Wilting Mandarin Tree

GARIOM

Location Southern Spain
Please can anyone tell me why my mandarin tree leaves appear to be wilting and curling up?
The tree has quite a lot of fruit but I am unsure if I am under or over watering it.
Please can someone advise me of how much watering and feeding is required.

Thanks

Sean Freeman

Gariom, post some pictures of the tree and the leaves close ups if you can, that way you'll get much better advice as to what may be causing the problem...there are just way too many possibilities for the symptoms you describe...if pics are a no go then carefully describe what you see in the leaves before during and after they fall, pattern of discolouration, edges first? blotches throughout each leaf? holes? black or grey or yellow discolouration? The more info you give us the better we are able to help.

GARIOM

Many thanks for the advice of attaching some photos. I hope these help.

A little more info - Over the past week or so the weather has been in the 80's and quite windy!

The contents of the pictures are as follows:
1876 - Most leaves appear to be curling inwards and some are going yellow and dropping off
1877 - New growth appears to be abundance but is going brown
1879 - Picture of the whole tree.

There are a couple more pics attached.

I hope these pictures help.


Thanks

Attached Thumbnails

         

Eric Frei

Has some similar symptoms to some citrus trees I worked on here not long ago.

The soil should be moist, not wet, pull the mulch back a bit from the trunk of the tree too. Dig a small hole with a hand trowel and see what the soil moisture is like. If you encounter small roots see if they feel moist rather than dry.

Also when you have dug your little hole pour some water in it and see what happens, how fast it drain or if the water just sits, look at the edges where the water meets the soil, see if the soil is repelling water or beading the water up.

The trees I worked on were way out on the soil pH so test it, test kits are pretty cheap these days, test at various depths.

Also looks too light in colour, should be darker green, dont go fertilizer crazy though, use organic fertilizer with trace elements (not that white powdery chemical stuff) and maybe some wetting agent.

I'd spray with a copper based fungicide and some confidor, hard to tell from the pics but looked like some scale on the leaves, I dont like using white oil on trees coz it can burn in hot sun and you should really hose it off. No spraying when it's going to get over 30C OK! Spray at dawn or dusk.

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GARIOM

Hi

Many thanks for your response.

I will see what the water does around the tree as you suggest.
The treee does get some automatic spray from the irrigation system that waters around 05.00am.
The tree seems have got worse recently since it became quite windy and hot. I was wondering if it could be wind burn? Are these trees open to this?

I will get hold of a PH testing kit as you suggest and the fungicide spray etc

What PH should the soil be?

Thanks again

Eric Frei

6 to 6.5 pH

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GARIOM

Update

I have fed the tree with organic fertiliser as suggested and spayed leaves with water in the evenings - I am still looking for a PH tester and some copper sulphate based fungicide. Few language problems (Spain) However, the tree appears to have made a slight recovery and is not loosing as many leaves as it has done in the past.

Having taken a closer look at some of the leaves they appear to have various blemishes on them and eventually turn yellow and drop off.

Please see pics attached and if you can throw any light on what it might be and how I can cure it?

Thanks

Attached Thumbnails

   

mdvaden

In one of those images, it looked like a leaf-rolling insect had rolled some leaves (looked like a bit of webbing).

Wouldn't be the main reason for your post, but that's what the image looked like.

Had any weather extremes there, like a dramatically quick increase of hot weather with very little transition from cooler weather to hotter weather?

In the second batch of blemish images, some leaves like that on plants are not too bad, and can occur from moisture sitting on leaves at night from dew, rain or irrigation. Do the trees get moist at night?

Sean Freeman

Gariom the latest pics you've sent us show citrus leaf miner, as Mario points out this is a secondary problem but non the less is impacting on the health and vigour of your trees.




There are many chemical treatments sold for this insect pest but I would recommend either neem oil spray or bourdeax mixture.
Heres a fact sheet on the leaf miner;
cleafminer-bio.pdf

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GARIOM

Many thanks for the pics and advice on the possible treatment for Leaf Miner.

GARIOM

Hi
Just to let you know my mandarin tree appears to be making a good recovery and as a result of your advice the leaves are now much greener and healthier. No more leaves are dropping and new growth is appearing at the end of the branches.

Thanks for your help

Gariom

Eric Frei

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