Redemption Song - Cotoneaster edition

Hartinez

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Thank you for the advice. I am kind of lost on the style at this point. I’m hoping once I get some soil out and also out of the pot it will come to me.
Better to start planning now. The members can give you some things to think about and other suggestions. Post a pic
 

Gr8tfuldad

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Hello All was my initial post that included images. While there was some valuable insight, nothing that made me say…that is the direction. They helped me decided that cascade might not be the best option at this point. I saw a raft style today and thought it might be an option to? Maybe just chop it back and go with an informal upright. One of those funnel spiders made a home in there the last few days, his tree now 😂
 

Hartinez

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They had been growing so dam well. Minimal to no cutbacks and some wire. Well it seems blight has crept in regardless. The one single trunk experienced it first and I was quick to remove infected leaves and spray with copper. The other tree was not handled the same way. It is now suffering more. I’m hoping I’ve caught it fast enough and am treating heavily. I’m also really hoping this redemption song is not going to end prematurely. If I can get them into winter alive, I’m Absolutely going to be far more prophylactic with my treatment of these and blight. 6726595F-3844-4ECA-8CF5-7B19E634DDA6.jpeg6D8436A4-C275-4172-A3EB-D7810B0B321C.jpeg
 

Hartinez

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Hey @Eric Schrader any thoughts on what may be causing the blight to appear in the first place? I’ve seen you cultivate this type and was wondering if you had some insight. These are currently in about 80% pumice and 20% Akadama. They were growing so strong up until about three weeks ago. Plus I have a few pots of cuttings that have taken well but are starting to take on the brown tips on the leaves. Do you treat yours with any type of prophylactic fungicide.?
 

Pitoon

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When I took cuttings of my ‘Tom Thumb’ I found some wooly aphids deep inside the branch structure. So I treated the plant for the aphids. After the cuttings failed I put the cotoneaster on the back burner and I noticed branches slowly dying. I suspected mites and treated with neem oil. This seemed to help but after a couple of weeks branches started dying again. This time I took a good look and it was indeed mites. So another treatment of neem oil. I’ll be pruning off the dead branches and continue with a treatment of neem oil every 7 days now until the tree recovers. The new cotoneaster I got from Eric is far away from this one to prevent any spread. Hopefully the ‘Tom Thumb’ recovers, if it does I’ll just make a mame out of it.

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Gr8tfuldad

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Two other options to mites are releasing predatory mites and also spraying the plant down heavily with water. Mites can’t swim and they get blasted off the leaves. Keep in mind this needs to be done for a week or more to remove newly hatchlings. I have had success with both strategies. Sorry to hear they found you.
 

Eric Schrader

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Hey @Eric Schrader any thoughts on what may be causing the blight to appear in the first place? I’ve seen you cultivate this type and was wondering if you had some insight. These are currently in about 80% pumice and 20% Akadama. They were growing so strong up until about three weeks ago. Plus I have a few pots of cuttings that have taken well but are starting to take on the brown tips on the leaves. Do you treat yours with any type of prophylactic fungicide.?
When you grow the number of plants I grow, you have to use fungicide preventatively.
In terms of Cotoneaster problems, I'm not sure what is causing yours, but here are the most common ones I'm seeing:

1. Large black bumpy Scale on the stems/shoots - they will cause branch dieback if not removed. They're pretty easily spotted, but it tends to take a few treatments to beat them back once they get going.
2. Small Scale on the mid-rib of the leaf, so far I have not seen any serious problems caused by this, but it spreads quickly and is ugly.
3. Nectria ssp. fungal canker - it causes dieback even of large bonsai branches or even full stems. There is no proven curative control, so management is through elimination of infected tissue and topical treatment. This fungus affects many of the Rose family species, which includes Apples, Hawthorne, Cotoneaster among many others. Treatment with Propiconizole sprench does seem to slow it down, but that may be just prophylactic. I've carved and removed sections of quince that were damaged. The cankers look like dead sections of bark, and tend to fall off in wet conditions.
4. Pythium and similar root pathogens - these are not species specific, but can cause weakness, dieback, or complete death if the roots stay wet too much. I don't think cotoneaster are particularly susceptible, but you never know. Because these are opportunistic, and widespread in the nursery industry you should consider every plant that you obtain a potential vector. Treat incoming plant material with a broad-spectrum knock down like Zero-Tol or even just Hydrogen Peroxide, then re-inoculate with myco and soil bacteria. Topical treatment like Zero-Tol will only kill the pathogens present in the soil, outside of the plant tissue, so if the plant is actually infected and not just a carrier, then you'll need to use a systemic fungicide in addition to the topical treatments. I rotate Subdue Maxx (Mefenoxam), Orkestra (pyraclostrobin), Banrot (Etridiazole) and RootShield Plus WP (a biological) to control root pathogens.
5. Mites can attack anything, so keep an eye out for them also. I find a simple soap spray to be the best solution, because they can't develop resistance. If you actually find mites, you'll want to treat 3-4 times at 10 day intervals to be totally sure you got them all. Cocktailing soap and a systemic can also work, but soap alone is enough if you do it right.

Good luck.
 
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