Hello there, I'm new to citrus, and had posted on a different forum, but Benny kindly directed me here. My situation is, we attempted to rescue a wonderful tangerine tree (I don't know what kind) back in January. The tree was larger than I would have liked to transplant (over 6 feet tall, and about as wide) but it was going to be bulldozed for construction, so we did our best.

The roots were very wide-spreading, so we had to prune them, and didn't get to take much of the soil on them. We brought it home, dug the hole, and put it in the ground immediately, and as soon as we got it in, we had a nice deep rain. We harvested all of the fruit, and pruned the canopy so that it more closely resembled the roots. Since then, the tree has declined slowly. At this point, it still has most of the leaves, but has begun to drop a few. The leaves have wilted some, and turned a little yellow. A few weeks ago, I tried a citrus fertilizer, but it hasn't changed anything.

I'm down here in Florida, and pretty soon we'll be in some hot weather. I know this can stress my tree even more. We planted the tree in a spot that does provide some shade, and I had planned to prune some branches from nearby trees to create full sun eventually. I read on other posts about painting the bark with latex paint to protect it from sun. Do you think this is necessary in my situation? Or do you think the sun has already damaged it?

The tree also has some small tiny narrow white scales (?) on the bark and the leaves. Should I do anything about that at this point?

Thanks to anyone who can give me some advice. I don't know a lot about citrus, and I know we've probably done many things wrong already, but we really do love this tree and I hope there is something we can do to make it alright.
Thanks again!
Erin

Hi Erin, and welcome to the forum. We are glad to have you as a member, and hope you stay for a long time. Actually, the symptoms that you describe are consistent with transplanting a tree of that size. Some leaf drop, leaf wilt, and a slow decline are all rather normal. The stress that the trees is experiencing is mostly from the damage done to the fine root hairs, which absorb the water and nutrients from the soil. The root system cannot at this time supply the tree with adquate water. Hopefully, the roots can reestablish some new growth in 3 or 4 months. I would not expect a lot from the tree for a minimum of a year or two. Protection from the winds and sun will be helpful to reduce the transpiration of water out through the leaves. Keep the soil moist, but not overly wet. Please let us know from time to time how the tree is doing. I wish you and your rescued tree good luck. - Millet

I agree with Millet. The tree will need time to adjust to it's new location. It should recover without a problem. The biggest thing right now is to make sure you don't over water it. If the roots start to rot at this point you'll lose it for sure. If you have pruned the canopy back to compensate for the root loss, you have done the right thing.

Do NOT waste your money on SuperThrive, it is nothing more than snake oil...

You could try watering the tree with root stimulator. This will help to form new root a little quicker. This could be done a couple of times a couple of weeks apart.

If there is a way to shade the tree, or otherwise keep it from losing moisture, that might be helpful. Misting might help too. I have also heard of whitewashing (maybe with a diluted, waterbase paint?) so as to reflect sunlight from the bare wood. Watch for insects such as borers, they are often drawn to weaken trees. Ambrosia beetles are bad about this locally - I don't know if they prone to home in on weakened citrus or not, but I am sure something is.

Don't want to be the bearer of discouraging news, but, to me, that sounds like a pretty big tree to be moving this time of year, but it sounds like you already know that - good luck.

(Opps! I see I have repeated a few ideas others had already mentioned - sorry)

Ned

When I was living in Lakeland Florida years ago, I planted a matured orange tree in my yard perhaps over 20 to 30 -year-old-tree,where my neighbor just wanted to dispose; the trunk diam was perhaps about 8 " .
I did not know what I was doing but what I did was cut all the top branches bare and left just 2 main trunks on. Most of the roots were gone since I also cut the tap and side roots for ease of handling.
I felt sorry for the tree and of course I was already fascinated with citrus since all trees growing in my yard were nothing but pine trees. Pine trees grow everywhere not only in my yard but it seemed to me all over Flolida.
But that orange tree lived. After about 6 months new buds sprouted but I never got to see it fruited because we moved to California.

Hi everyone,
Thanks for your support & advice. The tree is barely hanging on and at this point I wonder if I should just give up. There are still some greenish leaves on it, but many of the small twigs left are brown, and many more leaves have fallen. There are still no new signs of life, now having been in the ground about 5 months. Perhaps it is the heat that is causing it to decline so much faster now. We've also been in a drought, but I've been watering well every other day (more or less depending on conditions).

Also, I don't remember if I mentioned this before, but it seems to have some sort of scale or something scattered over many of the leaves. It looks like tiny white elongated specs. I'm sure this is not helping matters. Should I do anything about that? The place where the tree was growing before was near a wall, kind of moist and with poor air circulation. I thought maybe with better conditions here, the problem might clear up eventually. Any advice now would be appreciated.
Thanks!
Erin