Eucalyptus, is it dying?

SoozJ22 · May 2023

Hi, we bought 6 eucalyptus trees which we planted in March. Two of them were completely brown within a couple of months. Now the one in the pictures has been going brown over the last few weeks too. It also has new growth so I'm wondering whether it might come back, or is just likely to get more and more brown like the other two did. Three of the original ones so far seem OK. We've watered regularly, given a high nitrogen feed & bone meal over the last month.

The nursery are coming to replace the dead ones with ornamental pear tomorrow as they don't have any eucalyptus left.

I'm not sure whether to give up on this one!

AnniD · May 2023

This is a complete guess, but l'm wondering if the feeding has anything to do with it.
As far as l'm aware eucalyptus don't need feeding, l never fed mine.
It finally gave up the ghost this Spring after many years, l think the extremes of temperatures in the last 12 months finished it off. (I know they're extremely tough out in the Aussie bush, but a UK garden is a different thing entirely).
It may be that they were stressed before leaving the nursery even if there were no outward signs. If there is new growth coming l'd hold back on the feeding, but make the nursery aware of your concerns about this one.

As l say, this is a guess, with luck there will be someone who is more of a eucalyptus expert along shortly

SoozJ22 · May 2023

Thanks, we only started feeding on advice of the nursery when I let them know the first two were going brown. It snowed in March which won't have helped like you say we've had some extreme temperatures!

Plantminded · May 2023

I think that @AnniD is right, a high nitrogen feed will not be good for your tree until the roots have become well established and are able to supply water to any new foliage. Your tree looks like a nice specimen but at that size it will need lots of deep watering. The soil should be kept moist at all times while it settles in but not waterlogged. I hope you are aware of how tall these trees can get without careful maintenance and that their water demands will be high in hot, dry weather.

SoozJ22 · May 2023

Plantminded said:

I think that @AnniD is right, a high nitrogen feed will not be good for your tree until the roots have become well established and are able to supply water to any new foliage. Your tree looks like a nice specimen but at that size it will need lots of deep watering. The soil should be kept moist at all times while it settles in but not waterlogged. I hope you are aware of how tall these trees can get without careful maintenance and that their water demands will be high in hot, dry weather.

Do you think it can come back from how it looks now? Thanks for the info. I won't use the nitrogen feed again. Is the bone meal one OK/ good to use?

We wanted something tall to screen out houses at the bottom of the garden, but maybe it will work out for the best that some are being replaced by the ornamental pear as I don't think they need as much maintenance.

Thanks

Fairygirl · May 2023

You can cut them back hard and they'll become multi stem specimens, so that's worth trying on the ones that look as if they have some life lower down.
They need huge amounts of water to establish well, and as they've only been in a year, they may well have succumbed to the dry weather last summer, followed by the mild/wet/freeze cycle at the end of the year - many of them, as well as other plants, have had the same problem. No feeding is necessary for them.
However, just be aware that if they're happy, they want to become absolutely massive trees. I'm not sure that's ideal, but it depends on just how massive your garden is too.

The ornamental pears are beautiful, one of my favourites, but I wouldn't use them as a screening plant unless there's room for them to spread either. Don't plant them right up close to that fence. They make superb specimen trees though.

punkdoc · May 2023

My Eucalyptus have been very slow to get going this year. I coppiced them in March as usual and they are only now starting to form little leaf buds.

SoozJ22 · May 2023

Fairygirl said:

You can cut them back hard and they'll become multi stem specimens, so that's worth trying on the ones that look as if they have some life lower down.
They need huge amounts of water to establish well, and as they've only been in a year, they may well have succumbed to the dry weather last summer, followed by the mild/wet/freeze cycle at the end of the year - many of them, as well as other plants, have had the same problem. No feeding is necessary for them.
However, just be aware that if they're happy, they want to become absolutely massive trees. I'm not sure that's ideal, but it depends on just how massive your garden is too.

The ornamental pears are beautiful, one of my favourites, but I wouldn't use them as a screening plant unless there's room for them to spread either. Don't plant them right up close to that fence. They make superb specimen trees though.

The nursery are here as we speak planting the three ornamental pears that they suggested as replacements. Why do you say you wouldn't use them as screening @Fairy.girl ?

I'm quite disappointed with the whole experience as we went with eucalyptus on advice from the nursery & also based on budget, but it sounds like they weren't the best choice.
I'm starting to wish I'd just gone for hymalayan birch which someone suggested on a previous post, but I was ideally wanting evergreen.

I'll post a picture when they're finished planting the pear trees.

SoozJ22 · May 2023

SoozJ22 · May 2023

There are two eucalyptus ar either side, one has been pruned so it's quite small. Seeing the ornamental pear now it wouod have been nice to have those all the way across, I think they look nicer than the eucalyptus but cross fingers everything stays healthy and alive!

Eucalyptus, is it dying?

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