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| My 3 year old tulip poplar is losing leaves. The leaves are discolored, with brown splotches, or some leaves are turning yellow first and then brown. I checked out potential diseases and pests. Cannot see any pests unless they are too small to be detected by eye. No obvious canker on bark. Could be heat stress. We have had 100+ for several days, so I have been watering daily. 3 days ago gave a dose of hi-nitrogen liquid fertilizer. We had worse heat last year, but we also had much more rain in the spring. Any thoughts? More pics are available. |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by ken_adrian z5 (My Page) on Sun, Jul 1, 12 at 9:02
| never fertilize a stressed tree ... i would like to see that knob at the base of the trunk ... and you should really have at least a 3 foot circle of mulch 'only' there.. its all interior leaves.. and those are usually the first to be sacrificed in drought.. i might think that however you are watering it.. it is not be effectively applied at depth .. where a tree needs it ... explain how you water also.. the lawn is on the verge of going dormant due to drought.. and that is probably the key ... if you were watering enough for the tree.. the lawn would be lush ... ken |
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- Posted by Dzitmoidonc 6 (My Page) on Sun, Jul 1, 12 at 9:06
| Giving fert to a stressed plant can cause leaf drop, but I doubt it would happen in 3 days. I'm with you thinking it could be the heat. These trees drop leaves a lot, and a small tree stressed by high heat might drop a significant portion of it's leaves. Did you check the small branches for bumps? These bumps, Magnolia scale, can be crushed and will show red "blood" when crushed. Fertilizing a tree when stressed by very high temps sends it into growth mode. If the tree is having a hard time just maintaining, with water fleeing the leaves at alarming rates, asking it to also add new tissue is cruel. Plant police are making the rounds looking for such cruelty, so please stop fertilizing. I heard the jail is a hollowed out Tulip Poplar. :) |
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| My thoughts, based on your image, is that you have not established a mulched, grass-free area around your tree. You would not believe how beneficial that would be for so many reasons. I also believe that I see damage at the base of the trunk typical of weedeater damage. Chronic injury such as that can kill a tree...especially a young one. I'll add that the application of fertilizer, especially a high N formulation, was the worst of anything you could do. Not only because your plant seemed sickly, but because of the heat! AND (aren't you sorry you asked?) ....it would be far better for your tree if you watered much less frequently, but of longer duration each time. More water but less often. Shallow, frequent watering is of no benefit to any plant other than recently germinated seedlings. Not only of no benefit but could be damaging in the long run.
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| I see two things that are problems. While you may have been watering, you have to do more than put a small stream on the base of the tree for a minute or two. Since the grass is giving up, that says whatever you may be doing in way of watering has been completely ineffective. You have to water DEEPLY when you water, or it does ZERO GOOD. What's more you have to water AROUND the tree, not just at the trunk. The roots that can take up water are not at the trunk, they are in the area surrounding the tree trunk. Therefore for a tree that size, I would say you need to saturate a5t least a 10' x 10' area around the trunk MINIMUM. Second problem. LOSE THE WEEDEATER! It appears pretty obvious you have be hitting the trunk with the string ALLOT. There is no taller grass all the way to the trunk (should be mulch in the first place as Ken said), and the projecting knot shows you have been tearing the hell out of the trunk. Even if you stop now, you may have already killed your tree due to the damage that has already occurred. As Ken says, need better closer pics to that area. Arktrees |
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| I forgot to address the fertilizer. One of the worst things you could have done as stated by others. Will take allot more water to partially mitigate the fertilizer. The fertilizer will act as a salt making it much harder for the tree to take up water. Only thing you can do is add more water to dilute, but if you go too far, that can present it's own problems. Arktrees |
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| Definitely heat/drought stress. |
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