Is this serious?

Hi all

My lemon has some gum exuding from below the graft. Is this likely to be a problem?

I've included a pic of the gum on the trunk and fruit and leaf growth

Click the pics to make them larger

fruit
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trunk2
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Gummosis is common in many plants, including Citrus. Do a Google search for it. When you see it....be more concerned about what is the stress factor that is causing it....drought, herbicide damage, etc. It isn't always fatal, depends on the causual factor(s). Work to correct what is causing the stress(s).

Is this a disease or the result of some kind of boring insect?

It's a disease brought on by a number of stress conditions. Check out this CA citrus link: [Only Registered Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register...]

As I mentioned earlier...sometimes it isn't fatal...just depends on the percent of infection, condition and vigor of the plant. I've had a couple of Etrogs show light "gumming" but was able to save the tree(s) and turn them around with lots of TLC...that might not be an option for Paradisi, those look pretty engulfed.

I notice that this tree is planted in the earth. When you water your property does the sprinkler system, or manual irrigation nozzle, frequently splash against the tree?

Has the trunk of the tree been scared with a lawnmower or some hard object. The picture look as if it has been scared with something.

water is pretty much by hand - - and there's usually a good layer of straw mulch around the tree. The only damage may have been caused by chickens - the tree is in the chicken run.

The trunk is only a couple of inches wide - the tree is less than four foot in height (it's about 3 year old).

The only recent thing that may have stressed the tree was when we had about a metre of rain in a weekend - about two months ago.

So, the tree has been in the ground (in the chicken run) for 3 years and it's just begun to ooze? Coming from below the graft? I doubt the heavy, weekend rain a while back would have done it. What does the top growth look like? Could it be stressed with too much N from the chicken droppings? If that were the case the top growth should be exceptional. Has the mulch always been there? Have the chickens pecked the trunk/damaged the bark? Has it ever bloomed/fruited? Tell us more about what's it's been exposed to since it's been planted there. CJ

citrus Joe - - there's a pic of the top growth with the gum problems.

I haven't seen the chickens pecking at the trunk.

the chickens do move the mulch with their scratching - the tree has been mulched since I first planted it. The chickens have been here since about April this year, before that it was just mulch around the tree.

It bloomed and fruited for the first time last year - got two fruit from it.

there's a heavy crop at the moment (sandie counted more than 60 fruit) but I don't expect the tree to keep all of that - I think it will drop a lot of them to an amount of fruit it can handle.

The only fertilisers I've used on the tree is a fish emulsion - the last time I applied that was in March - just before I enclosed the tree in the chicken run.

May times, trees in stress will produce (or try to produce) a bumper crops..their way of trying to produce off-spring in the event that they die. The tree will abort what it can't sustain and although producing fruit won't kill the tree, it will require extra energy from the tree, to produce fruits. OK, let's change gears.

If we don't know what the stress issue is or are...let's try to determine what it isn't. You can do the detective work better than us by checking the site and thinking back about possible factors. Typical factors that could influence stress (or vigor) would include but not be limited to:
>Sunlight....photo-period
>Moisture....too much, too little
>Herbicide damage....is it possible or not?
>Root or stem damage?
>Fertility levels....too much, not enough?
>Compaction? By using mulch, it would be unlikely that chickens could compact the soil...but if there was significant, wet chicken manure on the ground and it got packed down by their feet..before adding the mulch, it could effect air exchange into the soil profile. If you haven't done so....pull back the mulch and pierce the soil, from 6" from the trunk to twice the 'drip line'. Use a spading form or hay fork and force the tines into the ground to about a foot deep and rock the fork a bit. In other words be careful about root damage but create some opportunites for air and moisture exchange. Piercing a few (small) roots shouldn't cause worry.

Check it out and let us know what you find or what you're thinking. CJ