Concern for first year redbud tree

11 years ago

Early spring I planted a B&B Forest Pansy Redbud. It is in mostly full sun with some late afternoon/evening shade. It's in a well protected area with a privacy fence to the side, the patio and inside corner of the house to the other side, house behind, and open to the east. I put it on my drip system with 6 1gph emitters in an even circle around the tree just over the outside edge of where I estimated the root ball to be.

Originally I believe I had it going on every 3 days for about an hour. Then kicked it down to 40-45 min. Summer came with the intense high dry temps and I had to increase to every other day, I believe I left it at 40-45min. ..the tree did well, changed from the purple/red to green as expected for a forest pansy. Now in late summer and into fall it started showing signs of stress, some crunchy leaves here and there. I assumed due to a rough first summer. Now, it's really going brown and looking unhealthy. ...on the flip side we've started to get below average temps and really heavy rains (irrigation is off). Trees are beginning to change for fall colors. The forest pansy though doesn't look like an average fall change? But I thought it started doing this before the weather change too. My dad said he thought it looked over watered...

???

What's your thoughts. The other thing is the leaves have an odd brown speckle too them in addition to the dying /crumbling.

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anonymous picture upload

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Comments (7)

hortster
11 years ago
For sure it is some kind of stress. Forest Pansy is a bit touchier to environmental stresses than common redbud. Actually looks like too much water to me. Redbuds don't like wet feet, and it sounds like you were keeping it constantly wet which would be one cause for it to look like it does. This would be compounded if you have it planted in heavy clay soil.
If it were mine I would back off the water here in the fall and before watering again would probe the soil with a long screwdriver to see just how moist it is. Lightly moist is ideal.
hortster
famartin
11 years ago
Brown speckle looks like its just the parts of the leaf most distant from the veins dying first.

Right now I'd just wait til next spring and cease all watering. Looking at the climate data for Cleveland, assuming that's relevant to your location, it appears as though they've had double normal rainfall this month. It was hot in June and July but only June was actually somewhat dry.
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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
11 years ago
oh for crying out loud ...

it has been one of the hottest ... driest summers in a long time ...

trust me.. ALL THE TREES ARE GOING TO DUMP LEAVES FAST.. AND EARLY ... and not perform to standard .. colorwise ...

listen to me.. its OCTOBER!!! ... your tree looks GREAT for a recent transplant ... and that sums it up ...

water late into fall IF the soil dries out ...

and otherwise.. congrats ... YOU DID WELL ... good???

now QUIT WORRYING ABOUT IT ... !!!!

ken

ps: take some pix after the leaves fall off.. i think some interior pruning would really help make that tree more stable for the long run...
ibanez540r
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks guys! Just wanted to make sure nothing of major concern.
Sara Malone Zone 9b
11 years ago
Ditto on Ken's comment about pruning. Redbuds are notorious for crossing branches and you want to get the structure set while the tree is young and you can reach everything easily. I got behind on a few of mine and ended up having to hire someone to come in and do it. They are great trees, though!
Sara
ibanez540r
Original Author
11 years ago
My dad mentioned pruning as soon as I got it. I didn't want to take away any means of energy when first planted. Thanks for the reminder though. ...I'll post up when the leaves drop.
rubyhum
9 years ago
It's been two years. Curious to see your redbud today.