yellow leaves on my orange tree

[chouchou]

Hi!

My orange tree starts to have this problem two
weeks ago: all the leaves withered first and then
turned yellow.

I am in Northern California. The tree never has
such a problem before. I talked with different
local garden nurseries. Some said it was caused
by over fertilizing - I did put in 4 spikes of
Citrus fertilizer over a month ago along the drip line
of the tree and later on there were some rains ( I didn't
water it). This is a big tree (8 feet above).

Some people said it may be caused by Tristeza virus.
However, it is more popular in Florida than in Ca.

I have tried to water it for over 2 days. I haven't
seen any improvement yet. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

CC

 

[Deere John]

Been there - done that. I'm 90% sure it is over-fertilized. I did the same thing to our domestic orange about 5 years ago. Darn think turned yellow and was naked in about 10 days. But, it came back. Orange trees set buds (me thinks) through out the year and these buds broke and allowed the tree to recover.

Your idea of washing the fertilizer downwards may work - if you don't drown the tree in the process. Can you recover any of the fertilizer at this point?

Let us know if it comes back, please.