Our little tree is not doing well. I did a search and found a wounderful post by Mr. Shep who helped Sue from Nova Scotia save her tree. We live in Southern California and he was going well until we moved a few months ago. He has been getting little bumps on the leaves and a few days ago the leaves started to droop. In addition there are a lot of ants that are crawling all over the plant and in the soil. My wife and I have taken good care of him since he was just a seed in my breakfast. He is three and a half years old and we have had him since my wife and I started dating. We are very attached to him and feel like he is our child. That being said it has been hot here and I am wondering if he has gotten too much sun and or heat. If you are out there Mr. Shep please help.
Hi, LBobirca. Your poor grapefruit tree is infested with scale (the bumps). The ants are attracted by the 'honeydew' that they exude. Get rid of the scale and the ants will disappear as well. Here's what I would do: Get some insecticidal soap, an old toothbrush with soft bristles, a small container that's big enough for you to dip the toothbrush into, and a small plastic shopping bag. Slice the bag at one end and wrap it around the main stem so as to cover the soil surface then fasten with a twist tie. (This minimizes splatter and prevents most of the scale from falling into the soil.) Fill the container with i-soap, wet your toothbrush with it and methodically scrub (gently) all plant surfaces removing all the adult scale. Hose off the plant with water and finish up by spraying all plant surfaces with the i-soap. Wait five days then spray the entire plant with the i-soap again. Repeat the spray once or twice more. The telltale sign of scale, even when you don't see them, is the presence of spots of sap on the leave surface. It's best to treat before you see the adult scale. Good luck.
Thanks Junglekeeper, I removed all of the scales and transplanted our little guy to a new pot with new soil. My main concern is his droopy leaves. It has been hot here and I'm not sure if it from the heat or from the scales that he looks so bad. Could the scales be causing him to have droopy and curly leaves? Thanks again for all your help.
The scale alone will not cause the leaves to droop. The leaves can show some yellow mottling in the veins of the leaves and parts of the leaf due to scale. Generally, only heavy outbreaks of scale will cause the leaves to curl due to the insect. Here where I am, insecticidal soaps are for the most part considered a waste of time and effort but if we remove as many of the scale caps as we can before a spray or immersed in a dip solution then we can have some effectiveness using an insecticidal soap. I really like the suggestion of using an old toothbrush to clear away the scale caps. We have to expose what is under the caps in order for us to effectively attack this insect without the usage of biological control. Sometime look at this link below. Should the insecticidal soap not be effective, then other controls are listed in this link. I would still want to clear off as many of the caps before use of any chemical spray. I have removed them by hand in the past and then used Sevin. The current better control for usage here in the San Joaquin Valley is bio control, a predator insect used to combat this scale insect. http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r107301111.html I am battling this same scale also this year and have used showers of water to keep the scale at bay and localized to a small Southern part of the infected Lemon tree. Also, ants can protect scale by helping ward off the natural enemies to the scale. You may want to learn where the ants are coming from and attack their nests either with a spray or use of an ant bait. If you know exactly where the ant nests are sprinkle some table sugar on the ant mound. Ingested sugar by the ants will "tear up their insides" is how it was put to me several years ago. I've used honey baited jar traps for years for ant suppression. Container grown Citrus have a tendency to dislike having their root growth restricted for long periods of time. An indication of the roots not being happy will be seen in the curling of leaves. Other factors such as the Whitefly can cause the leaves to curl also. I would want to know how often you watered this tree before the transplant. How often have you fertilized this tree and what was the fertilizer that was used? You cannot allow standing water for any length of time for a container grown Citrus. If the water that was used is collected in a pan or tray then empty the water soon after the water has drained through the pot. No need to concern yourself if the water is allowed to drain out of the pot naturally without being collected. I have a suggestion in that you clear some of the potting soil out the pot for now to allow for more water to be applied when you want to water. I'd take out about 1-2 inches of soil if you can unless you do not mind several small applications of water rather than one or two medium applications for each watering. Citrus can handle warm to hot weather. They will not balk much unless we are not watering them enough. Citrus do best when grown in full sun but can take afternoon shade or even morning shade in hot locations and then rest of the day sunlight. By the coloring of the leaves of your tree I would not worry about the location where you have this tree. Too sunny a location or too hot a climate is not an issue by the looks of your tree for leaf color. The droopy leaves does raise an issue but this can be the result of transplanting the tree and not giving it enough water when the transplant had been achieved but could also mean that the roots were not happy before the transplant took place. We will see the leaves droop when the Citrus grown in a container have not been watered enough. A constant droop in the leaves could mean a root rot fungus has attacked due in part to the soil medium used along with too much wetness, due to too much water being applied too often and from too little water and not enough sunlight. Too little water can also cause the leaves to curl. Jim
Jim, If in fact the plant is suffering from root rot, would it be beneficial to use bottom heat to increase the soil temperature to 29-36C, the optimal range for citrus root growth? (I got the range from one of the more technical books on citrus.)
Sometime tell me of your indoor set up for Citrus. If your question is a dual one in which on one side of the equation you want to keep the roots warm to allow them to continue to grow, as they will if given the right conditions and on the other side to allow heat to inhibit a water mold form of a fungus, most likely emanating from the soil, from attacking the Citrus then I think you have the right idea. If you can keep the roots warm during the Winter you have a much better chance of having fruit ripen for you. I hope you know you are in the process of solving someone's Avocado dilemma for them. Now, the question I have is how do you plan to do it in an indoor environment? I am just curious but I do like where your thinking is heading. We seldom see a water mold form of Phytophthora here in the San Joaquin Valley as our soil temperatures tend to be too warm for them to flourish in. Only in container grown plants may we sometimes see them but from plants that generally did not originate from here. Below is a IPM link in reference to the gummosis form of Phytophthora on Citrus. http://axp.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r107100411.html Best regards, Jim
My apologies, LBobirca. Didn't mean to hijack your thread; I posed the question as my lemon tree shows symptoms of root rot. Feel free to steer the thread in the direction as you see fit. Since feeder roots have been destroyed, I wondered if the heat would encourage new root growth without ill effects. Phytophthora parasitica has an optimal growing temperature near 90F/32C - which happens to fall in the range for ideal citrus root growth. [Ref: Two Phytophthora's To Worry About] So which would benefit more from the heat, the roots or the fungus? In addition, would it be better or worse to allow the plant, in its present condition, to enter dormancy in winter? I would place a heat mat (made for seeds) underneath the pot. It'll raise the temperature - monitored using a soil thermometer - to several degrees above ambient room temperature. The distance between the mat and the pot will be adjusted as required to achieve the desired heat level. Nothing fancy. Just an enclosed balcony, south-facing and unheated. Temperatures in winter will likely allow citrus to go dormant for a short period. However this is not a sure thing because of the fluctuation in daytime and nighttime temperatures.
So which would benefit more from the heat, the roots or the fungus? The plant would benefit more than the fungus from the added heat. We can treat the tree for the fungus. A lot depends on which form of Phytophthora you have. Since you referenced in another thread your Lemon showing gummosis symptoms, I think seeing some photos of these symptoms may help determine which form you have. If you can tell me the sourcing of this tree such as did it come from California and which nursery it came into Canada from, may also help. In addition, would it be better or worse to allow the plant, in its present condition, to enter dormancy in winter? Let’s see what the symptoms on the plant are. Citrus do not go entirely dormant anyway, even with cooler day and nighttime temperatures along with less hours of sunlight or grown indoors, less intensity of light. The more destructive Phytophthora are the ones that prefer cool and moist conditions. I’ll have to check this out sometime (can’t do it too well here) but I remember a form that seems to affect the fruit with brown rot type symptoms with some gummosis showing on the exterior of the fruit. The gummosis from that form is not necessarily visible on the trunk and branches of the tree. Jim
The Meyer lemon that had gummosis has been disposed of. It didn't look like it was going to survive and I didn't want to risk having it infect the other trees. The Lisbon lemon is the one with the root rot. It's not looking too bad even though its leaves have a slight wilt. It'll probably pull through on its own in time but I'd like to help it if I can. Both are Monrovia trees from Visalia, California.
It looks like it's finally safe to declare the experiment with the heat mat a success. When the Lisbon lemon was placed onto the mat it had dull, wilting foliage and was in a slow decline. The leaves perked up and took on a deeper green after two weeks into the treatment. The process of dormant buds waking up and breaking out was and still is extremely slow. The duration of treatment was 19 weeks from the start to seeing the beginnings of leafy growth. This would likely have been reduced with better lighting.
