Help! I'm having problems with my Bay Tree
RomanaLungbarrow
Posts: 4
Hi,
I moved into my first house last June, the garden already had some plants in it. One was a beautiful Bay Tree which was planted directly into a south facing border. It gets plenty of sunlight and our soil is extremely alkaline.
About a 2-3 months ago, the tree started to deteriorate. The leaves started turning brown and crispy. However, there seems to be a strange off shoot (I don't know if its part of the same plant or a different plant entirely) that doesn't seem to be suffering the same fate. It is really vibrant green, healthy looking and every day it seem to be growing bigger and bigger.
I've attached a picture to show exactly what I mean.
I am really not sure what to do with this tree any more. I tried watering it to see if it needed more water and its had no effect, I've checked it for parasites (there were scale bugs on it when we moved in which I quickly treated) but there's nothing. Should I remove this part of the tree if the other part is doing so well? Or will it recover from whatever is ailing it?
Posts
Think you've got Bay sucker there. The healthy bit appear's unaffected, if you can see no insects then you don't need to spray, but I'd cut out the affected piece and then keep an eye on the healthy bit. Check for any greyish insects under the leaves and on the healthy piece's. If you can see them then spray with Provado ultimate bug killer. Be careful not to use the leaves for cooking for at least a month, I'd say 6 weeks. and only spray once in a year.
I'd cut off the right hand side one right back to the ground.and see how it goes. I wouldn't start spraying anything for anything unless sure it's there.
It looks like 2 distinct trunks, one of which is dead, any sort of leaf pest would have had both of them.
You may find 2 completely separate plants there and could remove the dead one
In the sticks near Peterborough
You say it started to fail 2-3 months ago, was their a very sharp frost or couple of days of very cold wind? Bay trees are not fully hardy in the colder parts of Britain so it could have been damaged by cold weather.
I think nut's advice is spot on here. Two separate plants there, and pests would have damaged both. If it was me, I'd cut down the dead one and see what happens.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
If you get the bugs again, stick your finger over the end of hose and spray them off with a jet of water. Cut off any curled leaves.
I was given a bay 2 months ago that my neighbour had just dug up.
It had very little root to it but the main root seemed to be intact, the top levels of leaves had a mottled Brown appearance that I removed and burnt.
It too had scabies that I treated with neem but still is producing more and more damaged leaves, what am I doing wrong?