My wahington Navel orange tree is finally starting out new growth and I am extremely amazed at how fast it gorws. It is also getting about 37 white buds at the new growth where I am sure flowers will bloom. But after coming back from a weekend away, I saw ants crawling all over my tree! I've heard of just sraying the tree down with some pressurized water, but I don't want to knock off all of the little buds. Should I just use soapy water?

I am sad to say that my Meyer lemon hasn't gotten any better since my last posts, well, not really. The leaves turned back to green, but they are a lighter green. Only a couple leaves fall off every couple weeks without the peiotle, but they are still green. The leaves seem to bet getting eaten by bugs. I looked under the leaves and saw black spots the almost looked like dirt. I'm pretty sure this is scale NOW, wayyy more sure than last time. I will post pics if you'd like.

On my washington navel, some of the branches turned brown and I think they are dead. They don't make the tree look too pretty, so can I cut tese off? Or will it mess with the nodde count?

One last question. Since my wahington has those white buds on them, when will they bloom? I looked around but only saw something say that fruiting period is winter. Does this mean harst time, or bloom time? I suspect that Washingtons don't bloom year round like my meyer? How long will it take for my oranges to ripen?

Thank you for any info you can give me.

Soapy water will kill the ants you get it on, but there is a source of ants that will continue to supply more. You can put some tanglefoot around the base of the trunk.

Fruiting time is harvest time, blooming period is normally spring for oranges. Your tree is blooming due to stress. I do not know if they will make it through your winter.

As for cutting dead limbs, go ahead and cut them off about 1/4 to 1/2 inch from the part that is still live.

New growth is always a lighter green when it first come out, it will darken with age if given proper nutrition.

If your citrus tree has a lot of ants, it is VERY probable that the ants are attracted to the tree because of insects. Ants feed on the residue (honey due) from various insects such as aphids, scale and others. You need to check your tree very carefully. - Millet

alright then, I will spray the trees tommorrow after I cut off the dead limbs, I hope to report back in a few weeks with good results!

Sorry for double post, but I am just about to go out now and spray and I have ONE last question (I swear one last..for a while): I presume that you just keep spraying the tree untill you get rid of the pests? And I just read that I should use a mild dish soap and water mixture, is this correct?

I just love how I always seem to get answers on this forum.

If the source of the problem is scale or aphids as Millet mentioned, then soapy water should get rid of the problem, a little oil (horticultural oil) in the mix will help.

Hi,i have a method which keeps the ants off all the time and also adds humidity.First get some pot feet so you can lift the pots off the ground,this
also provides the benefit of air circulating around the pot.
Buy a plant saucer of reasonable size,so the pot and feet fit in it comfortably.
Smear vaseline around the lip of the saucer in generous amounts.If using
a plastic container,you can smear around the lip of that too,in generous amounts.Keep a regular check.
Keep water in the saucer at all times but not touching bottom of pot at all!This will evaporate,providing
humidity for your tree.The tree doesnt sit in water,because its elevated above it by the pot feet.They dont like vaseline.
They would effectively have to pass the first vaseline barrier,then swim across to your pot,climb the pot and get across your second vaseline
barrier to get to your tree.Vaseline should stand up to rain too.
I use terracotta pots,so i only have the one barrier,i dont put on
pot.I mist with water (reasonable force)everyday to blow any pest off.
Aphids are pain in the arse and once on your trees,can be hard
to get rid of.Conquer oil(mineral oil) would help too.The aphids have to go,then the ants wont have any sap to eat.
Good luck,hope it works for you.

Trunkmonkey - I have used laidbackdood's method and it worked great for me when I lived in Florida.

As for this forum......... Well, it will be the best you will ever know. The people on this forum really CARE and are knowledgeable. Everyone helps everyone else without hesitation.

Good Luck.

Thanks for the technique! But I don't know how well it will work in my situation. It has been incredibly windy here lately, and I was getting fed up with my trees tipping over. So I dug two holes into my flower garden and put the trees in there, and so far my trees have only tipped over once since then, from probably the windiest day I have ever seen that isnt a hurricane. We thought there was a tornado. I might try taking your technique and changing it up a little bit. Maybe just putting vaseline only on the pot? Ill also try making the hole bigger and putting the dish inside as well.

Also, my orange tree now has 2 fully bloomed flowers on it! I don't care if the oranges don't make it, I'll do everything I can do to keep them till they ripen.

For what its worth, Canadian ants seem to be attracted to the citrus blooms
They crawl all over the blooms. No aphids no scale. They also love the flowers on my Bananas. I have had scale problems before - skeets and millets advise worked wonders for me (at least wonders for my plants)
Will / can the ants aid in pollination ?

Greg

I thought about making another thread about ths, but I don't want to flood your forum with my beginner questions. Just yesterday it rained all day, so I never ended up putting my trees out from under my deck, so they got very little if any sunlight. It looks like the same will happen today as well.I would really like them to get some light during today. What should I do? Or is it alright to leave them under my deck?

Don't worry about the beginner questions. I am new at at this too I bought my first two citrus trees just over 2 years ago and I now have about 18 varieties in my collection . Some in containers and some in the ground. Every year i learn more. There is allot of knowledge on this forum and some really great people. I am trialling many varieties to determine which will work the best in a area well outside traditional citrus belt. I will gladly pass on my experiences and what I have learned in the last two years to anyone who cares

Greg

Holy crap! I started spraying my trees with a mixture of horticulture oil, soap, and water. But my orange tree started dropping leaves like crazy! It is dropping like well over 10 leaves a day. they're not turning yellow or anything, but the flowers and fruit are still there, other than a few flowers that dropped ( I know that's normal). In my mix, I filled my spray bottle up to the 20 OZ. line with water, added 2 tablespoons of dish soap, and 3/4 of a tablespoon of horticulture oil. My lemon tree hasn't really changed in a month. Not getting any better, not getting any worse. Should I just keep doing what I am doing and pray that it gets better? Is my water mixture too harsh? Should I make a less harsh mix? My orange tree was doing excellent before this with a ton of new growth all the time, and now all that new growth has lost it's leaves, nad I just discovered one of them starting to turn black and die back!

If your using a horticulture oil, why did you add soap? Soap is not needed. The application rate is 1% horticulture oil and 99 % water. Spray very early in the morning or late in the evening. Never spray in the heat of the day. - Millet

I thought that soap would just help more, but Ill go and make another mixture with only water and horticulture oil. Thank you.