Orange Trees Suffering in Central Florida
It looks like Florida's harsh winter temperatures have done some damage to my orange trees. The trees managed to bloom twice between cold spells but each time their blooms dropped and no fruit developed. I fertilized them a few weeks after the temperatures became consistently warm and spring like. That was several weeks ago and they still look unhappy. There has been some stem tip die back. They did produce some sucker shoots which were promptly removed but there hasn't been much leaf or stem growth at all and they look rather sparse. I guess it's possible that the multiple freezes caused them to go wild without the ability to produce fruit.
I've lived in Central Florida a long time but this my first experience growing orange trees. They were both mature fruit producing trees and were between 10 to 12 feet tall when I moved to my current location about 4 years ago. They were doing great until this year so I think the problems are due to our unusually harsh 2008/2009winter temps. My daughter has a tangerine tree that is behaving the same way.
Is anyone else in my vicinity having the same problems and if so is there anything besides watering and fertilizing that can be done to encourage growth. I'm not worried about the lack of fruit for now. I'll worry about that if they fail to bloom next spring. It's the general health of the trees that concerns me. There are no signs of fungal attacks or insect infestations but they just don't seem to be growing. I fear loosing them if there's no new growth before winter dormancy.
Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
June
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