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maddy_reynolds

crape myrtle sick? dying ? help please.

Maddy Reynolds
9 years ago

I have 2 crape myrtles with yellowing leaves. One with a white powder on it's buds.

The first one is a 15 ft crape (I think it's Miami). It has one branch with yellow , withering leaves and buds.

The second one is a Pink Velour I just planted a few months ago. It is about 4 ft tall. It has yellow leaves that are dropping off. most of the yellow leaves are yellowing inside the tree. the leaves on the outside are okay.

The last one (I'll put a photo up tomorrow) is an older Pink Velour with white powder on it's buds.

All of this yellowing / withering and white powder seems to have happened in the past 2 weeks. All the plants looked healthy up until recent weeks.

Can someone please give me some advice? I've never seen this before so I have no idea what's going on... what caused this and how can I prevent this from happening again?

Comments (8)

  • Maddy Reynolds
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    First photo was Miami with withering branch.

    This photo is the just planted Pink Velour.

  • Maddy Reynolds
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    This is of the 3rd tree, a Pink Velour with white powder on it's buds. I noticed Crapes down the street also have this white powder on their buds. Mildew?

    It just got this recently, the same time I noticed the withering branch on the Miami and the yellowing and dropping leaves on my new Pink Velour.

    What is causing this? Only this one tree has the White powder.

  • gregorywoodl
    9 years ago

    The white powder is simply powdery mildew, it is usually caused by a few days of cooler wetter days strung together...crape myrtles hate that. I would just cut off the effected flowers, that are reachable, as they will probably not open up anyway.
    Your new Pink Velour looks very healthy, and is probably just showing a little delayed transplant stress...not a problem.
    As for the yellowing branch; I've got noth'n...sorry.

  • needinfo001
    9 years ago

    Mine also have that white powder on the buds. I think i will just cut them off.
    (this is tlbean2004 by the way)
    I think you overpayed for the now 15 foot plant when you got it a couple of years ago.
    Is it still putting out flowers?

  • subtropix
    9 years ago

    I think the yellowing is transplant and water related. Have you been watering regularly? How have the rains been? Was it transplanted this Summer? This new shrub does not yet have an adequate root system to support all its growth. Let me guess, you have also been pushing new growth with fertilizer. I would really just let it be for the current season. If it is just transplant and root system related, you should see a world of difference next year.

  • Maddy Reynolds
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    HI. This is a photo of the Miami with the Yellowing branch. Overall it is healthy, just that one branch is withering.... but it is a late bloomer... just now blooming in August.

    Glad to hear that Powdery Mildew or the yellowing on the Pink Velours are not major problems.

    We haven't had much rain but I have watered the new Pink Velour well almost every day, holding off when we did get rain.

    I did not apply any fertilizer to the new Pink Velour. I did apply a little Triple Phosphate to the Miami (in early July) because it still didn't have any buds at that time and had never really bloomed well. I've watered the Miami and larger pink velour once or twice a week because we haven't had much rain at all for a long stretch here in my area.

    Thanks for the comments.

    Is there anyway to avoid the Powdery Mildew? This is the first year I've seen it.

  • Maddy Reynolds
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    THe withering branch is on the left side in the tree in this photo. I hope it doesn't get worse.

  • gregorywoodl
    9 years ago

    Miami is one of the varieties considered to have a high resistance to mildew, but it is obviously still possible. Make sure when you water it that you do not spray the whole tree (they do not like that), and that you do not have a sprinkler hitting it either. They do have fungicide sprays that you can use to treat the tree when you do have an outbreak. I included a link to Mississippi State University called "Powdery Mildew on Crape Myrtles - Steps for Control"
    http://msucares.com/newsletters/pests/infobytes/19990528.htm

    Here is a link that might be useful: Powdery Mildew on Crape Myrtles - Steps for Control