Thank you for allowing me to join your forum. I am an avid gardener and my tangerine and orange tree are probably my most favorite fruit trees. I've been reminded lately that citrus are much better for us than stone fruits, of which I have 8! I eat my citrus from mid-December until April most years.

I have a 20 year old Satsuma Tangerine tree that doesn't look well. I had a certified arborist out yesterday for an estimate on a tree removal. I also asked him to look at my Satsuma. I know the tree looks bad. Most of the interior branches are bare with the leaves being only on the end of the branches. Most of the leaves on the tree are light green; not the deep green they should be. This winter it produced only 4 fruit. Last winter it produced hundreds! He said it looks like the tree is shutting down. He suggested putting fish emulsion on, watering well, mulching and waiting a month. If no improvement putting gypsum on and waiting a month. If no improvement putting on chelated iron.

I know he made these suggestions looking at my tree and based on his knowledge of the soil in this area which is clay.

I have been fertilizing it 4x a year with a "citrus fertilizer" applying the recommended amount of nitrogen. I believe I do a decent job of watering it; (I tend to overwater rather than underwater my garden.)

I have a naval orange right next to it, also 20 years old, and it looks fine. The other side of the Satsuma is an apple tree I planted 6 years ago which remains quite small. (I want it kept small, not the citrus.)

In the front of the tree is my lawn and to the rear my neighbors garden which I can't see.

I'd like to send some pictures but have only used Photobucket in the past.

Should I post this on another forum as well as this "welcome" forum?

Thanks for your help.

Ginny in San Jose, California

Welcome Ginny!

I see that you are also a member of SCV CRFG. So that's double welcome from me!

I can deduce that your tree is having a root problem, a bad one. I hope it is not the dreaded Mal Seco disease, where there is no escape.

I too had a similar problem some time ago, and I spread about 10 lbs of corn meal (the cheapest one that you can get hold of ) around the base of the tree, rake it in, and water it. My tree fully recovered. One of the excellent things about corn meal is that it has aspergillus fungus that can kill off many pathogenic microorganisms in the soil. Another is that it contains iron. All those fertilizers you applied were not used much, considering that your tree is not growing, and so it would be in excess. When you incorporate carbohydrate into your soil, microbial population of aspergillus and other friendlier microorganisms will shoot up, consuming the excessive nutrients, immobilizing them, and thus help remove the excess. This is one technique well used in bioremediation to remove excess nitrogen in the soil. The nutrients would later be release, albeit slowly, which is a lot better for your plants.

Anyway, I am just guessing your problem as I haven't inspected the tree, but the corn meal treatment, the only thing you will lose is the cost of 10 lbs of corn meal. You may need to apply more, depending on the size of your tree.

Joe

Joe, thanks for sharing the cornmeal info. It sounded really interesting so I decided to try it on some of my plants that were giving me some concern. I must say that after about 2 weeks they are getting lots of new growth. The ones that were doing fine and did not get the cormeal are not showing as much growth and vigor.

Thanks again for such useful advice. More of my plants will be getting the treatment.