Love/hate relationship

11 years ago

Anyone else developed a love-hate relationship with a plant?

Mine is with my first plant - a citrus cocktail tree I bought two years ago. I put one in when we bought our first house. It was really my first attempt at gardening. Since then - maybe two years ago- it has been nearly killed or afflicted by each of the following:

Fungus
sooty mold
leaf miners
drought
rootrot from wet soil
Pakistani Weevils
swallowtail butterfly caterpillars
leafnotchers
various mineral deficiencies
infertile soil
overapplication of minors
overapplication of fertilizer
lack of magnesium
total leaf loss from over application of magnesium
too-strong foliar fertilizer causing total leaf burn
stress brought on by too much fruit at once
canker (exacerbated by overwatering)
general overwatering resulting from my enthusiasm at having repaired the 30 year-old sprinkler system
suspected greening
near girdling with my weedwacker
smashed into by motorized lawnmower
infestation from lack of pesticides
overapplication of pesticides

If I thought about it more I might either a) come up with several more or b) go for my axe and cut it down.

I love that little tree. It taught me so much about what not to do - and survived all of my abuse. I've learned so much about plants and gardening from it, and despite all of the mistakes I made it constantly blooms, grows, and tries to fruit (when I first had it it did get good fruit - this year it all drops early) I'm pretty sure it's toast - canker has moved into the main branch junction on the trunk - but that first showed up months ago, and it's still growing!

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Comments (3)

garyfla_gw
11 years ago
hi

I can relate had two orange and a key lime when I first got the house .Nothing could be easier except they produced too much fruit lol Then during the "citrus scab " period the trees were all cut down even ground up the roots by the state .Even though mine did not have the disease they were within 1500 feet of an infected tree . All my neighbors trees were destroyed also. waited two years and then replanted as did my neighbors . All have been confirmed with "greening"There are treatments but mostly ineffective. i have a clementine and key lime lime left that look pathetic . i probably should cut them down as I'm probably spreading the disease but what would my caterpillars eat?? lol I guess the "good old days "are gone. Good luck with yours . Be sure to put your local Ag. extension offfice on speed dial.

gary
User
11 years ago
I have two:

1) my confederate rose hibiscus. I had to dig it out of the ground and put it into a pot and it hasn't been happy since. Now that I've finally gotten to a place where I can plant it in the ground, it has contracted a bad case of snow scale. I love this plant, but i'm about ready to get rid of it!

2) my Thai crown of thorns -- both of them. They are beautiful and I get so many compliments on them, but they are in containers and moving them is like doing battle with a wildcat, you get so scratched up. I keep saying I'm going to give them both away, but then they bloom and I can't do it. The larger one may just die up here this winter, because there is nowhere to put it inside. It almost died during a freeze in SW FL one year, but came back from the bottom prettier than ever.
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User
11 years ago
Gary, I can relate to the citrus problems. First thing I did when I bought my house was plant 3 citrus trees. Over the next couple of years, I added two more. I never got that much fruit from any of them, and I was almost glad when I moved and left them to be someone else's problem. I now hear they all have greening. Glad I don't have to deal with it.