sign of nitrogen deficient or micronutrient deficient?

[jtnguyen333]

Hi all..

My gold nugget has been struggling ever since transplanted in May.  It was ravaged by bug and aphids in the summer and finally look to recover.  Now the leaves are all yellow even the young one.  From the photos, do they suffer from lack of micronutrients or just nitrogen?

-James

[Bomand]

Hello James. It appears from your pics that the pot this citrus is in might be too small. I can not tell from your pics if it is in a pot or in the ground.That leads me to believe that it could be rootbound. If that is the case I would surmise that the soil is probably depleted. What size pot is it? Did you repot any time? Lastly what environment is it in? Citrus needs good fast draining soil, fertilize, water and some micronutrients occasionally. If this were my citrus.
  I would repot using a bigger pot. I would use a better soil combination..one that drains well. While repotting I would check the roots to see that I had good healthy white roots. If they are curled in the shape of the pot I would comb them out. For fertilize I use Osmocote Plus. It is a complete fertilizer and the Plus is micronutrients. After repotting I woul place the pot in a better location. If it is going to be inside, place it in a good Southern exposure window. If it is to be outside place it in a sheltered area. Sheltered from wind and cold. Protected from North wind especially. In an area that gets lots of sunshine. Water the tree good every 5 or 6 days. By good I mean water till the water runs freely from the weep holes in the pot. Then do not water again till the top two inches of soil have dried out. What treatment did you use to rid the plant of the pest? Tell me more and I will be able to further diagonose your problem. Lets not expect a super fast recovery. It took some time to get in the present condition and will take some time to recover. If you have placed (transplanted) the plant in the ground lets hope you did a root inspection at the time of transplanting. Your location begs that you check this plant for disease......

[jtnguyen333]

Hi Andrew

The plant is in the ground.  The terracotta bricks are just part of a border ring I built around the tree.  The tree is in the south side of my house.

-James

[brian]

Hah my gold nugget looks just like yours, when all my other trees are nice and healthy.  It seems like it doesnt want to thrive.

Probably a fluke, though

[Millet]

Jtnguyen,  yes your tree is nutrient deficient.  You have not given us any information about the nutrition program you have been giving your tree.  A young in ground tree such as yours (I assume the tree is 2 years of age) should have been fertilized 5 times during this past growing season.  For your information, citrus trees in their second year are fertilized 5 times equally divided between March and September: citrus trees 3 years of age 4 times: 4 year old trees 3 times and 5+ year old citrus 3 times per year.   Now it is November and trees are not fertilized because of the possibility of damaging cold spells. Your tree is deficient in nitrogen and the leaves are also showing a deficiency of manganese.  I would not doubt a little deficiency of other minerals. At this point I would not worry to much about the manganese.  The bad insect problem suffered by this tree was most likely worsened due to the unhealthy deficiency of this tree.  Bugs attack deficient unhealthy trees worse than a strong healthy tree.  I guess at this late date I would still give the tree a light application of fertilizer.  The quickest method of to correction is by foliar spraying.  I would spray the tree with a nitrogen solution.  I really do not like recommending fertilizing a citrus tree in November, but this tree is in bad condition.  It  is a good thing for this tree that it is in San Diego.  Today is All Saints Day, and I do not know if there is a Saint for poor sickly trees, but if there is one, I hope it comes to the aid of this tree quickly.

[spaugh]

The tree is just struggling with the summer heat.  It will get a break over our cool wet season and get established.  Its not a deficiency, the plnt needs some shade (dont bother now) and some time to get its roots.  Same with your avocados.  It will get what it wants soon.  Maybe need to water it more often until we get some rain.  Just give it a quick shot every day or 2 until we get some rain. 

I put in some new mandarins and they are looking the same.  Not to worry, they will flush out by next summer and start going.

Brad

[jtnguyen333]

thanks for all your replies.

Millet,

When I bought it from the nursery in May, the guy that sold me the tree told me not to fertilize for 3 months.  So I didn't fertilize it until August.  When I fertilized, I used bioflora 6-6-5 or gro-power for citrus and avocado 8-6-8.  I fertilize every two months since then. 

-James

[lebmung]

depending on the rootstock the cold right now induces deficiency in citrus, especially if the weather is changing.

[jtnguyen333]

Millet...the closest saint I can think of is st. Isidore so I did ask him 😂.

Jtnguyen,  yes your tree is nutrient deficient.  You have not given us any information about the nutrition program you have been giving your tree.  A young in ground tree such as yours (I assume the tree is 2 years of age) should have been fertilized 5 times during this past growing season.  For your information, citrus trees in their second year are fertilized 5 times equally divided between March and September: citrus trees 3 years of age 4 times: 4 year old trees 3 times and 5+ year old citrus 3 times per year.   Now it is November and trees are not fertilized because of the possibility of damaging cold spells. Your tree is deficient in nitrogen and the leaves are also showing a deficiency of manganese.  I would not doubt a little deficiency of other minerals. At this point I would not worry to much about the manganese.  The bad insect problem suffered by this tree was most likely worsened due to the unhealthy deficiency of this tree.  Bugs attack deficient unhealthy trees worse than a strong healthy tree.  I guess at this late date I would still give the tree a light application of fertilizer.  The quickest method of to correction is by foliar spraying.  I would spray the tree with a nitrogen solution.  I really do not like recommending fertilizing a citrus tree in November, but this tree is in bad condition.  It  is a good thing for this tree that it is in San Diego.  Today is All Saints Day, and I do not know if there is a Saint for poor sickly trees, but if there is one, I hope it comes to the aid of this tree quickly.

[Millet]

jtnguyen333, yes Saint Isidore the patron Saint of farmers.  Thanks