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Help with bay tree

shazza_c64shazza_c64 Posts: 7
in Problem solving
Hello, wondering if anyone can help? Our bay tree was looking rather tired a couple of months ago and its leaves started turning brown. We treated the tree with insecticide in case it was an infestation however the leaves kept dying. We have now have new growth! It looks like a new bay tree is sprouting from the soil and some new growth on the branches. What should we do to encourage growth? Should we take the new shoot out of the pot and put into a new container? 
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  • amancalledgeorgeamancalledgeorge Posts: 2,736
    The poor thing, it must have been completely parched. The suckers on the base are still attached to the original roots so you can't remove them to make a new plant. You can take cuttings from a bay to make new plants. Usually you'd remove suckers as they spoil the neat look of a standard. Probably time to remove all the dead leaves and keep it in a shady location to help the new growth. The shape may suffer for a bit but they grow fairly fast when happy and respond well to a bit of careful pruning. 

    Ans as an addition, please don't use insecticides "just in case" as they kill indiscriminately all the good guys too and a garden barren of pollinators is a very sad and less productive place. 

    A video on taking cuttings for propagation: https://youtu.be/FD85WAe1qU8 
    To Plant a Garden is to Believe in Tomorrow
  • shazza_c64shazza_c64 Posts: 7
    edited August 2020
    Many thanks George! Will try that. 😊
  • shazza_c64shazza_c64 Posts: 7
    Hello, 

    Thanks for your guidance on saving the bay tree. Please find new pics attached. Should I cut the brown branches off?

    Thanks,
    Sharon.


  • shazza_c64shazza_c64 Posts: 7

  • dtpalethorpeAEpkwf1ydtpalethorpeAEpkwf1y Posts: 21
    How has the baytree recovered I have just cut mine back as very similar to yours just interested if it recovered well after such a hard prune do you have any pictures of how it has recovered 
  • shazza_c64shazza_c64 Posts: 7
    Hello, thanks for your message. Unfortunately, the bay tree hasn’t grown much since last August. I don’t like giving up but thinking I may need to repot it and pick up a replacement bay tree for the concrete pot. Here’s a pic. 
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    I would put the new one in the ground.
  • shazza_c64shazza_c64 Posts: 7
    Do you think? We bought them for two plant pots. One is thriving. The other one not so much! I don’t like throwing out living things. We could try planting it in the garden somewhere. 
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    Do you have a pic of the thriving one?
  • jonniryan42oe-Ir1jonniryan42oe-Ir1 Posts: 1
    Did the new sprouts take or did the original trees trunk survive?
    Thanks as mine is very similar to the original images.
    Thanks
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