Citrus > Citrus General Discussion

C35-Meyer lemon incompatibility

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mehmetsaygin:
Hi.

At the beginning of spring 2017, when season starts we noticed a big problem on one of Meyer orchards. Leaves got yellow gradually quickly. We supported with trace elements, iron and applied %35 Metalaxyl and % 80 Fosetyl-Al in order.
Trees recovered and continue well in the summer. Then in September, the symptoms seen again and the tress died one by one, all of the orchard.

We got the soil and dead trees tested and nothing significant had been found, only some pathogens which are not the reason but the result of dead roots.

Unfortunately, we have 8000 more Meyer lemon trees on C35 rootstock in another orchard. We got afraid a lot at first but they were fine until last month. This month they showed the same symptoms and I am afraid the result will be same. This time we support with zinc and manganese because C35 is susceptible to them but I have no hope.

When you pull out a dead tree, you can see there is a very limited root development. It is obvious that the top part was not successful to support roots.
And rootstock-bud union connection shows a swelling on bud part.
At final conclusion we think it is a rootstock - scion incompatibility.

I would like to hear your experiences with C35 and meyer or other lemons.

Have a nice day.

SoCal2warm:
From that picture of the graft union, it looks like that rootstock may have been too slow growing.

citrange:
I have no personal knowledge of Meyer Lemon rootstocks. Perhaps John in Guatemala might help. He is a commercial Meyer grower and posts mainly on the Houzz citrus forum.
I have tried to find out a bit more for you, but there is not much information about Meyer Lemon rootstocks because it is not grown commercially on a large scale.
However, there are a few hints that it may not do well on C35. Some of the links below refer to other lemon incompatabilities, some refer to general long-term problems with C-35.
Do you know if your original supply of Meyer Lemons was from a guaranteed virus-free source? In USA this would be 'Improved Meyer' rather than the original importation which carried symptomless virus which could then effect the rootstock.

https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=13926
http://wacitrus.com.au/wp-content/uploads/Varieties-Rootstocks_Rootstock-Characteristics-Scion-Capabilities_Helen-Ramsey_July-2009.pdf
http://pir.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/296902/Citrus_Technical_Guide.pdf

2.9 Citrus tatterleaf virus
Citrus tatterleaf virus (CiTLV), synonyms Citrange stunt virus, Apple stem grooving virus, was first reported in 1962 from Meyer lemon which had been imported from China in 1908 (Wallace & Drake, 1962). CiTLV causes stunting or dwarfing, necrosis at the bud union, and virus-induced bud union incompatibility on scions grafted onto P. trifoliata, citrange, or citrumelo rootstocks (Iwanami, Kano, & Koizumi, 1991). The virus is carried asymptomatically in most citrus varieties, and symptoms often are not apparent until the tree is 3–7 years of age (Roistacher, 1991). The major method of transmission is by use of infected propagation materials. CiTLV is widespread in China, Japan, and Korea and has been reported in South Africa, Australia, and in the United States via the importation of Meyer lemon from China. Control of CiTLV is by use of quarantine, clean stock, and certification programs.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/citrange

Radoslav:
Mayer is well known symptomless carrier of the tristeza virus, this was the reson for Improved Meyer lemon cultivar introduction. CTV causes
 quick declination, but you wrote, that you tested the plant. Sudden death because of the rootstock incompatibility is theoretically possible, when there is a long time deficiency of some chemical element, but for me it looks like poisoning.
Is there some other farm close to your? Did someone use herbicides close to you water source?

You wrote about poor root system because of incompatibility, it does not give me a sense, if rootstock does not want "cooperate"  with graft, it will push its own twigs to overgrow the graft.

mehmetsaygin:
Yes SoCal2warm, you are right the rootstock were slow growing, undersoil roots development was very weak too but more important is why.

Radoslav, yes we got the dead tree tested but the result was clear of CTV.
Actually the trees are sprayed with nutrients during summer so I guess this delayed the death while roots were going bad.
Poisoning is not an option here because we have more Meyer orchards that we water from same source, on same soil but on Volkameriana rootstock. They are very healthy.
Also the first dead orchard was sharing the same field with Euroka lemons on . Volkameriana rootstock, which are also very healthy.

citrange, thank you very much for the links, they contain very valuable information, I will read carefully.
Meyer lemon has a very important commercial value in Turkey because it is the first crop at the end of August after people consume very expensive lemon whole summer. Not because of fruit quality or taste.
We read about those hints you mentioned before but we also had few trees for test before we go for the orchards and strangely today, the test trees were pretty good. They are 7 years old now and their effort encouraged us even after we read citrange rootstocks and meyer lemons are not a good match.

Your answer for the guaranteed virus-free source is negative, on the contrary I am pretty sure that they are NOT virus-free. Using Certified, virus-free tree is still not a common practice here. %95 of the orchards use non-certified trees.
But as I stated the tested dead trees were clean according to the report.
I checked the photos of CiTLV but leaf symptoms doesn't look similar to me.

I thought I could find more information on C35 and Meyer compatibility but I guess it is because it is not a commercially valuable lemon variety for US.

Thank you all for your replies.

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