How Long Do Orange Trees Live

My parents have an orange tree, and information technology started to decline in health. Afterward they tried everything, they hired an arborist and determined it was simply quondam age. This prompted the question—how long exercise orange trees commonly alive for? And what can cause them to die faster? I did some inquiry to find out.

Orange copse can live up to l-60 years. However, in areas with loftier volumes of pests and illness, orange copse will often only live for five-viii years. Grafting orange trees can extend their lifespan, although it becomes a new tree. For example, all current naval orange trees are a clone from a 200-yr-onetime tree.

So, while orange copse can live for quite a while, what are some reasons why they can die sooner, and what are some tips to make them live longer? Let's take a closer look.

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The Acme 4 Reasons Why Orange Trees Die

our dying orange tree rootball — *My parent's dying orange tree. The arborist said a symptom of dying is when part of the rootball becomes exposed.*

1. Over or Under-Watering

Generally, orangish copse are sensitive when it comes to water requirements.

Too much water can go out the soil to rot and prevent air from circulating in the soil. As well little h2o can exit the plant dehydrated.

Then, avoid having your orange tree go through aridity or drowning in water equally it tin lead to it dying quickly. A expert tip to proceed the roots cool and soil moist is to mulch around the base of operations of your orange tree. Just remember not to allow the mulch affect the tree directly every bit it can innovate disease.

Another symptom of over or underwatering is when the tree's leaves ringlet. For more data almost citrus foliage curl, brand sure to cheque out my recent post: Why Citrus Tree Leaves Curl (and How To Fix It).

2. Wrong Growing Environment

Some of the signs that your orange tree isn't in an platonic or too wet location include irksome leaves, weak branches, premature fruit drops, and little to no growth.

Like to providing proper watering, orange trees are more likely to die when they're planted in locations with poor soil drainage.

If your orangish tree needs better soil drainage, consider moving the tree to an elevated spot or planting it in a raised bed. Gravity volition help excess h2o drain from the tree's soil (only notwithstanding keep the soil moist).

The raised bed should as well accept loose and loamy soil to help the orangish tree's roots spread and grow properly.

For potted orangish copse, consider drilling more holes in the pot or repotting it with new soil if the current soil is collapsed.

Lastly, consider planting orange trees in locations where they'll receive as much sunlight every bit possible (aim for at least 6 hours daily, ideally more).

three. Lack of Nutrients

Nitrogen deficiency is the most common food deficiency that orange trees can get. It'due south essential for foliage growth and the overall health of the tree.

You'll know that your orange tree has nitrogen deficiency if its leaves turn yellowish and get-go to fall off. If non addressed early enough, the deficiency can lead to a complete loss of leaves.

At the same time, avoid overpowering the tree with likewise much nitrogen. Excess levels in the soil tin chemically burn the tree'due south roots and impale the tree.

So, what's a skilful residue of nutrients (including nitrogen)?

A good rule to follow is to use a citrus tree fertilizer with an NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium) of 2:1:one. For instance, a half-dozen-three-3 fertilizer would be a expert choice for citrus trees.

To encounter which citrus tree fertilizers I recommended, cheque out my recommended fertilizer page.

iv. Diseases

By far, 1 of the most common diseases an orangish tree can go is root rot (a fungal disease). The reason why root rot is so common is that it's direct caused by overwatering, which is piece of cake to do to orange copse.

For example, I overwatered my potted kaffir lime tree once, and when information technology started dying and the soil smelled similar a swamp, I knew I had to set up it. Luckily, the solution was merely planting it in the basis (I could have besides repotted it). The new soil absorbed the backlog moisture and the roots were able to breathe and grow back.

Naturally, there are many other diseases (and even pests) that tin can crusade orange copse to dice. Since this blog mail would be over ten,000 words if I covered them all here, it wouldn't be fun for you to sort through.

If you believe your orangish tree is dying from a pest or disease, I recommend searching Google with the symptom (for case xanthous leaves, leaking sap, etc). You likely already idea of this, but information technology's the all-time manner to become you the about relevant answer.

Tips To Make Orange Copse Live Longer

While some orange copse can dice for seemingly no reason, there are some best practices you lot can employ to help make sure your orange tree lives for as long as possible.

Here are the top best practices I've found in my research and experience:

Avoid transplanting unless necessary. Transplant stupor tin stress orangish trees and shorten their lifespan. However, sometimes transplanting is necessary—such equally if the soil is waterlogged or y'all need to repot your orangish tree. Typically, repotting is washed every 3-5 years to prevent the tree from getting rootbound.
Provide compost and mulch. Compost not only provides amazing nutrients but improves the soil's richness. Every ane% increment in the soil's richness can concord an boosted 20,000 gallons of water per acre. On the other hand, mulch dramatically reduces evaporation from the soil. Both of these practices will become a long way to keeping orangish trees live.
Shelter the tree from extreme temperatures. Generally, orange copse prefer temperatures between 27ºF and 100ºF. Y'all can insulate orange copse from frost with sheets or cardboard, and shade the trees from the hot afternoon sun with umbrellas, shade sails, or other copse.
Just water when the pinnacle 2-four inches of soil are dry. Over or under-watering is easy to do and tin can lead to drought stress or waterlogged soil. This tin lead to other problems such equally leaf drop and root rot.

Last Thoughts

Orange trees will typically last around fifty-lx years, but you can extend this by grafting the tree onto rootstocks to make clones. An example of this are naval oranges, which are from a tree 200 years ago.

While grafting volition make a new tree, the genetics are the same as the original tree. This means you'll exist getting the same fruit, even after the original tree is long gone.

If your orange tree is currently dying, and yous'd like some steps on how to revive it, you might observe that my recent post can help: three Quick Steps To Revive a Dying Citrus Tree.