This was all going great. We went away for 10 days end of July (still lots of rain falling) and came home to it looking pretty miserable. There are some signs of life and I have been removing any new growth up along the trunk. Should I cut away all the dead bits? And if so do I cut the whole thing or just the leaves and leave the twigs?
by AbbreviationsOk1183
7 Comments
One of my neighbours had a tree planted by a professional in July last year at the hottest time of year, it immediately lost all its leaves and looked pretty dead by winter but they left it as was and new growth came up this year.
So it’s possible to revive, either a bit of hope, but do cut away all the dead twigs, bend them by hand and if they snap of crack then cut it off, if it’s still flexible then leave it.
It’s possible the tree wasn’t watered enough when planted, you usually need to flood it at the start and then ease up a bit, I don’t water my trees at all after a few months though.
Looks like the graft has failed, so no, I don’t think so.
You’ve got new growth on the graft so I would be optimistic.
Edit: someone else says no 🙂 gotta love this gardening lark!
The new growth appears to be on the root stock, not the scion. So yeah, possible graft failure if the root is still alive.
Same thing happened to mine, is it in a pot?? They hate pots apparently. I soaked mine thoroughly for a day or two they are very thristy plants. Then planted it in the ground, I didnt prune, just striped away the dead leaves. Kept it well watered. Its doing great now new leaves and growth. They’re very dramatic plants plenty of water and put in the ground is my advise, good luck!
Many young trees do not tolerate drought, even once.
If it’s in the pot, you have to water it.
Often even if it’s raining.
Peat in the nursery is often blended with a wetting agent allowing the peat to hold more water.
If it dries out, that agent can deactivate, then the peat will not hold much water again.
Source: we grow 50k trees annually.
Seeing as it’s a graft probably not. I had one that sawflies laid bare so I removed the entire top of the standard. The trunk which is common willow is doing ok three years later