Sick Grapefruit Tree

Discussion in 'Citrus' started by jchickok, Sep 11, 2009.

  1. jchickok

    jchickok Member

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    Location:
    eustis, florida
    My grapefruit tree is about 20 years old and the past few years its got a lime green crust on its trunk and branches, the leaves are disappearing and some moss is starting to hang from branches. I trimmed this past spring and sprayed for mold but didn't seem to do any good. I've had the best grapefruit from this tree and want to save it ..
    How ??? JC
     
  2. thanrose

    thanrose Active Member 10 Years

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    Location:
    Jacksonville, FL USA USDA Zone 9
    First, the moss is probably tillandsia spp. Spanish moss and ball moss? Twenty year old tree in Eustis probably has some innocuous lichen on it, too. Tillandsia does not harm the tree at all. It's present on our mature trees all the time, but more visible when trees lose some leaves for unrelated reasons.

    When you say lime green, do you mean the soft pastel green of lichen or the yellowy green of the leaves in the UBC symbol above? I hope it's the lichen green, perfectly normal and expected of mature trees in Central Florida.

    I've seen darker green slime on salt deposits, usually within a few inches of the soil surface. Does it have the orangy crust of salt there, and do you use a lot of fertilizer? If so, gently scrape that away without peeling the underlying bark, and keep fertilizer away from the trunk.

    Spraying for mold probably didn't do much. We will get sooty mold on citrus leaves and fruit here, but usually there are other problems like aphids that contribute to the production of mold with their secretions. The only green mold I know of on citrus is on rotting fruit that has already fallen and the salt slime that I haven't identified.

    Sometimes trees just wear out and are ready to die. At 20 years, I don't think this is a problem yet, but wanted to throw that out there for consideration.

    If you've applied citrus feed at the dripline, kept mulch and weeds away from the trunk, and pruned out dead wood, you are probably doing as much as is reasonable for this tree this year.
     
  3. jchickok

    jchickok Member

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    Location:
    eustis, florida
    Thank you very much for your prompt reply and thoroughly explaining some things I didn't know about what was happening to the tree. You hit it on the head about the patching on older trees is normal .. thats what it is and I didn't know about not fertilizing close to the trunk so thanks again and I will try to take better care of the tree I love... JC
     

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