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Meyer and Samatsu dying: what did i do wrong?

16 years ago

Hello I am a citrus newbie and I bought a small meyer lemon and samatsu orange tree recently. I live in houston and the weather has been very temperate this spring.

For planting in the soil, I followed the instructions from the nursery where I got them: I planted them in the yard, by digging a very large hole and filling it partially with compost and burying the roots in more compost mixed with the soil from the pot it came in. There is moderate to full sun in these spots.

The plants looked stress after a few weeks, ie the leaves didn't look great and a few of the fruits fell off.

Then after a few weeks I fed the plant with a citrus fertilizer that I bought at the nursery.

Over the next few weeks the plants got worse and they appear to be dying if not dead...most leaves have fallen off.

Did I kill them somehow? What could I have done differently? Could I have over-fed them and stressed them by doing so?

thanks

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Comments (6)

silica
16 years ago
Unfortunately, you have completely planted your citrus trees incorrectly. When properly planting a citrus tree, you need to dig a hole the same size as the tree's root ball, and no larger. Further no soil amendments, such as peat moss, potting soil, compost or the like should ever be added to the soil. When you dug a large hole you created a large water holding basin. Every time you watered the tree you were filling the basin with water creating a lake that the trees root system was submerged in, depriving the roots of oxygen. Citrus roots easily develop root rot under these conditions. If you extract the tree from the soil you will see the destruction (rot) of the root system. Regretfully, this happens on a more or less frequent basis. When a citrus tree is planted in a hole that just fits the root ball, no lake is formed. Hopefully there is still time to save the trees by removing them and examining tree roots, removing all the rot and replanting correctly.
CA Kate z9
16 years ago
I don't know about the digging a hole only just as big as the rootball, but I totally agree about adding any amendments... just use the surrounding soil. I even try to shake off some of the potting soil, but not vigorously.... all this impedes the flow of water away from the roots as described by silica.
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Oops--did you let the fine roots themselves dry out? If so, they're almost certainly dead. What you want to lose the excess water in the soil, which will leave moist, not wet, soil that will provide oxygen from air between the soil particles to keep the finest roots aliive. Dead roots can't take up water for the leaves, which is why an overwatered plant generally looks just like an underwatered plant. Still, that little cluster of healthy leaves tells me that there are enough roots to allow the plant to recover--eventually. It will take some time for that to happen, and the water retentive soil will make it a challenbe to provide them with air and moisture, but if you're careful the fine roots will grow back enough to support healthy new growth aboveground. Of course the alternative is to get a new healthy plant and use what you've learned to keep it that way. No judgment; you'll have to decide for yourself whether to keep working on this one or give yourself a fresh start.
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wfspath
16 years ago
Citrus are very sensitive to being moved. Once established in the ground most citrus is fairly hardy, but take a while to acclimate to their new location. Losing some leaves and fruit in the first couple of months after planting is pretty common. I wouldn't do anything other than pay attention to watering (be careful not to overwater or let them completely dry out) and I'd avoid fertilizer until they bounce back.
misteryuk
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks very much everyone. What is the best watering schedule for these guys? I have a pretty green yard and it rains quite a bit in houston at times, but i have an automatic sprinkler system that goes for 10-15 minutes 3-4x/week in the AM (depending on the season/heat) (and does not go on in the rain.) Is this over-watering and contributing to the rot problem?

And I take it the "fertilizer with a lot of nitrates" that was suggested to me (I bought a 'citrus fertilizer' product) was not a great idea?
john_bonzo
16 years ago
Don't let the automatic sprinkler hit the citrus area. I live in Houston as well...I would deeply water (soaker hose) once a week for every week we do not get any rain. So far this year, thats only been like 2 weeks.

Citrus fertilizer isnt bad - just go easy on it.
misteryuk
Original Author
16 years ago
John, did you just plant it directly into the houston dirt or did you use something else?

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