[Arid_gardener] Re: Citrus: Yellow-Green Leaves

[Olin Miller]

Your older trees' have probably broken through the hard pan but the younger
tree's roots may be stunted or water logged.  One way to improve drainage is
to punch a hole through the hard pan in the tree well away from the trunk
and construct a"chimney" through the hard pan much the same as is often done
with a caliche layer.  Fill the chimney with soil mixed with gypsum.

If your tree's leaves are chlorotic as indicated by green leaf veins with
yellowing between the leaf veins, use a chelated iron product like
Sequestrene 138 Fe which is fast acting and will help green up the leaves
within a few days.  The product is marketed by  Western Organics as "KeRex"
and is available at most garden centers.  I get mine at Summer Winds.

You might also hold up on fertilizing for a year or so.

Olin Miller, Master Gardener Volunteer
U of A Cooperative Extension, Maricopa County AZ
============================================

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <nbibler at msn.com>
To: <arid_gardener at Ag.arizona.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2007 8:08 AM
Subject: [Arid_gardener] Question from Home-Hort WWW page


> Neil
> 85044
> nbibler at msn.com
>
> I have an orange tree that is in this third or fourth summer _ still young
> and small. Its leaves are yellow-green despite fertilizer and ironite. My
> question is why, and what to do. It gets rather frequent deep-soak
> watering. It's basically in clay soil with a hard clay pan not far below
> its roots, though I did add enriched soil and dug a decent hole  when it
> was planted. Nearby quite mature citrus trees (25 years or more) have deep
> green leaves from much the same treatment.