Hi, it's been a while since I've been on here.... One of my trees suffered a slow death recently. It was my Kishu Mandarin. First the leaves fell off then the branches died one at a time. As of a couple weeks ago the tree was completely dead. So today I went to the nursery to buy another tree and I saw other Kishu's with similar looking conditions. The nurseryman said that's what happens if they don't pick the fruit. He said on the Kishu's you need to pick all the fruit off before it goes bad and hurts the tree. My tree that died had a bunch of fruit on it and rotted, so it sounds very believable. Can anyone else confirm this?
Thanks!

I think we may be unto something here. Gene Lester's Kishu tree suffered the same symptoms, but is regrowing right now. I have Kishu grafted unto my 81-n-1 tree and it has deformed leaves, probably due to nipping of the cold, other than that, it is very healthy.

My contrarian question is:

If the nurseryman knew that not picking the fruit would degrade his own trees, why did he not pick the fruit?

Sort of like a nurseryman with a lot of dead product who tells you, "If you don't give them any water, they die". Buy my trees, you won't have to water them, because they are already dead.

I have my own citrus problems, but it doesn't make sense to me that a knowlegable nurseryman would let his own trees die for lack of picking fruit.

Dale

I cannot say for sure if letting the fruit remain on a Kishu can cause a problem or not. However, I have never known that leaving the fruit on, has ever caused a problem with any other citrus variety. - Millet (1,372-)

What I noted during the recent trip to Gene Lester is that the fruits left on the Seedless Kishu were brown and covered with a lot of fungus that spews out spores. The same type I have seen on some of the dead stems, but not on the new growth flush.

But normally, and I agree with Millet, leaving fruits until they rot should not be the cause of the die off of the citrus.

But with brewcider's observation and that what I recently remember from I thought was just normal die-off from something else, would make me want to take a closer look at those trees for something else that could explain this sort of abnormal way for the tree to die back. Too bad the trees are far from my scrutiny to take a second closer look. I will take note of this the next time I'm on a trip. I am certain that it might be indirectly related to the fruits to be causing this, but somehow, it would be one of my suspects.

Rest assured, that normally when you leave fruits even to rot on the tree, it should not be the normal cause of die back. This could be something else that the fruits may have triggered for the Kishu mandarin. It is worth looking into, but not a normal thing to happen.

I will never have that problem! I can't wait for the Kishu's to get ripe.

Ned

My only wish is that Kishus were larger. - Millet (1,386-)

This is the first year for my Kishu to have a heavy load of fruit. Every one that I have shared it with in the past wants one. This year if it hold a small amount of the fruit there will be plenty to bo around.

I don't know about kishu, but can assure you --it does not hurt lemons--I have about 20 still on my tree for more than a yr now--they have been ripe since Nov.