[Arid_gardener] California Orange tree

[Stanlee]

Hello,

I was looking for some education about my apparently dying orange tree and found you.  Perhaps you can help.

I have a huge multi-orange tree in my California Central Coast back yard.  It is currently the first of Sept.  

This tree is about 30-50 years old (good guess)  and has both Valencia and Naval oranges, traditionally in abundance nearly year round.  This tree has produced tons of incredibly good oranges all but about 2 months out of the year, nonstop for the entire 9 years I've lived here.  It is varacious!  Suddenly, last month - mid summer - after a wonderful juicy, sweet crop was done and new baby oranges started appearing, it dropped all it's leaves and seems to have turned black from about 2 feet above the ground all the way to the tips.  I'm unsure about the color since it has always been so heavily foliaged it definitely looks weird naked.  The baby fruits are black and hard.  There is no sign of pests I can see and nothing has changed significantly.  Can you tell me anything?  Do they just get old and die one day?
Thanks very much,
Stanlee
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