How to revive an unhealthy citrus tree | DIY Garden Projects | Gardening Australia

the bat phone rang earlier it was an emergency call out so I've brought all of my specialist surgical equipment maybe it's a tooth extraction I've come prepared or a basic amputation either way I'm all set the doctor is in luckily for them my friends Josie and Xavier have another number to dial for medical emergencies this call out is strictly Horticultural Josie doctor I assume this is the patient it is indeed what's the problem so Josh this is a eight-year-old um nagami kumquat and it was actually given to us by my grandmother when we returned back to Perth after living interstate and overseas for a while and it's actually the first tree that we planted in our garden so it's quite special to us and it sort of symbolizes home and it's ailing it is yeah it's always been a really healthy tree but in the last couple of years I would say it's a lot more susceptible to pests so we've had a bit of scale move in and it just it's producing a lot of fruit still but the fruit seems to drop a bit early and the leaves are falling off as well when was the last time it was repotted so it's been in this half wine barrel now for about six years did really well it's grown to the size you see here but it's it's been in there for a while now are you feeding and watering it regularly we do yep we try and feed it three times through the year so sort of spring summer autumn with the compost and then in between we do a bit of liquid fertilizer but it even though we've been putting that in the tree doesn't seem to be taking it up anymore my thinking is it's likely to be either root bound or the potting mix is just old and stale or thirdly it could be impeded drainage because the drainage holes are now bunged up through swollen wood and also just organic matter but the only way to find out is to pull it out and have a look sounds good Josh let's do it to begin with the mulch can come off and be put aside for later the Caster wheels make it an easy job to move the pot into the center of the deck to give us some room for work and the tarp will keep the mess contained having three people for this is very handy two to safely turn the pot on its side and one to protect the canopy from accidental damage [Music] foam will help to protect the pot which we're hoping to reuse if it stays together the underside of the pot looks in pretty good Nick although the drainage holes are a bit clogged up with sludgy organic matter the only way to find out exactly what's going on is to pull the tree out it's very compacted no it's got a lot of Mucky organic matter probably impeding drainage and not getting enough air to the roots at first the root wall isn't budging but after scraping some of the soil away around the edge of the pot it eventually wriggles free doesn't try and pull it out again now yep okay here we go all right just gently gently gently I'm just gonna try and lift through the base okay there we go beautiful oh look at that and the pot's in good neat okay let's look at the canopy is fine yeah well let's come and have a look at this it's a bit root bound there's a real mad of roots now that would have impeded some of the drainage I think more importantly if you have a look at the potting mix just how gluggy it's become and that's because the organic matter is broken down over time and that really does impede drainage and it means less air for the roots so what we'll do is we'll pull some of this material away to make room when we put it back into the pot for fresh mix and so when the roots are growing they're into that nice you know air filled media and and the tree will do much better but first let's have a look at the old pot to make sure it's suitable for reuse right well this Barrel is looking in decent Nick actually the base is still solid and those drainage holes can be made clear again and the new mix that goes in will have much better porosity than the old gluggy mix in extreme cases when a pot is really root bound you can trim some of the roots with a pruning saw in this instance all we have to do is tease the gluggy soil free with our hands with the size of the root ball reduced by around a third it's a good idea to measure how deep it is so that the right amount of new potting mix can be put into the pot before lifting the tree in the top of the root ball should be at least 50 millimeters beneath the lip of the pot with the graft well clear of the final saw level perfect well measured spot on just a little bit that way Josh with the tree back in place and after a quick check to make sure it's sitting nice and straight we're back fitting with potting mix suited for citrus it's got good structure and excellent drainage watering the soil in as we go whilst gently rocking the root ball back and forward will get rid of any air pockets and prevent the roots from drying out well that's the hard work done it's looking good now it's time to give it a bit of a prune because we have you know really disturb those roots quite a bit even though we're careful it's important now that we reduce the size of the canopy to prevent the plant from stressing so it's a pruning job I'll get started and then hand over you guys to finish it off okay sounds good I'm reducing the tree canopy by about 20 percent this will prevent the foliage from wilting after the root disturbance and also encourage New Leaf growth across the tree the framework is pretty good other than one Crossing branch that needs to come out to prevent it from rubbing and bruising the adjacent branch so that's the major pruning done and you can see we've reduced the height a bit we've opened it up we've taken at that main Crossing Branch so all that's left is to remove this dead Twiggy stuff and there's quite a bit of it and it is important to get rid of that because it just congests things up and as it rots it can be a point of disease entry into the tree so it's now just a bit of finessing it goes over you can grab that and just work through and cut out all the tweaks with the tray back in position it's time for a feed Citrus are hungry trees so a top dressing of organic fertilizer is in order along with an application of liquid kelp to help with re-establishment and finally a layer of mulch initially Josie and zave were quite daunted by this task but as you've seen through teamwork and a few tips it's really not that hard so Josh do you think the patient's going to be okay I reckon the prognosis is very very positive well in that case thank you very much for all your help we really appreciate it thank you kumquat marmalade and I'm sure you'll be making much more next year [Music] thank you

Channel: Gardening Australia

Views: 85,412

Keywords: Gardening, Gardening Australia, garden, gardening tips, gardening advice, plants, how to, ABC, ABC TV, citrus, unhealthy citrus tree, cumquat, unhealthy tree, how to fix plant problems, diy, DIY, DIY Garden projects, do it yourself

Id: JuynDZkEuro

Length: 7min 25sec (445 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 06 2023