I was directed that this was the easiest indoor orange citrus tree to grow...I have already had one to die due to what I believe was root rot! This is my second attempt...planted in 100% CHC. This tree started off relatively well with full foliage; however, most of the leaves were curled. It has not done nearly as well as my limes and lemon trees...even the regrowth on my Cara Cara tree is better! I have watered and fertilized it as I have all the other trees...even added some Epsom salt to its water for some magnesium. The leaves appear dark green, very soft and droopy. The have almost all fallen off. Any ideas what I can do to bring this tree back? It is about three years old and has never bloomed. Thanks, Tim.

Any Ideas on how to save this tree?

Your question has been here for a week and nobody has answered so I will give it a shot. I'm no expert so take it for what it's worth. Your problem is almost certainly the wrong combination of water, light, and temperature. You haven't stated here what your water, lighting, and root zone temperatures are so I will make some assumptions partly based on your similar grapefruit tree post.

I have had similar problems with my Trovita orange and mandarins in the past though not as severe. I will describe my growing conditions so you can compare them to yours and determine if this applies to you. My trees spend nine months of the year indoors. I put them next to a south facing window where they get 6 to 8 hours of direct sunlight a day. The room they are in is at 68F to 70F day and night. The pots do not receive any heating from sunlight. The root zone temperature without heating is at about 60F to 68F depending on how wet the soil is. The limes and lemons do OK at this temperature but the oranges and especially the mandarins don't do well. Both gradually drop leaves, especially after a sunny day. This is typical WLD. I have a satsuma tree that never grew any new leaves at all for a year and a half after I bought it. It was down to the last few leaves. I decided that if I didn't heat the roots soon I was going to lose it. I wrapped a string of about 100 small Christmas lights around the pot and raised the soil temperature from about 65F to 75F. Within three days it started to put out a major growth flush. Within a month it had three times as many leaves as it had before I started to heat the roots.

In addition, the mixture I used to pot my trees in was very free draining. When I watered the trees, the water would start flowing out of the bottom of the pot within 10 seconds and would drain completely within 30 seconds. It was probably too free draining so I watered them frequently to compensate for this (every day when outdoors in the summer and twice a week indoors in the winter). Of all my trees, the Trovita orange seemed to be the most sensitive to the excessively fast drainage and it dropped quite a few leaves until the potting medium compacted a little and I got the watering right. Now I heat the root zones of the mandarins and oranges and they are doing as well as the lemons and limes. The next time I repot my trees I'm going to put heating cables with thermostats in the pots.

I would suggest a couple of things. First, Millet has suggested in the past that straight CHC drains too fast and doesn't allow the CHC enough time to absorb water. It needs some peat moss or something else to slow down the drainage a little bit. He has also said that if you do use straight CHC then you should place the entire pot in a tub of water for a few minutes to give the CHC enough time to absorb the water then allow the water to drain out of the pot. Second, do something to get the root zone temperature above 70F if the tree is receiving a substantial amount of light. When you measure the root zone temperature make sure you measure it several inches down into the soil and not at the surface.

Thanks for the help! I have ordered a plant warmer mat and will begin using it initially on the trees that are experiencing extreme WLD. Thanks again, Tim.

Tim, are your trees doing better now that they are outside?

The dwarf grapefruit died, I re potted it and it never came back. After checking out the roots, it had three or four main vertical roots that all curled to the left at the bottom; however, it lacked any real horizontal root growth and showed signs of root root on the bottoms of almost all the roots. I pruned the roots back just before they started circling and re potted it but all the limbs died within about two weeks. I am grateful to Four Wind Growers as they have agreed to replace the tree with an Oro Blanco grapefruit tree for just the cost of shipping. I should have the new tree later this week. I have also purchased 3 and 5 gallon superoots air pots to re pot all my fruit trees. The verdict is still out on my Washington Navel. I pruned it's roots, and pruned it's limbs back since it had already lost all it's leaves. I think it has about a 50/50 chance but I am hoping for the best. It is currently in the greenhouse with the rest of the trees. I think it may have the beginnings of new growth but it is extremely small right now. Good luck with your trees..Tim.