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| I've planted a row of silver sheen (pittasporum tenufolium) along the west side of a cement block wall. My interest is to not only block the wall, but also to gain additional privacy above the wall. Of the 13 or so plants I planted, so far two of them have slowly wilted and died. A third is now progressing along the same route. -- The plants have been in the ground for over a year (15 months) and they have grown quite rapidly, but I don't know why this all of a sudden.
First a few leaves show small, brown spots on them. Then they slowly lose their "silvery lustre" and sort of droop. At first I thought this was due to lack of water but watering slowly did not impact the condition. The soild condition is clay-like and the shrubs are lined up at the base of a small slope. Could it be a drainage issue? Is there any way to save this last shrub, now about 9 ft tall from the same fate as the others. I'm very disappointed as it will take over a year for any replacement to grow this size again. |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by ken_adrian (My Page) on Fri, Dec 10, 10 at 9:31
| not much info to go on.. how and when do you water??? how were the plants planted... were they potted or ball and burlap??? what was your summer like.. e.g. i had 10 weeks of drought all you provide is the end result.. tell us about what happened from the time you brought them home.. total guesses .. lack of PROPER WATER ... or ... bad plants to start with .. any chance at a picture??? ken |
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- Posted by gardengal48 PNW zone 8 (My Page) on Sat, Dec 11, 10 at 7:50
| It is impossible to give you a firm diagnosis based just on the info provided. Pittosporum are susceptible to an assortment of diseases, generally fungal in nature. From what you describe of your planting site (heavy, clay soil at the base of a slope), less than ideal drainage could certainly play a factor and might account for a root rot, rather common for these plants if not in a well draining soil. Really the only way to determine if something like this is occurring is to inspect the roots -- if they are black, soft or mushy, then root rot is probably the cause. Unfortunately, root rots are typically fatal. If this IS the issue, then you will need to relocate the healthy plants at least temporarily, improve drainage and replant. Pitts are pretty drought tolerant once established and most SoCaL gardens rely on regular irrigation to survive so while lack of water could be an issue, I'd tend to think routine irrigation combined with a potentially compromised drainage situation is more likely the case. It could also account for the leaf spot, especially if the irrigation is provided by daily sprinkling overhead, rather than infrequent, deep watering at the root zone. |
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