Orange trees dying

[casaalba]

The orange trees in my garden are slowly dying. The leaves lose colour then fall off and no new lbloom appears. It seems to moving from treee to tree. Any clues whats causing it and how can I halt this decline presumably by treating

[fincalospinos]

It sounds like a lack of water.
Even with sufficient water now, many trees will not recover from last years very hot dry summer.

Do the leaves curl before they fall ?

Is there any white mildew type substance on the leaves ?

[Gasman]

If your citrus trees leaves are yellow before they drop off, it could be a sign of mineral deficiency caused by poor uptake from the soil and this is usually because of a high alkali content in your water - if the water comes from limestone areas, it has too much calcium (lime) and as citrus trees like to have an acid soil, they suffer and can't take up enough minerals from the soil - the solution is simple ... you need to correct the acidity by adding iron supplements which come in a powdered form in sachets. We had this problem a couple of years ago when our well water got rather concentrated in a very dry summer and watering with the well water was actually making the problem worse until we added a dose of this stuff and they perked up quite quickly.
Another answer might be if voles are burrowing under the trees and eating the roots - unlike moles which are carnivores, the voles eat vegetation and are particulary keen on eating roots of trees (they seem to like plums trees!) and the first sign you notice is when the tree dies off quite suddenly.
Hope you get to the root of the problem!

[casaalba]

Thanks for your advice on this. Yes the leaves do curl up and they also turn yellow. What is the name of this supplement for trees, please?

[gus-lopez]

Isn't it Sulfato de Hierro ?

[Martin Page]

No ... ferrous sulphate is mainly used to kill moss in lawns . It will assist, very slightly, to increase the pH temporarily, but will very quickly washed from the soil because its so very soluble.

The thing your looking Chelato de Acero ... or chelated iron. Its Bright red when added to water, you cant mistake it

[chrissiehope]

Relieved to read that - when we asked for sulfate of iron, we were given chelato, which I was a bit unsure of, so I'm glad it was the right stuff. Yes, it turns red when wet, and so do your hands.....

[casaalba]

Is this stuff readily available from garden centres? or Leroy etc

[chrissiehope]

We got ours from a large ferreteria in Antequera - Chelato de sulfato, about 15 € (I think)