This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
Losing my 2nd Gold Crest ???
tomcr1981
Posts: 51
Hi everyone, I love a gold crest by my front door... I lost one last year and I thought it was under watering that caused it.my 2nd one has been pretty healthy up until recently. The first I noticed a problem was when we had strong winds a while ago, I pushed it into the house... it maybe stayed there a week and possibly starved of light. I noticed the side close to the wall had died slightly.
Since then I moved it back, watered regularly and it's slowly looking more and more unhealthy.
it gets direct sunlight but only in the morning and evening.
Is it dying does anyone think ? Really appreciate any advice
Thank you
Tom
0
Posts
They need a lot of attention in a pot, especially if they aren't getting consistent rainfall, which that won't be getting. A good growing medium, refreshed every so often, thorough watering, but also drainage, are all very important.
If they get dried out, they struggle, and it's also hard to rehydrate them properly.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
If your pot isn't on pot feet it really needs to be to ensure good drainage over the winter months when the compost can get waterlogged and cause root rot.
If it is on pot feet - please ignore the above
It's a very attractive little tree
PS - just an afterthought - are the white stones on top something like cotswold stone - or some other sort of limestone?
If so, they will break down and make the compost quite alkaline - which will cause problems
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
I personally would take away the stone to allow for regular compost “top ups”, it’s amazing how it vanishes and then they are even more susceptible to over and under water. Also think about turning it every few weeks, this really helps it grow more evenly.
good luck they really are lovely, so don’t give up.
Being close to brick walls can dump a fair amount of heat out into the air around the plants, so drying them out. But I doubt that would be noticeable at the moment, maybe more like at the end of Summer.
Scrape the gravel back, check the soil an inch or so (2-3 cm) deep and see if it's remotely damp. The gravel if thick enough, should act as a mulch to prevent some drying out, but it's a container. If it's really wet ... good advice to raise pots on feet to allow drainage, and maybe incorporate grit into the potting medium/compost.
Check your stones with some vinegar. Grab a couple, pop them in a little pot or even the sink and add some vinegar directly to them. If there is any kind of reaction, they could be breaking down. I think that's the general test. Vinegar = acid. Lemon juice would also work, but is more expensive.
We had a ~3-4ft Chamaecyparis, planted in the ground. Unfortunately, the plant sold in a pot had actually been grown in a clay field - urgh. It had no real root ball and we slowly lost that one. But that's a whole different story to what you have here.
Best of luck.