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Ilex Crenata - Problem
asbrierley
Posts: 8
I bought four established Japanese cloud trees around 18 months ago.
They have been in perfect health and looked absolutely stunning. However, one is now struggling, having gone down hill drastically in the past 10 days. The leaves of many "clouds" have gone yellow/brown and fallen off. As you will see from the attached photo, there is a white powdery substance on the stems and underneath many clouds.
They are well fed, watered and drained, and the soil is appropriate.
Can anyone help?
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Posts
It does also appear to be rather tightly bound to the stake which isn't good for it.
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
Not sure if this helps
It could be that there was damage by scale insects (possibly aphids).
Their excrement drops onto the leaves and a sooty black mould develops from fungi and bacteria that are living off the excrement.
What's in the pic above could just be fungi that are living off dead material.
But i've not seen something quite like that before.
The only other thing I can think that may have caused it is spider mites - if it's them, then you'll see masses of tiny webs all over the damaged area. The mites live on the underside of the leaves and are only visible with magnification.
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
Definitely not spider mites - no webs or anything
Have sprayed the tree with bug killer, so we shall see.
Have also used fungicide in recent days
Do you think the leaves will grow back?
Go easy on the sprays, they can sometimes cause more problems than they solve.
I'd wait and see how it looks in the spring. Leaves will probably re-appear from new shoots that develop on the damaged branches, but it's not a shrub I have any experience of.
As the weather cools, bugs and fungi become less active.
It's also possible that whatever has caused the damage has moved on and you're just left with a harmless fungus.
A great tonic for all plants is seaweed extract, no point in using it now, but if you feed it with that every 10-14 days during the growing season it'll keep you tree in good health, which is the best way to prevent attacks in the future.
I'm guessing they're in the ground and not in pots.
PS - loosen that tie a bit too, all the fluids that move up and down the tree will get restricted if it gets too tight. All the action takes place just under the bark, so it needs to be unrestricted.
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
Do make sure, when you water, that the water penetrates the root ball. Because they are evergreen they are vulnerable to drying out .