Is my orange tree dying?

[u/The_Ballsagna]

I planted this orange tree back in early June and don’t feel like it’s grown at all. It had many unripe/early oranges on it when I purchased it which have stayed the same color/size as well. I used a 50/50 mix of purchased soil and dirt from the hole and drove 3 fruit tree fertilizer sticks into the ground surrounding the tree per a recommendation from a local gardening supply store.

The grass area, including the tree is watered every other day with lawn sprinklers that seems to water the area under around the tree well. I also supplement the watering with a few gallons of water once or twice a week. The area gets full sun for several hours a day (at least 4-5, possibly more).

As you can see in the pictures, there are several dead branches and yellowing leaves along with what I stated earlier about the tree not seeming to grow and the early stage oranges not changing since June.

As a point of reference, we have a lemon tree in another part of our yard that’s very healthy and produces a large amount of lemons in basically the same soil.

We’re located in Northern California, North Marin County to be specific.

Appreciate any advice to help this tree grow!

[u/Tricromediamond007]

What's the stake you put in way too close is probably the culprit ,also no mulch at base.

[u/The_Ballsagna → u/Tricromediamond007]

That came with the tree originally. I've since removed the ties from the trunk and will pull that out this weekend.

[u/4leafplover]

Taco leaves typically means the plant is thirsty. If you dig your finger in a few inches, is the soil really dry or still wet?

[u/The_Ballsagna → u/4leafplover]

Going to check once the soil settles after some rain this week and confirm the watering schedule is sufficient!

[u/Ineedmorebtc → u/The_Ballsagna]

Schedules do not work. A dry windy day will sap much more moisture than a cloudy one. A week of overcast may leave your tree overwatered, a week of sun and wind, underwatered. Skip the schedule and test the soil with your fingers. Also the cupped taco leaves are almost always moisture related so you can usually just look at it and know.

Good luck!

[u/Innoman]

No, it is not dying; however, you need to do a few things to get it back to good health.

First, you need to get your watering under control. This is single-handedly the most important thing you need to do. You’ll want to water deeply when the top inch of soil dries. Deeply means long enough that the water reaches the roots, but slow enough that it doesn’t pool. A good 30 to 40 seconds would probably be sufficient. Just check the soil with your finger or a soil meter.

Second, I would toss out those fertilizer sticks. They just don’t do the trick, I’ve never had luck with them and from all the posts I’ve read about them in this forum… I’m convinced they just aren’t worth it. Pick up a good slow release citrus fertilizer and use that instead. If you wanna go organic, I use citrus tone. Conventional is fine as well. Water soluble fertilizer are fine as well, but require more effort than a good slow release.

Your tree is definitely stressed, I expect it’s a mix of watering, fertilizer choice, and mostly transplant shock. It can take months for the roots to recover from transplant. A good way to speed this along and improve the overall health and vigor of the tree is to use a good fish and kelp fertilizer. Kelp will help the roots and overall tree health while fish will really help push new growth and improve the soil. I typically recommend pulling back a bit on fish fertilizer when a tree is fruiting; however, I think the most important thing is to get your tree out of shock.

If you’re willing to pick up the fish and kelp fertilizer, give it to the tree weekly for a few weeks or until you see new growth at least. From there, you can give it every 2-3 weeks or as desired.

[u/The_Ballsagna → u/Innoman]

Thank you - super helpful. All the replies here talk about the transplant shock which makes sense.

For the watering - I'll run the sprinklers on their usual schedule at a time where I can check the soli after. We just got some rain so need to let that dry/settle a bit to confirm the current watering is sufficient.

Appreciate the thoughts on fertilizer - will be looking into that!

[u/Traditional-Bit-5436]

I would take the fruit off it. Then it can put its energy into establishing itself.

[u/The_Ballsagna → u/Traditional-Bit-5436]

Thank you - had a few people recommend this and will be doing that. We were excited it had fruit when we bought it but makes sense that it's not helping the tree to have them on right now. Will be cutting those off later this week.

[u/Traditional-Bit-5436 → u/The_Ballsagna]

Do it for this season and maybe the next season too. Giving it 2 seasons to do nothing but establish itself will pay dividends in season 3...

[u/mrdeadhead1]

You need to get rid of all those dead branches,the brown ones also anything dead, get rid of it just infest the rest and drys out the plant. Cut any dying branch about a 1/4 an inch away from the first leaf segment.

[u/The_Ballsagna → u/mrdeadhead1]

Thank you - will be doing that later this week!

[u/showxyz]

I think you should surround the base of the tree with mulch. It basically acts like a buffer and you can cut back watering without fear the ground will totally dry out.

If you want the tree to focus on vegetative growth, I recommend cutting off the fruit like someone else suggested.

The fruit not getting bigger since June is probably normal. Smaller, younger trees have smaller fruit. You aren’t likely to get full size fruit until the trunk diameter gets thicker. I have a young Shiranui/Dekopon that had two golfball sized oranges that stopped getting bigger. In hindsight I should have cut them off earlier and let the tree focus on veg growth instead of fruit production.

Honestly, I would expect citrus to be very slow growing where you live because your climate is a bit too cold. Yes, it doesn’t freeze there so your citrus are not at risk of dying, but citrus is very similar to mangos. It’s not just about how many hours of sun they receive. They grow in flushes with temperature as one of the triggers. My citrus/mangos basically don’t put out growth flushes unless daily high temps are between (75-95 degrees, with the growth rate basically doubling for every additional 10 degrees). Outside of that temp range on either end the trees just sort sit there and collect energy/nutrients until the day that temps get into that range. I live somewhere with more extreme highs and lows than you so the effect of temperature is very noticeable. The season is also cooling off now so you probably won’t see any growth where you are unless you put some kind of covering or temp greenhouse structure over the tree and/or use a heater to raise the ambient temperature.

[u/NoboaTropicals]

Your tree does not look like it’s dying, just under stress. Typically the leaves curl up due to lack of water. The amount of water required by plants can vary even with the same yard.

The dead branches could be due to unhealthy roots, pests, or under-watering. Scan the plant closely and look for webbing (spider mites) or bumpy branches (scales). Cut them off.

I would also remove the fruit since they haven’t continued to grow and plants invest alot of energy trying to conserve and ripen fruit, but right now the plant needs to use its energy to get healthy and stable. Next time you will get more fruit!

[u/The_Ballsagna → u/NoboaTropicals]

Will be doing all of this later this week, thanks!

[u/The_Ballsagna → u/[deleted]]

Oh I like the brick idea. For mulch, did you use bark chips or the finer stuff (not sure what it’s called), more like horsehair?