Need help saving irreplaceable citrus trees from construction damage.

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Anomalychick

ArboristSite Lurker
Joined
Feb 3, 2016
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Location
Jacksonville, FL
On my property (north florida) I have an orange tree and a grapefruit tree. Both are approximately 30 years old and grown from seed, as there is no graft on them and they are much taller than the grafted trees. Both trees are about 30 feet high, making taking care of them very difficult. Last winter I could have stocked every grocery store within 50 miles with the fruit they put out. Both trees were up until recently badly neglected, they have received no fertilizer, no frost protection, no pest/fungus control, and no water beyond rainfall in at least the last ten years, but were both doing okay. The orange is located 5 feet from the property line, the grapefruit approximately 3 feet.

A developer bought the vacant lot next to me which was a pine forest. It is relevant to the situation that at this point we have an extremely hostile/aggressive relationship. He was allowed to build two homes on the ½ acre lot, one in the front and one in the backyard. (With balconies overlooking my previously private yard and floodlights aimed in my windows.) The lot originally sloped down steeply, to swampland in the rear and he leveled the lot up by 7 feet using fill dirt. My lot has the same contours as his lot originally had. In the process of clearing his lot, he destroyed my fence and ultimately refused to pay for it. To convince the city that the giant dirt hill he created is not diverting rain water onto my property, he placed a berm of dirt approximately 3 feet wide and 2 feet high on the property line, and because he holds only to the highest aesthetic standards, he then stuck his new fence in the middle of the berm, (not into the ground), immediately on his side of the property line.

Unfortunately this occurred within the dripline of my trees. My orange tree has a roughly 7 inch trunk diameter, and the grapefruit has a roughly 10 inch trunk diameter. He placed fill dirt (and im sure he somewhat packed it down with heavy construction equipment) inside of their drip lines, approximately 4 feet from the edge of their trunks. He did this in approximately November 2014. Over the grapefruit the new dirt is piled about 8 inches high. On the orange tree, the mound is closer to 18 inches high. Around 6 months later I noticed that both trees looked awful, the grapefruit dropped about 40% of its leaves and 20% of its branches, the orange lost about 70% of its leaves and nearly half its branches and I was sure it was a goner. Also to my horror, I noticed that the orange tree was 30% covered in live air potato vines, so it was more bare than it looked at first. I initially had no idea what caused it, (well, air potato aside) and then learned root damage can take months or years to show up with a google search. I first noticed the issue in May of 2015.

At the time I assumed that when they were moving the dirt around, they probably cut off all the roots that were over the property line. (This would have been roughly 10% of the orange and 20% of the grapefruit, based solely on the percentage of each trees dripline that goes over the property line, the grapefruit is larger and closer to the line.) They also didn’t produce any fruit this year, I got 2 oranges and maybe 10 grapefruit. Determined not to let that builder kill my trees in addition to everything else he’d already put me through, I went a little nuts. I pulled all the air potatoes I could reach off and cut them to kill them. I treated for pesticides. Then for fungus. On a 10 foot ladder with a backpack sprayer. I took a sponge and spent roughly a week cleaning the scale off any leaves I could reach. I used fertilizer. I carefully pruned away all the dead wood. (On 30 foot high seed grown trees which are mostly thorns, that was fun.) I talked to the trees. I meditated with the trees. I prayed for the trees. My boyfriend has been calling me the Lorax. When that didn’t help I started using superthrive which a nursery recommended to me. I started watering the trees every day. I wrapped their trunks in blankets and sprayed them in water and covered them in Christmas lights when the freezing weather came. And over the course of about 9 months, they got better, a lot better.

The grapefruit is probably at around 90% of what it was now, and the orange has come from a collection of dead sticks to about 75% of what it was, plus a few water sprouts that seem to be dying back now but that I was afraid to cut off the whole time because I figured every leaf helps. A few days ago, I learned that the symptoms of my trees were consistent with soil compaction, and not necessarily with roots being severed. And I suddenly figured out why the orange looked so much worse than the grapefruit when it should have been the other way around. The mounded dirt in the deepest spot on the grapefruit was maybe 6 inches high, while on the orange it was piled a foot and a half high. When I realized this, I rushed home and like a crazy woman, I grabbed a shovel and removed any extra dirt that was over the property line that was within the trees dripline. (This turned out to be 6 wheelbarrows full.) In doing so I saw how the orange tree managed to come back at all, it had grown some new roots vertically up the side of the berm and across the top to keep them at the surface.

Now here is part where I need advice. I did not take exactly measurements, let me know if I need to. The orange trees 7 inch trunk has about 5 feet of space before there is extra dirt. The canopy still extends roughly 6 inches further past that area. (The dirt left is now about 10 inches high in the deepest spot ) The grapefruit has a 10 inch trunk and about 4 feet of space before there is extra dirt, (3 inches deep at deepest spot) The canopy extends about 1 ½ feet past that area. Since the builder thought it would be best if his fence was stuck in the middle of a dirt hill, when I removed the parts of the dirt hill that crossed onto my property line, this caused that section of the fence to come loose (20 feet worth). (As the posts are no longer buried on my side) I’m sure it will eventually fall, but that’s legally his problem as I have every right to remove his dirt from my property and I was very careful not to touch anything even a centimeter over the line, which still has surveyor stakes showing where it is. However, because his fence will now fall down and im sure he won’t like it, I do need to consider any further actions I take and any recourse he may have against them.


To give my trees the best possible chances and the least amount of permanent handicap (and preferably not go to jail) should I


  1. Leave everything exactly as it is now.

  1. Cut off the roots that are still crushed under his hill (they are alive, so the tree is diverting energy to them, but I don’t think it’s getting much back in return. Citrus roots are surface roots and probably don’t do well and possibly even rot when buried 2 feet deep.) and let the tree figure out how to best regrow its root system in a healthy manner. It’s not a whole lot I’d be cutting off, but im not too clear on what is considered safe. (Percentage of total root system as marked by the drip line, how many inches from the trunk for every inch of trunk thickness, etc.)

  1. Continue to dig up his dirt to clear their driplines as far as I can without actually climbing into his yard even if it means I cross the property line to do so. I would then be removing HIS dirt from HIS property and definitely causing his fence to fall over (as opposed to only probably causing his fence to fall over.) I would need to take about another foot to 18 inches worth of the pile. The home is vacant so they may not notice the sinkhole forming under the fence for a long time. This does however almost definitely mean that he will sue me for the loss of his fence and I will probably be found liable for it, despite the fact that he destroyed mine and didn’t pay for it. He may also be able to sue me for the cost of bringing in more dirt and hiring more construction equipment to replace the berm I dug up, not to mention id then be back to square one. In other words, I will only do this if it’s absolutely necessary to save my trees and I have no other option.
They are definitely still struggling, at least the orange is even though its in much better shape than it was, I originally was almost sure it was beyond saving but at this point I'd be pretty surprised if it died. I believe that the grapefruit is completely out of the woods, but it will take years to regrow what it lost. I understand some of you may still think the trees are done for no matter what I do, from what I read (and there isn't much available online) it seems that construction damage is funny that way. Even if you think the damage is too extensive, please give them the benefit of the doubt. Seed grown is different from grafted, and I don't have 30 years to grow equivalent new ones to replace them so I am going to try to save them anyway. Thank you for your patience in reading, and never buy a house with a vacant lot next to it.
 

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I don't deal with citrus so am not totally familiar with their root sensitivity, but I'm estimating that less than 20% of the root mass has been impacted. I don't think that this will affect the entire tree. I would have expected a portion of the tree to show an impact while the remainder of the tree is ok.

What was the weather variation between the year previous (when you got all the fruit) and the year after construction. I believe citrus is pretty sensitive to weather changes.

I also understand that citrus is sensitive to shade, so when the pine stand was removed and houses put in, it changed the shade pattern, which the trees will take a bit of time to adapt to.

I would suggest that you continue to fertilize with a slow release fertilizer, don't let the trees get drought stressed in the summer or frozen in the winter. I think the trees will adapt to the root compaction, because it is such a small amount of the root mass.

It is quite possible that soil disturbance next door has allowed some air potato to begin growing, so I would suggest you keep these under control.

Don't do anything illegal, it isn't worth it. Trees are biological beings and like humans/dogs/plants/insects individuals thrive according to their genetics and their environment. Sometimes an individual dies with no explanation. I've been a forester/arborist for 40 years and have seen trees die with no great explanation other than to say the genetics of that individual doomed it.
 
I think the root mass might be more than 20% I am not sure, its so hard to tell. On the orange tree most of the issue was on the side facing the fence, but the entire tree was impacted.
The weather has been about the same. I garden, so I do pay attention. No difference worth mentioning el nino or not.
The shade pattern has definitely changed, but the builder was VERY SLOW and he took the pine trees down back in 2012. The trouble didn't start until he put that berm in.

I took some pictures of what I am talking about, you can see it now that I took down the remaining pieces of my fence. (This is after I dug it up, the dirt came out about an additional 18 inches which I removed a few days ago.Grapefruit and berm.jpg orange and berm 3.jpg Orange and Grapefruit with berm.jpg Orange and Grapefruit canopies.jpg Also, in the photos I should mention there is a nearly dead pine something type tree between the two of them, closer to the grapefruit which is the larger one. don't get confused and think I am showing you a picture of a dead tree.
 
Not in this area. This is in House on dirt hill.jpg This guys vision.jpg the front. The 7 feet is in the back. Here is a picture of the rear. I am 5 feet tall and held the camera at eye level.
 
You could graft that variety on a new rootstock if you wanted another tree. I think the trees will be ok . Plant some new trees in a different area. Not much else you can do.
 
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