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You are here: Experts > Style > Interior Decorating > House Plants > Ornamental orange tree
House Plants - Ornamental orange tree
Expert: Darlene K. Kittle - 11/2/2009
Question
Help! I live in Massachusetts. I have an ornamental orange tree which is, truly, about 50 years old. It used to be my mother-in-law's; I have had it for about 6 years. It stands maybe 25-30 inches above the soil and is about 30 inches across. It was repotted 2 years ago (by the head of the horticulture dept at the college where I work) into a 12" diam pot. I had it out on my screened porch for most of the summer, and moved it indoors (west window) about a month ago.It has thrived until recently, when I noticed it was infested with aphids and some whiteflies. I took it outdoors on a mild day and sprayed it with Safer insecticidal soap, saturating leaves, stems and soil; then repeated that 3 days later. Bugs are gone now, but the soil surface and bottom 1/2" of the trunk became covered with a fuzzy grey mold and leaves are dropping ALARMINGLY. I removed and discarded the top 1" of soil, pruned the barest of branches, and am letting it dry. Anything else I should do??? Gotta keep this fine old lady going! Thank you for your time.
Answer
Arleen,
The mold is most likely due to being too wet and because we have had a very wet year there are a lot of mold spores in the air that are very opportunistic. I reccomend that you keep the plant on the dry side for awhile and the leaf drop should stop. This is fall and with the short days many plants also drop a lot of leaves. It will start replacing them. If more mold shows up try spraying the surface of the soil and the plant lightly with a Lysol type spray. It will kill the mold and not hurt the air in your home like other fungicides. I have found it to be very successful in simple mold problems like this and 1 or 2 sprayings usually work and it never comes back. Just keep the plant in as sunny a location as possible and keep it dry. You have kept her going for 6 years so with a little TLC she sholuld come back and be fine. Good luck.
Darlene
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