A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The House Plant Forum orange tree- turning black! Need help quickly!

Hello,

I am new here on this board, and am looking for help with my orange tree. I have had it for 2 years and I got it for my birthday, anyways, it has always been doing well, up until a few months ago. It is cold here so I thought the leaves were dropping cause it was cold, (my orange tree is inside and it is about 65 in our house), but then I noticed that it had these white bugs all over it.

I got some spray at home depot (for houseplants and for those types of bugs), and it worked, but now my orange tree, the stem/branches are turning black, and it has no leaves on it at all. My parents said I was watering it too much, so I re-potted it and got some of the loose dirt off the root ball, and now it is still turning black.

I really don't want it to die, because it is special to me.
Any help is greatly appreciated, anyone know what I can do for it??

Thanks.

I lost a Shleffera like that(in my newer gardening days)...it was the over watering that caused it.

I'm wondering if the spray might have burned it? What exactly did you use?

I used a mix I found on the internet that gets rid of bugs. It was a squirt of Dawn dishwashing soap, plus 3 parts water, and 1 part rubbing alcohol.

Anyone else?? It is slowly dying!:(

yeah i think you may have burned it and citrus should only be watered when its dry ....i sometimes go 10 days to 14 days between watering ........I have had infestations of aphids and spider mites and the only thing i ever do is take the plant outside and give it a strong bath with the hose and use as much pressure as the plant can stand and it usually makes the critters decide there is a better home .......i run a humidifier in my room with my plants too because it seems the critters like the dry air environment and want to set up shop....the humidifier keeps the room just moist enough that i really havent had a problem this year except for the ants that made a home in my meyer lemon pot while it was outside this summer .....

So,Should I set up a humidifer, and what can I do about the burned part,will it die now?

Hello, gen120. Yes. Any blackened parts should be cut back to clean, disease free wood. The trees will spend valuable resources trying to revive them when those energies are better spent on recovery and new growth.

So, if I cut the black parts off, it will have a good chance of recovering?

If it's just the stems/branches and not the main trunk...you should be able to cut it back past the black part and see improvement in awhile.

Ok, I will do that and keep you guys posted on how it improves

How long before I see a improvement?

It will take quite a while for your plant to recover and start to show new growth again

Ok, Thank you! I will let you guys know how it is doing over the next few days.

My orange tree is doing better, no more of it has turned black, after I cut all the black part off this weekend, and also since I repotted it, it has been doing a lot better, so hopefully it will recover fully. thank you for the help everyone!

good news.