

[warbey]

No Fruit can be because of no Bees to fertilise .

The Bee Population Worldwide is erratic .;

[canarybird]

Warbey my neighbour's tree is only about 6 meters away and hers was and still is loaded down with fruit. My lime tree also has plenty of fruit and blossoms. We did prune the grapefruit quite drastically to get rid of the infected leaves and it may still be getting over the shock. Hopefully it will produce again this fall.

I think the bees are being affected by mobile telephone tower electromagnetic signals. :whistle:

[warbey]

You are probably right.
Pruning has effects even if done at the correct time..
The Poster mentioned Fruit that split.
I suggest this was Too much Water, but in Your Climate I'm not positive.

A large area Fruitless though is worrying whatever the cause.

[kenbo1000]

The dish liquid in a spray bottle is to combat white fly and has nothing to do with the watering schedule.
Also the spray should be rinsed off with a hose the next day or the sun will burn the leaves which are covered with the soapy solution.

Ken ... the citrus trees here in Canaries have not been doing well for a long time due to a plague on the leaves, but if your leaves look otherwise healthy (especially if they're clean on the underside) then perhaps it's a watering or feeding problem. You could try digging down about 10 cms into the soil under the tree and see if it's dry or humid. If it's dry, you need to water especially if the tree has been producing fruit and needs to replace both moisture and food elements.

Overwatering and underwatering sometimes produce similar symptoms. Are the leaves curled from side to side and looking like a canoe? That could be underwatering......do the soil check by digging down. Overwatering will cause the leaves to yellow and drop. It's often more common than underwatering. Lack of nitrogen also produces yellow leaves. Have you been giving it any fertilizer ?

We have an old and established grapefruit tree which after pruning a couple of years ago, has produced masses of dark green leaves thie year and exactly two grapefruit. My neighbour's grapefruit tree has produced an overly bountiful supply of fruit but her leaves have turned yellow, when they were always green. We don't water the tree according to a schedule but it does get a light dousing with the hose about twice a month. It needs more when it's producing fruit.

Not sure if this has been any help, but checking the soil and the leaves should give you some clues. I'll ask my Canary gardener and get back to you if a few days. He has land with many orange trees.....which also have not produced any fruit this year. But I'll find out for you what is the norm here for quantity of water.

Canarybird

Hi, Thanks for that.
Yes, the leaves are canoe shaped and I also have leaf miners but I have a spray to control that. I am also aware of the clumps of white grubby things under the leaves but these are not a problem as I just rub them off. I also have two lemon tree's and a young pink grapefruit. The grapefruit is doing OK and produced 6 good fruit and the lemons are loaded with fruit both ripe and new. My orange produced well over 50 good fruit and we have been eating them for several weeks now. We did lose a few to splitting but not that many. The problem seemed to appear when I gave the tree a good soaking as it was looking sorry for its self and since then it has just got worse. It really is looking very sad. I bought some fertiliser that is graded for citrus trees and have dosed it twice in the past year so its not that. Any info you can get from your gardener would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks once again.
Ken

Added after 2 minutes:


No Fruit can be because of no Bees to fertilise .

The Bee Population Worldwide is erratic .;
I have two pepper trees and at the moment they are covered in bees so I don't think bees are the problem.