My Garden Is A Wasteland

[NHATIVE]

All,

Starting a general thread for my overall garden and its entry into pandemic status. Over the past few years I've struggled with trees suffering everything from chlorosis to aphids, spider mites to scorch, scale to vine weevils, and everything in between. Through it all, I'm struggling to find a core reason or solution. I feel if I had a group of thriving trees they would be more resistant to pests as well.

My coast redwood to went from one day pushing growth all over the place to 4 days later completely drooping and dead. Vine maple losing leaves left and right, pushing new ones only to immediately go decrepit.

My Ponderosa Pines, western larch, and mountain hemlock seem to oddly be the only ones not suffering.

I'm posting a slough of photos in the hopes folks may be able and willing to help with some more info.

What I know : I have very hard water with high pH and heavy lime buildup on pots and trunks - I have been correcting with "pH down" solution for a while. I have fairly heavy spider mite infestation on most trees - sprayed last week with Bayer 3 in 1. I have scale only on my Trident Maple - going to treat with imidacloprid. This spring I found multiple adult vine weevils on my maples - manually removed each and treated all trees with beneficial nematodes. Once a month have been spraying copper fungicide and neem oil largely to no effect.

Thanks in advance.

Vine Maple :


Coast Redwood :



Shindeshojo Maple :


Trident Maple :


Japanese Maple :

 

[Tums]

What sort of ph down do you have? Some of them use phosphoric acid so you could be providing too much phosphorus? Also soil/fertilizer/water habits/light? How are your plants' roots, if you've looked? Otherwise I feel like there must be a lot of other growers in your area who deal with the same issues as you somehow...

 

[Potawatomi13]

Other than H2O PH personally might suspect too much H2O. However with conifers not suffering would eliminate too much H2O unless in pure pumice/excellent drainage as well as PH(?). Perhaps too much H2O sprayed on foliage? Neighbors been spraying weed killer? Perhaps drifted on breeze and conifers sitting in safer area? Ask neighbors if any problems with plants nearest your yard space. Or look over fence.

 

[Paradox]

The fact that it's effecting so many different species indicates some issue with the environment they are in or something is being missed with care.

How often do you water/how much has it rained?
What type of soil are they in?
Are the pots on the ground or on a bench?
Have you had extreme heat in the last couple of months?

 

[AJL]

Just to be clear are you talking about all your garden trees or just the trees in pots?
- if its the latter then I agree with Paradox suggestions and in addition it could also be due to accidental overdosing with feed or chemicals

 

[GGB]

Sounds like maybe the sensitive species are over exposed? Judging by the fact that your mountainous conifers are getting along no trouble and your shade-ish loving deciduous are getting blasted from all sides I'd start there. Maybe you do have them in the shade already but I had to offer that theory. I can't grow anything on my bench except conifers because the exposure is so dry/hot/sunny. Anything else will get burnt to a crispy and attacked by mites and root rot.

 

[GGB]

Also remember that insects invade weak plants, not that you don't know that. But I bet this could mostly all be traced to one simple cause.

 

[August44]

It looks like a very wet, crowded environment there and lots of fungus around. If those trees are on the ground in your very wet climate, get them up off the ground (2-4') and space them out a bit so there is air circulation. I would hit everything with a top-quality fungus spray ( top and bottom of foliage ) every week for a month or two.

 

[Wulfskaar]

I have very similar looking plants and baby trees. My environment is so weird with the lack of rain that I feel I need to water every day or every other day. Lately though, I've only been watering every other day or so.

For me, it may be a mix of over-watering and also fertilizing, but a fungus going nuts may also be a part of it. I also have a lot of spiders on my trees, so not sure if that has anything to do with it.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

All,

Starting a general thread for my overall garden and its entry into pandemic status. Over the past few years I've struggled with trees suffering everything from chlorosis to aphids, spider mites to scorch, scale to vine weevils, and everything in between. Through it all, I'm struggling to find a core reason or solution. I feel if I had a group of thriving trees they would be more resistant to pests as well.

My coast redwood to went from one day pushing growth all over the place to 4 days later completely drooping and dead. Vine maple losing leaves left and right, pushing new ones only to immediately go decrepit.

My Ponderosa Pines, western larch, and mountain hemlock seem to oddly be the only ones not suffering.

I'm posting a slough of photos in the hopes folks may be able and willing to help with some more info.

What I know : I have very hard water with high pH and heavy lime buildup on pots and trunks - I have been correcting with "pH down" solution for a while. I have fairly heavy spider mite infestation on most trees - sprayed last week with Bayer 3 in 1. I have scale only on my Trident Maple - going to treat with imidacloprid. This spring I found multiple adult vine weevils on my maples - manually removed each and treated all trees with beneficial nematodes. Once a month have been spraying copper fungicide and neem oil largely to no effect.

Thanks in advance.

Vine Maple :
View attachment 455514View attachment 455515

Coast Redwood :

View attachment 455516View attachment 455517

Shindeshojo Maple :
View attachment 455518View attachment 455519

Trident Maple :
View attachment 455520View attachment 455521View attachment 455522

Japanese Maple :
View attachment 455523View attachment 455524

Hard water and high pH. These are two separate problems.

Your pH Down product will make your water slightly harder still in the process of adjusting the pH. The pH is the acidity and or alkalinity. The hardness is the total dissolved solids, two separate problems. Collecting rain water over winter and spring in enough quantity to carry you through the summer is the "fix". No amount of pH down will fix hard water. Rain water, or deionized water or running reverse osmosis water are the "cures" for hard water.

Best if you start with an actual water test result. Do you know your total dissolved solids? You can send a sample to a county lab or to a private lab to get it analyzed. If you send it out get both Total Dissolved Solids and Total Alkalinity. The two measurements will very fully characterize your water. Last time I had it done TDS was $20 and Total Alkalinity was $40 to have them run. Especially the total alkalinity the cost will have risen, it would be at least 1/2 to an hour for a BA level Lab Tech's time. It takes 5 minutes to run if you have been running them all day, but if you are only running one that day, it is at least 1/2 hour or more to set up. Got to calibrate your standards.

Actually, while it is nice knowing your total alkalinity, if you are not growing blueberries or other acid loving plants, just worry about total dissolved solids, and forget the Total Alkalinity. It is always less than TDS, so if you get your TDS under control your Tot Alk will be under control.

Anyway, find out what your total dissolved solids are (TDS). Practical limit for horticulture is 600 ppm. If your TDS is over 600 ppm you will need to add rain water or deionized water in a mix to bring your solids down. Adjusting pH will not do it. I would use a barrel or a tank or cistern, and collect rain water. Mix rain water with enough tap water to make a mix that is comfortably under 600 ppm tds. A good number to shoot for would be 400 ppm. Here in the midwest, Lake Michigan water is 225 ppm tds, Lake Superior is about 125 ppm tds, Lake Erie is around 290 ppm tds.

Once you get your hard water issue solved, pH will more or less take care of its self.

bugs - thats another issue