I'm with gleb and citrange on this one, Dreaming. I, like MeyerMike, try to save just about any plant, but I can almost guarantee you, based on the splitting and peeling bark that your tree is verily and truly dead. The way to find out is to make some pretty severe pruning cuts on the main branches. Leave about 2-3" length from the main trunk. If you cut into live wood, your tree MAY come back. If you cut into dead wood, it's a goner. Based on what I'm seeing in your photos it most likely due to being within a sprinkling system, getting way too much water. That, in combination with a clay soil is fatal to citrus. They need once a week deep watering in our area, and hopefully not planted in an area with alot of clay. Another possibility is the roots were damaged by gopher activity. Look around the tree, behind your fence line in the other lots around you near the tree to see if you've got signs of gopher activity. If you dig out the tree, check for tunneling. The do love to snack on fruit tree roots. I've managed to save my beloved Meyer Lemon from the lone gopher I've seen in our yard since we moved in, in the fall of 2009. We rarely have gopher activity, but I am very quick to to trap them with Black Boxes at the first sign (where there is one, there will be a gazillion.) If you want to replace your orange tree, see if you can find a better spot, with good drainage, and not in the sprinkling system. Put it on a drip where you can do a slow drip for about 30 minutes once or twice a week (depending upon the temperature.) Patty S.

We live in the mountains of North Carolina, at 4200 ft. That makes gardening a challenge, since so many days aren't quite as sunny or warm as they are in the valleys. That established, we grew our own tomatoes last year for the first time. We found that the south side of the house was ideal in terms of the quality of the sun, and the duration. We only spent $2.00 per plant at Walmart, and had 5 plants. We didn't spend money on cages. We just staked with stuff we had. We did have to spend on a couple of beers to trap the slugs/snails. We didn't buy a single tomato as long as our plants were producing (which was about July through September). when the harvest ended, it was really a disappointment to have to go back to buying them -pricey and not very tastey. This year we decided to grow veggies in some pots that we had saved from previous nursery plants. We have been experiencing a severe drought in the South East, so we are conserving water. I figure that watering potted plants is more conservation-friendly, since the water doesn't just get swallowed-up by all the dry adjacent soil/plants. We have tomatoes; yellow bell peppers; zuchinni; and yellow squash, all growing in their own individual 5 gallon pots. We also decided to try our own romaine. I planted all nine plants in a large, clear plastic storage tub. We lost two plants to wilt, but the rest have been growing, and we have already been harvesting outer leaves for salads. I suppose the plants will eventually stop producing new leaves in the center, and grow rather leggy, but til then the romaine is really tender and nice. We had to spend more for the plants this year ($2-$3 per plant),and some potting soil, but we had the pots. We did buy some tomato food, too. Being a farmer isn't cheap.

Sounds like it was a nice tree :( Sorry to hear... I would just echo wfspath...The only thing I would consider removing is is some *definitely* dead branches that you can reach if it is in large amounts, since with all this rain you may have some issues with fungi growing...And I also agree that is is pretty hard to overwater an in-ground tree in Cali, especially of that size, unless you were really going out of your way to do so. Why do you feel you were overwatering (rain notwithstanding)? It sure sounds like it got "poisoned" all right... You may want to think about removing any remaining fruit, so the tree can put any energy into recovery. And you may want to hold off on additional fertilizer for a while, too. Did anything happen to the main trunk--any bark disease that may have girdled the trunk (especially if there were watering issues or lots of grass/mulch right up against the trunk) Or mechanical trunk damage from those weed whackers or mower or whatnot?... You mentioned growing grass underneath the tree--it wasn't there originally? Last thing--with all the defoliation that it has had, be sure to think about what you want to do about shielding the trunk and branches from sunburn. It may not be an issue with this drippy gray weather, but it will be soon. I think you can paint the trunk and main branches with a white latex paint/ water mix or something like that, you may want to look it up... HTH. Hope it can recover.

One problem to look out for with citrus around these here parts is they tend to sucker viciously after a near-death frost experience, especially if denuded of leaves, and those suckers often are very weakly "attached" to the main growth. They break off easily and usually don't grow large at all. If you feel you should prune (with citrus many people never do no way no how no matter what) to correct a badly half-killed tree, be very prudent and very light handed about what you cut. Relying on growth from today's rapid suckering to sustain the tree a few years down the line usually doesn't work, especially with an old tree. Then again it could live longer than you and I combined!