If it has started to grow back then it should be OK for full recovery. I have a Rio Red and Oro Blanco and would be mortified if anything happened to them. Make sure you paint any exposed surfaces (bark) from sun to prevent sunburn if you still have some defoliated areas or the trunk is exposed. Make sure to lightly fertilize Valentines Day, Labor Day, Memorial Day at the least when the tree is growing. In winter, they aren't actively growing that much really. Citrus like water for good fruit quality, but you might consider taking fruit off of it (currently or if it sets fruit in spring) so the tree can concentrate on vegetative growth for now. Please don't do that to your tree again.

Patty: I have two Goldens. And a Bloomsweet. I grafted one of the Goldens onto a seedling that I grew from "Swingle" seed from Treesearch Farms. The tree was identified as Swingle but may be Citrus 4475, I'm not sure. Anyway, Golden budwood for that tree came from the Texas A&M Budwood Program and it is the better of my two. The tree is about 12 ft from the S. side of my garage and gets really hot in summer. The second Golden was grown by John Panzarella before the Texas Budwood Program started and grafted onto feral trifoliate from his farm north of Houston. That tree gets less sun and is in a cooler location. My Bloomsweet was grown by Hines Nursery at Fulshire, TX. It is on Rubidoux trifoliate. It is inferior to most other Bloomsweets I have tasted, not sweet and not juicy. I think Hines' budline is at fault. But the Rubidoux is not very well suited to my soil. I have begun grafting branches of this tree into more Goldens and standard Ponkan. Goldens grafted on this tree are juicy. The Ponkans are juicy but a a little less flavored than my other Ponkan. Bottom line here, rootstock, budline, and soil and shade play into wheather your trees are going to give top quality fruit. But you know that, just reminding you. I know of several seedling Bloomsweets that are much sweeter than mine. I have also heard Bloomsweet is a Kinkoji but that it is pumelo x GF. They were brought to Texas by Japanese farmers in the early 1900's. They setteled near Friendswood. Interestingly, one of the descendants of these settelers is now one of the few commercial growers of Goldens 300 miles to the south near Mission, Tx. I love good Goldens. I think most people are waiting to eat them when they turn fully yellow, which is way late. They are ripe when half green and yellow mixed. About 3 to 5 weeks after Chandler ripens is a time to sample here (before Thanksgiving). I don't understand the lack of flavor rap. They were described as 35% mandarin and 65% GF by botanist Dr. Stewart Nagle. It was discovered as a chance seedling at Monte Alto, Tx. It is not good to peel and eat by sections since it is so soft inside. Get a GF spoon and flick out the many seeds. The fruit are large and easy to juice. The blossoms have the most pleasant fragrance of any I grow, very complex and no yuk component that some strong blossoms have. They are not really sweet, but no GF is actually sweet. Well, maybe the Cocktail is. My younger son was taking John's grafting class class this past Sunday and came back with a glowing description of it. And he does not like GF. I hope you enjoy your trees Patty. My regards from Gulf Coast. Larry

You are welcome! Patience and keeping a light moisture appears to have worked. As an example, the roots of my Valencia were severely damaged from a huge shot of (liquid) fertilizer and then letting them go dry. 80-90% of the leaves dropped and it went into a coma. It took 9 months before flower buds appeared this past April. It bloomed heavy but appeared to continue to decline and branches brown off. This week i see the first sign of new leaf growth. 12 months! I neglected to mention that i also added a bit of soil acidifier to the soil and vinegar (1 Tbsp/gal) to the FP application. This change appears to have got things growing within 1.5 weeks. I am trying to verify it across several other troubled plantings so will update when possible. However, initial observation appears to confirm. Unfortunately, I will never have enough data to determine if the soil acidifier or vinegar made the definitive difference. Having said that, multiple folks on this forum have had great success and I am thankful they have shared! NOTE: my situation involves Carizzo rootstock (like 6.5 pH) and very alkaline irrigation water 8.6+.pH

Looks like Gummosis to me, Matthew, which is a fungal infection. Spinosad would not be the treatment of choice. See the link below for treatment options. Not sure this little tree is going to survive such extensive damage at this point. Do you have your tree in a lawn? Is it being hit by lawn sprinklers? If so, this is most likely what is promoting the Phytophthora organism - constantly damp or wet bark. I would suggest with your citrus to place them away from lawns and lawn sprinklers if you can. Patty S. Here is a link that might be useful: UC IPM: CItrus Gummosis