STORM2K

When we bought this house last June the lady from whom we bought the house told me that the four trees in the back yard were lemon, lime, key-lime and an orange or tangelo, she couldn't remember. Her husband took care of the yard and he has passed away. Anyway she said during Katrina that the lime tree and the lemon tree both had fuit on them and were just rocking with the wind. So, none of the trees bloomed last year, no fruit. This property did not have salt water intrusion, it had river water, I guess some salt water may have made it this far, but I don't know. The house did not get any water in it from Katrina, it stopped at the driveway and in the front yard and the trees in the back yard are on higher ground than the house so I don't think they were soaked with any of the water, not sure. They were looking really bad a month or so ago with the lemon tree leaves were yellow and falling off so I went and bought some citrus fertilizer sticks and put them out around the trees. They look sooo much better. Three of the trees have bloomed and have little tiny baby green fruit on them. The largest one, supposedly the orange (or what ever kind it is) I never saw a bloom but yesterday I was looking at it and found 1 little fruit on it. I read on some web sites about feeder thingamabobs, sorry, can't remember the name and it looks to me that this may have happened to this big tree as it is one big tree coming out of the ground, but has two actual trunks that go up. We also have a problem with "white flies" I think is the name of them and some little spider things that curl just a few leaves and make like a white cocoon in them. I bought some spray for 3 different kinds of aphids, spiders and white flies and we have been spraying them, but they still seem to have some. Also the smallest tree, if you touch a branch, the little green fruit things just fall off, not good. So help! What do I need to do? I can take pictures and send them to someone via email if you could identify the trees themselves and give me some advice on what else to do for them. They do look a lot more healthier since I put the fertilizer sticks in the ground around the drip line. I think the lemon tree is a Meyer from what the flowers looked like compared to the pictures of some I found on the web and the description of purple and white flowers. They smell heavenly!! I have no idea what the bloom looked like on the orange/or what ever tree looked like, because I never saw it. They were blooming around Easter and that is when we had some pretty strong winds and it was cold down here (for us it was cold) around 37 to 40 which is unusual for that time of the year.

Any help and advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!
Mary

Maybe these will help:

http://www.arboristsite.com/ - click on the Homeowner forum - the best one around!

http://forums.arborday.org/forum/index.php

You have leaf miners, leaf rollers, and mealy bugs. They have been a real problem here in Houston the past couple of years. Regular application of spinosad helps with everything but the mealy bugs - those you have to rub off by hand, but they're easily destroyed. I only got 4 lemons on my Meyer last year, whereas the year before, I couldn't give 'em away fast enough. The tree is only about 3 ft tall, and like yours, mine ain't lookin' too good right now!

Thanks folks!

Mary

i would consider calling your local extension office (farm bureau, etc) to see what they recommend as a solution.
http://msucares.com/cgi-bin/countypage. ... _number=30

http://msucares.com/lawn/tree_diseases/index.html

There's also a local radio show called Southern Gardening Radio on public radio, Monday through Friday at 7:19 am:

All stations are FM.

Biloxi 90.3
Booneville 89.5
Bude 88.9
Greenwood 90.9
Jackson 91.3
Meridian 88.1
Missississippi State 89.9
Oxford 90.3

I have a Eureka lemon and for a newly planted tree, that thing is growing like a weed! It's first season we got 3 lemons, this season I've counted 5 so far. We've just planted a Persian lime and I proud to announce we have a baby papaya! Oh and my ruby red grapefruit is loaded again this year.

I did notice that after hurricane Jeanne, the mango trees up here went into hibernation. now Im seeing fruit on almost every tree I see, and we have alot of mango trees here in Jupiter:). So dont give up hope with your trees, just give it some time and TLC.

Barb in Jupiter