Does collar rot cause leaf drop??

I have an orange tree in a pot that has dropped heaps of leaves – it is growing some new ones but not as many as it dropped. Worried that it has a bit of collar rot, so I was going to bung together some kind of plastic collar to keep the mulch sitting back from the trunk. Is there any other treatment for collar rot, or just try to stop it getting worse?

Not sure about this one, the Burke’s backyard feller is the one with the answer, if I remember correctly…maybe I don’t, either…maybe it was Peter Bennett…

A couple of bricks around the bole of the trunk will keep the mulch away…not had collar rot…not got citrus trees ATM but come February next year I will be there bells and all…my problem with citrus trunks was keeping MrD at a looooong distance when “pruning” with the chainsaw…

Dinetta said:

A couple of bricks around the bole of the trunk will keep the mulch away…not had collar rot…not got citrus trees ATM but come February next year I will be there bells and all…my problem with citrus trunks was keeping MrD at a looooong distance when “pruning” with the chainsaw…

Not sure I’ll have room for bricks in the pot, but I will bookmark that tip in my brain for the trees that are in the ground.

hehe.. I don’t have that problem, but this leaf drop snuck up on me as I thought it was just OH and the dog charging around and bashing into plants.. throwing toys into them…

Bon, I have a write up on collor rot, under “Root Rot” in my book.

I can scan and email it to ewe……:D

Not sure I’ll have room for bricks in the pot, but I will bookmark that tip in my brain for the trees that are in the ground.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Hmmm, maybe you need to change the mulch…sounds like leaf drop from lack of water??? BlueGreen might know…

Dinetta said:

Not sure I’ll have room for bricks in the pot, but I will bookmark that tip in my brain for the trees that are in the ground.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Hmmm, maybe you need to change the mulch…sounds like leaf drop from lack of water??? BlueGreen might know…

I thought that, but we’re getting lots of rain lately! I thought it might also be wet feet, as this was one of those pots with a tray at the bottom, so I got OH to lift it off the tray last night.

Dinetta said:

Not sure I’ll have room for bricks in the pot, but I will bookmark that tip in my brain for the trees that are in the ground.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Hmmm, maybe you need to change the mulch…sounds like leaf drop from lack of water??? BlueGreen might know…

Is the pot light at the base??? If it it …soak it in a tub of water……. only way to rehydrate the soil.

Lucky1 said:

Bon, I have a write up on collor rot, under “Root Rot” in my book.

I can scan and email it to ewe……:D

Nah, sounds like too much trouble!! I’ll rig up somethign to hold the mulch back, and cross me fingers :)

bon008 said:

Lucky1 said:

Bon, I have a write up on collor rot, under “Root Rot” in my book.

I can scan and email it to ewe……:D

Nah, sounds like too much trouble!! I’ll rig up somethign to hold the mulch back, and cross me fingers :)

Okay, sing out if you want it:D

collar rot is a fungus that takes advantage of moist conditions around the base of the trunk when mulch etc. is up against it. So you can treat it with a fungicide and allow more air. In bad cases it can ringbark the tree causing death. So leaf drop could be a case of collar rot, but you can tell by looking at the base of the trunk. If the bark is dry and firm then you have another problem, but if it is damp and bits peel or break off then there is a good chance you have collar rot.

Leaf drop in general is a symptom of stress. this could mean too wet, too dry, too much fertiliser, sudden changes in temperature etc. Citrus in pots are more likely to be stressed than trees in the ground as their root system is so much smaller and the potting mix will be affected by temperature changes more.

bluegreen said:

collar rot is a fungus that takes advantage of moist conditions around the base of the trunk when mulch etc. is up against it. So you can treat it with a fungicide and allow more air. In bad cases it can ringbark the tree causing death. So leaf drop could be a case of collar rot, but you can tell by looking at the base of the trunk. If the bark is dry and firm then you have another problem, but if it is damp and bits peel or break off then there is a good chance you have collar rot.

Leaf drop in general is a symptom of stress. this could mean too wet, too dry, too much fertiliser, sudden changes in temperature etc. Citrus in pots are more likely to be stressed than trees in the ground as their root system is so much smaller and the potting mix will be affected by temperature changes more.

Thanks BG! I did look at the base of the trunk and it did look a little damp and flakey in one spot, which is why I thought maybe collar rot. Hopefully it’s not too bad and will recover if I am more careful with the mulch…

bluegreen said:

collar rot is a fungus that takes advantage of moist conditions around the base of the trunk when mulch etc. is up against it. So you can treat it with a fungicide and allow more air. In bad cases it can ringbark the tree causing death. So leaf drop could be a case of collar rot, but you can tell by looking at the base of the trunk. If the bark is dry and firm then you have another problem, but if it is damp and bits peel or break off then there is a good chance you have collar rot.

Leaf drop in general is a symptom of stress. this could mean too wet, too dry, too much fertiliser, sudden changes in temperature etc. Citrus in pots are more likely to be stressed than trees in the ground as their root system is so much smaller and the potting mix will be affected by temperature changes more.

Who needs a book….I’ll just scan Bluegreen and email her to you Bon:)

Lucky1 said:

Who needs a book….I’ll just scan Bluegreen and email her to you Bon:)

lol! you can thank years of watching GA for that :D

if you ever re-pot, make it a bit higher, to allow for mulch. also if it’s definitely well and truly saturated from recent rains, maybe move it to a drier spot at least for a while. some lime mixed with water painted onto the affected part of the trunk is a quick substitute for having to go out and buy a bottle of fungicide.

My only potted cirus isn’t mulched and it’s fine.

Maybe you could try pebbles.

Just popped back into this thread to say thanks to Dinetta for the tip of using bricks around the tree trunk to keep the mulch back.

Just gave the mandarin tree a Spring Service – grabbed a bunch of half bricks to try this out and not only does it work beautifully, it looks really awesome.

Don’t have enough spare bricks for the rest of the fruit trees though, so I’ll have to think of something else.

Also, ended up using a bit of a coke bottle to keep the mulch back from the citrus in the pot that had all the leaf drop. Will try out the lime and water trick this evening, thanks for that one.

bon008 said:

Just popped back into this thread to say thanks to Dinetta for the tip of using bricks around the tree trunk to keep the mulch back.

Just gave the mandarin tree a Spring Service – grabbed a bunch of half bricks to try this out and not only does it work beautifully, it looks really awesome.

Don’t have enough spare bricks for the rest of the fruit trees though, so I’ll have to think of something else.

Also, ended up using a bit of a coke bottle to keep the mulch back from the citrus in the pot that had all the leaf drop. Will try out the lime and water trick this evening, thanks for that one.

I’ve used a couple pot feet to hold a brom pup in place until it takes root. They’d work well for a small citrus too. They have a curve that just suits trunks.

Glad I could help, Bon008. I’ve used hardwood offcuts also, as bricks can be hard to come by…the bromelaid pup as suggested by BubbaLouie sounds good…

sorry haven’t read the shole thread, so this may have been mentioned…..

If you don’t have room for bricks in your pot, you may use a yoghurt container
or even a milk or softdrink bottle.

cut out the bottom and run a slit along the side so that you can get it around the trunk.
this works as a good barrier.

I do this with in a 1/2 wine barrel as a pot and keep all the sugar cane mulch away in this way.

hope its useful info

WH

wormhunter said:

sorry haven’t read the shole thread, so this may have been mentioned…..

If you don’t have room for bricks in your pot, you may use a yoghurt container
or even a milk or softdrink bottle.

cut out the bottom and run a slit along the side so that you can get it around the trunk.
this works as a good barrier.

I do this with in a 1/2 wine barrel as a pot and keep all the sugar cane mulch away in this way.

hope its useful info

WH

doing the same with old plastic pots works well too.

bluegreen said:

wormhunter said:

sorry haven’t read the shole thread, so this may have been mentioned…..

If you don’t have room for bricks in your pot, you may use a yoghurt container
or even a milk or softdrink bottle.

cut out the bottom and run a slit along the side so that you can get it around the trunk.
this works as a good barrier.

I do this with in a 1/2 wine barrel as a pot and keep all the sugar cane mulch away in this way.

hope its useful info

WH

doing the same with old plastic pots works well too.

Using your hands works well too – or do have chooks or something moving mulch back around the trunk?? I just put my hands near the trunk of my trees and drag the cane mulch back a bit to leave a bare well immediately around the trunk…

cackles said:

bluegreen said:

wormhunter said:

sorry haven’t read the shole thread, so this may have been mentioned…..

If you don’t have room for bricks in your pot, you may use a yoghurt container
or even a milk or softdrink bottle.

cut out the bottom and run a slit along the side so that you can get it around the trunk.
this works as a good barrier.

I do this with in a 1/2 wine barrel as a pot and keep all the sugar cane mulch away in this way.

hope its useful info

WH

doing the same with old plastic pots works well too.

Using your hands works well too – or do have chooks or something moving mulch back around the trunk?? I just put my hands near the trunk of my trees and drag the cane mulch back a bit to leave a bare well immediately around the trunk…

Thanks all – I did end up using a softdrink bottle – not sure if it’s big enough though. only sits about 1cm away from the trunk. We don’t drink a lot of soft drink so took me a while to find that one! But I have some old plant pots so I could try that. I also painted on lime as suggested earlier.

Hi cackles – I was using the by hand method but every time I watered the pot the mulch floated back in to the middle – I guess I got a bit lazy and didn’t scoot it back often enough.

Don’t know what else to do for this poor tree – it looks really awful with most of its leaves gone :(

I know over-fertilising can cause leaf drop – what about too much (or too strong) foliar feeds?? It’s a kelp based stuff that I use…

Hope he doesn’t die.. it’s the only citrus left in my poor garden that still makes edible fruit.. rofl :)

(climbing back up several days of posts)