Azalea and rhododendron care and pruning questions

[shinmai]

How’s your azalea doing?

 

[ManSkirtBrew]

Quite well, thanks for asking. I have a critter digging in its soil--apparently they like the fertilizer I've been putting down. But otherwise seems heathy. I'll take a picture tomorrow!

 

[ManSkirtBrew]

Here he is. Is the foliage looking a little anemic to you?

 

[Carol 83]

Here he is. Is the foliage looking a little anemic to you?View attachment 207237View attachment 207238

A dose of Miracid probably wouldn't hurt.

 

[ManSkirtBrew]

A dose of Miracid probably wouldn't hurt.

I've been using Holly Tone. I tried putting it in tea bags instead of spreading it around and the animals ate them. I'll re fertilize this week

 

[ManSkirtBrew]

We've also had a TON of rain lately. I wonder if that could be part of it.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Here he is. Is the foliage looking a little anemic to you?View attachment 207237View attachment 207238

Animals are a problem that goes hand in hand with organic fertilizers. That is one reason I am mostly inorganic, chemical fertilizers. Otherwise it is a loosing battle unless all trees are put in cages to keep squirrels, racoons, stray cats, opossums, and skunks out of the trees.

Mira-acid is a widely available chemical fertilizer for acid loving plants. Or you could use a iron supplement. Iron fertilizers will usually have sulfur too, lack of iron, magnesium, sulfur, or manganese all could be the cause of your chlorosis, an iron supplement will usually have all that I listed.

 

[shinmai]

I have been having great results with Miracid, doing a full watering every other weekend with a half-strength solution [three of the little end of the scoop that comes in the package, per gallon of water]. I have been very pleasantly surprised at the pace and amount of backbudding happening since I started using it regularly.

Also, I have not tried it with bonsai, but in my rose garden I feed three or four times a season with equal parts Bayer Rose Food and Epsom salts. The Epsom salt is magnesium sulfate, and the magnesium promotes robust foliage growth quite nicely. I'm not going to use it directly on my bonsai azaleas without some certainty around the risk of root burn, but am about to undertake using it as a foliar spray based on a tablespoon per gallon of water. My satsuki are doing fine, but some of my box store rhododendron projects are having more leaf issues than I think they should, even given the genuinely crappy weather we've had. I'll report back on what results I get.

 

[0soyoung]

magnesium sulfate, and the magnesium promotes robust foliage

Magnesium is at the active center of chlorophyll. Hence it tends to make foliage 'greener'. Magnesium deficiency causes chlorosis in highly acidic soil (whereas iron deficiency does so in soils that are too alkaline).

 

[cozmicat]

After a little detective work, I can tell you that the death of the rhododendron was not your fault. It was, in fact, dying when you got it.
Purple Gem and many other rhododendrons have exfoliating bark, but this happens when a new cambium layer has formed and the outer layer sloughs off. In even your earliest photos, the trunk of that tree is completely bare.
After repotting two that did not bud, and became brittle [and dead], I did some research and found that these varieties are vulnerable to bark split. It usually happens when they come out of dormancy, fluid rises in the tree, and they get hit by a really hard freeze. Like all liquids, the fluid expands when it freezes, and the bark splits partially or completely. If partially, it might be salvageable using grafting paraffin. If the trunk is girdled, the tree is going to die—as much as six months after the fact. It will look healthy in spring or early summer, but it’s already ‘dead tree walking’. This happens at the grower, long before the nursery pot is in your hands at Home Depot.
The lesson is that when we look at the trunks of nursery stock, if the trunk bark is separated, pick a different one. I have enough guilt over trees I killed because I screwed up. Thought you might like to know that the grower should never have sold that one in the first place.

I picked up a couple of rhodies, can you by chance share an exact example of bark split? Mine have the same looking trunk @ManSkirtBrew, but i would like to know what exactly on that trunk signifies bark split.
The flowers look great, but sucks if they are just going to die. Win some you lose some! lol. Thanks!~

 

[cozmicat]

I decided it’d probably be better if I show pictures. These are the 2 I picked up, but now wondering if it has the same bark split issue. I don’t want to assume it does.

 

[shinmai]

The diagonal stem in picture #2 looks like it’s split. However, it’s usually only de facto fatal if the trunk is girdled. If you’re getting new growth beyond the split and/or leaves are not dying then there is probably enough cambium intact. I would nevertheless put cut paste over the split after trimming off the edges of the bark where it stands away from the branch. Use the orange stuff from Japan. The other images look like normal roughness and exfoliation to me. The danger sign is when you see bare wood where the bark should be.
i don’t have pics, because I chucked mine in the garbage when they died. If you google “azalea bark split” and select images, there are numerous pictures.

 

[cozmicat]

I appreciate the reply! I was going to do some work after flowering but after reading this thread I’m like what is the point. Good to know there is still hope.

 

[shinmai]

Happy to help in any way I can.