[Arid_gardener] orange tree dead?

[Clair Spackman]

Hi all,

Several of you have helped me before as I set up my back yard and now I have unfortunately left all the hard work behind and moved to CA.  Oh well, time to start a new garden.  The person who bought our house called me earlier this week to ask about the orange tree which when I left on June 30th was very healthy looking and baring fruit for the first time.  Now though it is apparently brown and if you touch the leaves they fall off!! 

When we left we knew the heat temps were about to go over 115 and that no-one would be in the house for 2 weeks so we deep watered the trees the day we left and set the drip irrigation to come on every other day or ever 3 days (I don't remember now which) for 30 mins.  The orange tree is on the drip.

The new owner started moving in last week and each night she sprayed all the plants as she didn't think the irrigation was coming on (it was set to come on at 5.30 AM so she wouldn't be able to tell by the evening).  I left her a thin metal stake to test the soil wetness with so she tested it while we were on the phone and it sinks in over 2ft at the trees drip line.  I gave her the talk about frequency/depth of irrigation etc etc and I explained that spraying the plants probably wasn't a good way to go due to the waters salt content.

So the question is what could be wrong with the tree?  Too much water? Too much salt? Sun burn?  The tree is not painted as it isn't pruned at all and before I left the canopy and surrounding walls were providing shade and the trunk was never in full sun for very long.  But maybe it sun burned.

Of course the new owner feels terrible about killing the tree (if its dead).  At least I was able to console her that she hadn't killed the tomatoes.  She felt a bit better once she learned they were going to die anyway.

Any suggestions I can send her way.  FYI I left her the Desert Gardening for Beginners book and while talking to her suggested she read it!


Clair 
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