I live in North San Diego, we have a wonderful old tangerine tree. Fruit is normally ripe by Thanksgiving. Last fall we had a heat wave in late Sept. early October all the fruit fell off the tree and the tree bloomed.

It is now late August, there is small fruit, lots of it. Tasty but tiny. What should I do so this poor tree will go back to its normal cycle?

to NGA

Is the fruit ripe now? Its a couple months to Thanksgiving; there is still time for them to size up. There's really nothing to do except wait for the tree to get back on schedule. Its reacting to weird weather conditions.

Maybe a little extra water to help the fruit size up? I know water's a precious commodity there but . . the big climatic hiccup has been the drought so . . if you can find a little extra water. I always water my fruit trees extra well if they have a big crop coming along. They're working hard to make all that fruit.

The other thing to be aware of is that most citrus have a limited life span, usually 20 to 30 years depending upon the variety. Sometimes a tree will put on an extra large harvest the year before it dies. Nature's way of assuring a new generation. You said it was "old" but do you know how old the tree is?

I think the life expectancy of a citrus tree is about 50 years.