Just keep it damp and shaded if possible Sarah ; my 'rejuvenation pruning' method was only an idea . Admittedly extreme but 99% effective . Quite often done on large gardens and parks when sometimes certain species can become a bit unwieldy . Good luck with it anyway !
PS Pete8 ; yours looks in pretty good fetter to me .
Keeping my fingers x'ed Paul. No leaves have died off since I re-potted it a couple of months ago and it's out of the sun, so with a bit of luck and regular watering it'll pull through.
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
Okay. I've watered it well, and given it some specialist feed for rhododendrons. I've bought some shade netting and bamboo poles and rigged up some protection from the sun (it's very exposed in my south facing garden) , and will nurse it as best I can.
A guy who does garden maintenance had a look at it today, and was fairly positive, having seen the new leaves starting to break through and looking fairly healthy. He seems to think it's down to sun damage, so I'll carry on with this regime for now, but with the option of cutting it right back if there's no progress. Fingers firmly crossed.
Mine was the same,someone on here mentioned vine weevil so I dug it up,to discover not vine weevil,but a big clump of fibrous roots that no amount of watering would ever get through.I raked my hand fork through it and got rid of loads,then replanted,with a bucket of water everyday,and now it looks fine,little shoots on the ends like yours appeared first,so I knew it was going to survive.
The whole truth is an instrument that can only be played by an expert.
Okay, well the good news is that there's lots of new leaf growth mostly at the end of the stems though). But while some of it looks healthy, in other areas the new foliage also has started going brown at the tips, as all the dead ones did. Any thoughts as to what I might be dealing with?
I still think it's lack of water taking it's time to percolate through to the leaves. Hopefully the recent rain and cooler weather will have helped (if you've had some of course). I would carefully cut off the leaves that are going brown as they won't recover and that should help the plant conserve it's energy. Don't feed it any more until the Spring as I understand that causes more stress. Make sure it has at least 2 gallons of water every 3 or four days unless we have lots of rain, then ease off in a month or so. I do hope it survives, it looks very hopeful to me.
Thanks. I'll carry on with more of the same then. Bearing in mind that virtually all of the present new leaf growth is at the ends of the branches, do you think it will fill in underneath as time goes on?
I don't think you need to worry about the leaves. The flower buds are forming so the plant must be generally ok. As Lizzie says, keep it well watered if it's dry and I'm sure it'll be fine. A lack of water now will cause the buds to die. They don't usually sprout much from deep inside voluntarily, but they sprout very readily when cut back. I hacked about 2ft from one side on mine just after flowering leaving just bare sticks, it's full of leaf already. See how yours is coming on in the spring
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
Quick update The newer leaves seem to be staying green which is great progress. But there's a big patch where the stems are still looking entirely dead/dormant. And the foliage is only at the very ends of each recovering stem. Is there anything I can do to encourage leaf production underneath, or around that empty patch?
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Quite often done on large gardens and parks when sometimes certain species can become a bit unwieldy .
Good luck with it anyway !
PS Pete8 ; yours looks in pretty good fetter to me .
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
A guy who does garden maintenance had a look at it today, and was fairly positive, having seen the new leaves starting to break through and looking fairly healthy. He seems to think it's down to sun damage, so I'll carry on with this regime for now, but with the option of cutting it right back if there's no progress. Fingers firmly crossed.
Thanks again, and I'll report back.
Any thoughts as to what I might be dealing with?
Bearing in mind that virtually all of the present new leaf growth is at the ends of the branches, do you think it will fill in underneath as time goes on?
As Lizzie says, keep it well watered if it's dry and I'm sure it'll be fine. A lack of water now will cause the buds to die.
They don't usually sprout much from deep inside voluntarily, but they sprout very readily when cut back.
I hacked about 2ft from one side on mine just after flowering leaving just bare sticks, it's full of leaf already.
See how yours is coming on in the spring
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
The newer leaves seem to be staying green which is great progress. But there's a big patch where the stems are still looking entirely dead/dormant. And the foliage is only at the very ends of each recovering stem. Is there anything I can do to encourage leaf production underneath, or around that empty patch?