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Time to cut my losses and cut this photinia down?
trader.nz799565
Posts: 1
in Plants
Hello All, I have been trying to fix my photinia plants for some years now. I pruned them, sprayed liquid copper on them, and kept the base clean and weed-free... most of the plants have stopped growing, the leaves are curled up and it looks like they are burnt.
The branches between the trees and the wooden fence have nothing left on them.
From my research, it looks like they have fire blight. Should I just cut them down to stumps again? Or maybe is time to take them all out and plant something else more resilient?
The plants are about 2 meters (6.5 feet) tall.
I live in Auckland New Zealand and we get a lot of rain water.. it rains almost every week of the year. Sorry, the photos are not great but should give you an idea. Thank you for any suggestion you can give.
The branches between the trees and the wooden fence have nothing left on them.
From my research, it looks like they have fire blight. Should I just cut them down to stumps again? Or maybe is time to take them all out and plant something else more resilient?
The plants are about 2 meters (6.5 feet) tall.
I live in Auckland New Zealand and we get a lot of rain water.. it rains almost every week of the year. Sorry, the photos are not great but should give you an idea. Thank you for any suggestion you can give.
0
Posts
They need warmth as well as moisture. The latter's easy enough, the former isn't.
I think if you don't keep on top of them in terms of clipping, and therefore producing new foliage regularly, that's what happens with them. They always look dreadful round here unless they're against a wall or in a sheltered spot, because if they're more exposed, the cold weather just affects them - black spot and leaf drop. The standards [which are very popular for some reason] are even worse.
I see really awful examples of them all the time - in fact I saw one this mornig when I was out - it had hardly any foliage at all, and what was there was dire.
Sorry that isn't more positive! I dont' know if giving them plenty of mulching with good organic matter will help them. We're on clay round here, but if it's not amended with that, it just becomes even heavier and often waterlogged. Cold wet soil isn't ideal at all for them, especially in those cooler climates where the soil takes far longer to warm up.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
The leaf scald isn't really a problem, but the leaf spot will be harder to treat.
They are very popular shrubs where I live and I'd guess that about 75% of those I see in front gardens have leaf spot which does ruin the appearance.
You could give them a hard prune and see what happens, but the leaf spot will probably still be there, so I'd agree with @Fairygirl and replace them.
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
In the sticks near Peterborough