Its still alive and most likely revivable as long as most of the roots came with the x-plant. The question is, what will you do with it once it comes back?

1) paint the trunk, its possibly getting scorched if in any sun at all

2) give it liquid food weekly

3) keep the pests away. you may want to consider a screen cloth

4) put a saw next to it.

good luck!

Thanks! All good recommendations. It actually had a pretty good root ball, nothing circling. It did get a pretty good trim when I dug it up, so that may slow it down some at first. I should have taken a picture, but I was getting pretty dirty at that point.

Looks like a good bit of the bark is damaged. Did it get chewed? Or is that sun damage?

Dave, I believe that is where the limb died back and the bark has subsequently flaked off. I do not believe that any of the remaining live limbs are affected. I should probably trim back the dead branches a bit more.

Thank you all for your suggestions, I'll keep everyone updated.

I find it unimaginable that anything could grow lousy there! I thought that place could grow anything without any problems...Good luck trying to remedy it. Could it be past root damage from not enough water then too much?

I know you had a severe drought for a while then tons of rain. If you lost any roots in that drought from not enough water, then the roots dies from all that rain you just got?

Mike

The dry summer probably had something to do with it. There were times when I was away that I wasn't able to supplement the drip sprinklers. But I think that I had some significant bug damage, even now, I can see where something has taken a chunk out of the leaves. Just sprayed them this evening, I'll apply more every week. With it sitting on the patio, much harder to forget about it.

The dry summer had a lot to do with it. It was too close to the fence anyway. Suggest that after you bring it back to health plant it more away from the fence.

Yeah, agreed about the location against the fence, but I do not have a lot of choice due to the way my backyard is laid out. There's a short, somewhat steep slope with about 1-3 feet of level ground by the fence. This slope runs along the south and east border of the yard. North is the house. West is another fence (no slope on my side of the fence), but I've put my veggie beds there. The orange tree was on standard rootstock, so the plan was for it to grow enough to clear the fence and get more of the afternoon sun. Didn't work!

The rest of the fence line is occupied by figs, dragon fruit, apples, and a mango tree, so I'm sort of stuck as I'm running out of room. You can see the two tree stumps near the old tree location, so I cannot move the hole too much away from its present location. Digging that hole was a lot of fun with all the old roots. The old trees were a bunch of pine trees that died on me.

If it were my yard, i'd get rid of all pine and redwood type trees... rip out the roots so as to give the new citrus a chance....

You can get a navel orange at the store... have you considered an early Satsuma (e.g. Okitsu Wase) or Australian Finger Lime? Both should do well as an understory - or in northern facing/limited sun conditions.

Only 2 small pines left. I'd like to ground down the stumps, but that's expensive and I have a lot of them. If the tree doesn't make it, I'll probably take your advise on a replacement tree.