Arborist at Lake Chapala?

Well, had to admit defeat in the search for a mini mango tree, so I would be happy now to just find someone who knows all about sickly trees and can cure what ails them. I have many fruit trees on my property, most look moments away from death, despite hearty daily waterings. Hell, maybe it is the water that is killing them, after all, we now have this tainted well water here in El Limon! The leaves have fuzzy grey stuff on them and the fruit turns black and rotted long before even getting to full size. Yuk! Any recommendations out there? Gracias.

Roberto at Chapala Tree Service.

The gray-white stuff on the leaves sounds like it might be citrus mites. I get it each year on my orange and lemon trees when it gets hot & before the rains. It's pretty easy to kill. First, rinse the dust off the leaves with water if the recent rains haven't lready cleaned them. After the rinse has dried, spray the leaves top & bottom with this mix:

2 TBS. blue dishwashing liquid
I TBS cooking oil
1 GAL water

Cooking oil helps the mix stick while the detergent does the killing. This also works good on aphids if you have apple trees, etc.
One application usually does the trick.

Check a piece of fruit that is blackining but not yet rotten. Can you wipe the black stuff off the skin? If so it is probably a fungus. A lot of rinsing, then spraying with the above mixture WITHOUT the oil should take care of it. This may take several applications. If it is not fungus, you may be over watering.

Good luck with finding an arborist with citrus knowledge. I don't know the guy Dave recommendes.

What kind of blue dish washing liquid? Does it have to be blue?

For sooty mold we use powdered jabón Roma. Works great.

simpsca wrote:What kind of blue dish washing liquid? Does it have to be blue?

...Doesn't seem to matter which kind of blue... The point seems to be (according to my gardening book from Az.) that yellow detergents contain petroleum which for some reason is a no no.

Thanks for the tip. I don't have it now but have in the past. I'll give it a try.

David wrote:Roberto at Chapala Tree Service.

Gracias for the recommondation. Will call him asap.