Take two

Our satsuma tree had an extremely stressful year.  Last summer, white scale set up housekeeping, investing practically every leaf on the tree.  The professional advice I received was to destroy the tree and start over but I just couldn't bring myself to do that without trying to save it first. 

We had oranges on the tree so my first choices were natural attempts:  blasting the scale with the jet selection of my hose, hand washing the leaves with dish soap, and smashing them with gloved hands.  Nothing worked.

After harvesting our orange crop in November, I decided to try the chemical "big guns," three doses of malathion spray over the next three months. 

With spring's arrival this year, the scale seemed to be gone and our little tree burst into bloom.  However, whether it was because of the stress from the scale infestation or from the heavy doses of malathion or both, every immature orange dropped from the tree before mid-summer.

Last week, I noticed that our satsuma was putting on some new growth, and upon closer inspection, I discovered a few orange blossoms.  They appear to have pollinated as well.  Of course, these baby oranges will fall off when the cool evenings of autumn arrive but I am encouraged that our tough little satsuma has survived to produce sweet mandarin oranges once again.