Citrus trees

[suejat]

Thank you for your welcome. Unfortunately my garden is looking much the worse for wear, due to the extremely dry summer we have had---- the rest of Spain has had no problem, but here, it has been one of the driest summers I can ever remember! I think this may be why my poor citrus trees are in trouble. I have a dwarf orange tree which looked to have died. We moved from the corner it was planted in, to a pot. I noticed that there were tiny brown scabs on the top branches, and the remaining leaves, so having done a bit of a search, and discovered that neem oil was likely to be effective against them I made up a solution, and drenched the tree, then fed it with citrus tree food, and kept it well watered. Within days, new growth started from just above the graft, and has continued to grow quite quickly ever since. There are four new branches, each of about 6 - 7 inches long, all at the bottom of the trunk!!!! Does anyone here have any idea whether I should just leave them ,or just leave one, and cut off the rest?
Thanks for the forum,

Sue

 

[Chuck]

We need pictures

 

[suejat]

pics below

 

[Chuck]

pics below

Scrape a small area on the trunk of the tree so as to remove the bark. If there is any green color it is alive but from what I see in the pictures the grafted part of the tree is dead and the shoots are growing from the rootstock. If you have a picture of the grafted area it would be of help. If you are completely sure that the shoots are growing from above the graft you can either grow one into a tree or leave all of them and grow it into a bush. I have never seen a grafted tree die and grafted shoots start to grow so IMO, as of now, is that the shoots are coming from rootstock.

 

[suejat]

the trunk is green at least halfway up. The shoots start about an inch above the graft. The shoots grow almost as you look at them! My husband is convinced that it's much easier for the tree to grow from there than higher up, but I just don't know! The trunk is not dead, cos when I scraped it, it showed green. I'll scrape further up, and see how far up rhe green extends.

 

[Chuck]

the trunk is green at least halfway up. The shoots start about an inch above the graft. The shoots grow almost as you look at them! My husband is convinced that it's much easier for the tree to grow from there than higher up, but I just don't know! The trunk is not dead, cos when I scraped it, it showed green. I'll scrape further up, and see how far up rhe green extends.

Yes, scrape and see. Something happened to your tree to make it defoliate. Just leave it alone and it will probably re-leaf on its own. Scrape on the limbs too. Anywhere that doesn't show green is dead and should be removed.

 

[suejat]

all the branches seem to be dead. the trunk is showing green up to about two thirds. We took off three of the new shoots that were all growing from the same joint on the trunk, and left two very strong looking shoots that seem to be growing very quickly. Many thanks for your advice.

 

[Chuck]

all the branches seem to be dead. the trunk is showing green up to about two thirds. We took off three of the new shoots that were all growing from the same joint on the trunk, and left two very strong looking shoots that seem to be growing very quickly. Many thanks for your advice.

I would give it more time before you do anything drastic. The remaining trunk will probably send out new shoots which might be better in the long run than the shoots starting out at the bottom. You will just have to wait and see.

 

[Jack.Cursor]

As long as there is Sunshine, you should give fertilizer in that pot. I feed all my citrontrees with the gift of my dogs every day. All my citrons say " Thank You" by growing, by developing fruits and new flowers . Anyway you can graft that shoots, if the origin is only the root. So you should reduce it to the one and strongest shoot.