I could use some triage help on this one before it gets worse. This mandarin was perfectly healthy all last season, was protected during winter, and has been thriving since warm temps hit over a month ago -- including fresh growth. All winter and including the last few weeks I've monitored my soil temps and they've been perfect (warm on bright days, cool/mild-warm on overcast). Soil temp is 85 right now at 2:30 in the bright sunny afternoon.

Soil is moist, not soggy at all, and it rained for almost 10 days straight here (rarity) it makes me think of Fungus like Botrytis or Anthracnose?


In the last TWO days it went from this (pic taken over a week ago):







To THIS (with DOZENS more leaves on the ground when I nudged the trunk) It's next to its neighbor tree which was 100% repotted a month ago:



I've over-watered and drought induced my share of container and in-ground citrus over the years and this isn't behaving anything like either.

The following things happened since last winter -- all things happened to ALL my 50+ citrus container trees:
* I gave it one dose of a) liquid fert, b) some micros, c) fresh Dynamite CRF.
* My son painted the trunk (very sloppily I might add) with 50/50 orange latex water dilution.
* Bees are out in the last few days (since rain stopped finally) pollinating.

I've inspected all the rest of my trees and this is the only one looking this way (so far).

Here are some more pics:
Closeup of soil at trunk -- I scratched away soil everywhere and show lots of live white/yellow fresh growth.


Closeup of Leaves and Flowers (Notice the bee)



I'll move it into a more shady spot but it will likely be completely defoliated in a few days at the rate it's going.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

C4F,

I'm not an expert but I will share with you my experience.
Looking to the photos there are lot of leaves curling inwards which from my experience is caused by two factors: 1. spider mites. 2. Damaged root hairs, I think this is the right word (could be fungus, cold, over water).

Leaves curling inwards is not a good sign, if you couldn't see any spider mites on your tree, then the problem is in the pot.

Here is my lemon where was root problem:


Here is a photo with curling leaves due to spider mites:


All the best to you and to your trees.

Karoly

Hi Karoly thanks for the reply. I wasn't concerned with curling leaves (been that way) and I've checked for pests. I changed the title of my post since it was very misleading.

My concern is the Brown Unopened Flower Buds. There is die-back occurring quickly at the top of the tree, including one set of leaves that completely browned that I'm wondering if it's the cause of the fungus. More likely it was frost die-back from winter under the frost blanket.

But now it's dropping lots of leaves, which may be an unrelated problem with soil (as you've suggested). I was so very careful with soil and foliage temps this last year, I would be frustrated if WLD or root death got me. The soil was completely changed a year ago to a very fast draining mix.


MORE INFO:
==========
The tree is just outside of a bathroom window. That makes me wonder if the moisture from the bathroom, combined with longer rain, contributed to the fungus survival -- since it's usually so dry here. I have the plastic sheet covering the window and it's never opened (we use exhaust fan). Moisture does build up on the plastic when we shower. But I've had container trees in that exact spot for years.

Quote:

Anthracnose, aka "Blossom Blight": ... "The petals of unopened buds turn brown and buds fall off without opening".

But thus far, other than a few young branches dying back fast (in last week), there aren't any other similar symptoms.

C4F,

Could be anthracnose very easily because your tree is in flower!Here in Hungary we have lot of problems with citrus in fall especially where citruses are grafted on sour orange rootstock die back very fast starting with WLD. So, all leaves fall off, then the twings start to die back and in maximum 2 weeks the tree die. All this happen very quick!

I done lot of searching on internet to find the problem and then I got informations about anthracnose. As far as I understand the anthracnose fungus start the activity if the tree get an xxx level of etylene. This is happen when the tree is in flower or when the fruits start ripening (sorry for my english).

Ok, spray with copper let's see what will happen but I'm still believe, looking to the leaves that could be possible to have root fungus also, not major one. Use also systematic fungicide (goes into the plant not just on surface). Be carefull with copper concentration, you can burn the leaves.


Apologize for my poor english!

Looking at the two pictures, I would say that there is nothing wrong with your tree. At the stage of flowering that the tree is presently at, it is fully normal for a citrus tree to begin dropping from a few, to many leaves. As the flowering stage is completed, and fruit set begins, the leaf drop stops. The browning of the flowers is just a little botrytis from the rain, not much to worry about. - Millet (655-)

It just dropped half of its leaves.

I moved it into spot that gets only morning sun but lots of indirect light (consistently the best spot for any of my stressed trees).

Thanks again for the help..

If the tree has dropped 1/2 of its leaves could you show us a recent picture? Were all the dropped leaves older leaves, and not any leaves from the new flush? Thanks - Millet (654-)

I had the same problem with branches and leaves die back. The leaves look like they got bruised/( oily underneath the wax) then fall off. After four months of loosing 70% of he leaves and a few branches, i discovered my plant was under fertilized. This occurred right after new flush growth. This was on Fukushu humquat with root stock. I am growing indoor without winter dormant. No flower yet atm but alot of new grow flush. About 30-40 new shootings.