Brown Needles in JWP

[AndyJ]

Hi folks.

I’ve got a JWP that I bought as a young tree a couple of years ago. This spring I took it out of its previous clay pot, did a 30ish% soil change and put it into a pond basket which was bigger than the clay pot. The 30% soil and the back filling into the pond basket is a mix in equal parts of akadama, pumice and lava (is that what you guys call Boon mix?). When I took it out of the clay pot there was quite a lot of mycorrhizal fungi surrounding it and I put all of that back in to the pond basket. The tree put out loads of new candles this year and I was really pleased with it.

We’ve had a bit of a wet few weeks up here in the North West of England and I’ve been out today, and noticed quite a lot of brown needles on some of my branches. I think this is suggesting the tree has had it - rotten roots? I’m a bit confused because I thought I had the drainage nailed with my soil mix - as the tree still had 70ish% original soil, could this have become waterlogged enough to kill the tree?

Could the tree just drop a few branches? Not all of them have brown needles .....

Any thoughts?

 

[Adair M]

Is there some kind of plastic dome over the rootball?

So, when you water, the soil close to the trunk doesn’t get wet? All the water goes to the perimeter of the pot? Where all the new fast draining soil is?

What you are doing is water starving the tree. The old rootball is packed with roots. Which pull the water out. The new soil doesn’t hold water, it drains out quickly. Which means the old root ball isn’t in contact with the water long enough to absorb any. So, the old rootball dries out because the roots suck out all the water. The old rootball doesn’t get water from above because of the plastic dome. All the water is directed to the perimeter. Which is porous since it’s a pond basket.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone do so much to water starve a plant!

1) take the plastic dome off.

2) thoroughly water the tree. Wait 20 minutes. Then water it again. Wait 20 minutes. And then, water it a third time.

3). Water it throughly daily.

 

[AndyJ]

Hi Adair.

Thanks for the quick reply. I just put the plastic dome on this afternoon - more rain coming. Its been open to the elements all year so far. Could it still be lack of water bearing this in mind?

Edit: I've just taken the plastic off and given it a good wateing anyway....