Whats wrong with my Orange trees?

[kexon]

During the last week most of the leaves on one of my orange trees have dropped of,not over the entire tree but in large patches,it doesnt appear to have any obvious signs of an infestation,the weather has been rather erratic with cold winds now replaced by the heat of the sun.Any suggestions?

[Martin Page]

What colour are/were your leaves ...?

[kexon]

Hi,thanks for responding,the leaves are still green they curl up a little and then drop off,but the other strange thing is that of the smaller branches affected,some are still green whilst others are completely dead.We did have some very cold winds last week,now followed by very hot weather i.e.33c am just wondering if this has affected them,as I had masses of blossom this year and they all seemed fine? As I have over eight orange trees in my orchard I am concerned the other trees could also suffer the same fate later on and up until now the quality of the oranges has been excellent both in quantity and taste.

[alisonb]

We've had the same problem with a grapefruit which we have put down to high winds. Most of the plant looks OK (although a bit bald) and it does look to be recovering now. Although the leaves fell off, most of the blossom seemed to stay on. I've also got a lemon which looks permanently horrible, with curled up leaves and leaf miners, but despite this it has fruited really well for 3 years now.

[Martin Page]

I think you have a combination of 3 things that have help cause the leaf fall. Primarily the wind really does cause havoc with the leaves but its not the main cause ... Its a combination of water and feed with the wind. now which is the main cause I wouldnt like to guess.
The reason for asking about the colour of the leaves is IF the were yellow or had a yellow veining then the cause would be due to lack of Nitrogen and Phosphorus in the fertiliser. Therefor making the leave weak and easilly blown off.
Secondly... lack of Phosphorus would produce poor root system and hence poor water take up for the leaves ... and then back to wind again !
Also - if you experienced sever water logging with the rains, you could have root decay which again could reduce water to the leaves.
All of which will prety much auto correct over the course of the summer.

...And just to pep them up use a chealated Iron (chelato de acero) with adition fertiliser now and keep watered over the summer


Citrus are tough old trees they usually come through most things if there old enough .