brown spots and shedding leaves

5 years ago

Hello!

Our outdoor ficus trees cover the perimeter of our backyard and some recently started shedding leaves. I noticed brown spots on the leaves and it appears the shedding is moving on to other ficus trees.

We live in Southern CA and these are on a drip line, so watered at night. Can I treat them all to stop the spread of whatever this is? My husband thinks we need to pull them all out. 😩

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Comments (4)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
5 years ago
when were they planted ... how...

and how did you determine that your watering schedule is sufficient for them??

ken
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
5 years ago
why are they still staked..

where is the root flare???

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=root+flare&iax=images&ia=images

shrubs should be much more forgiving being planted too deep.. but it could be a significant stress if newly transplanted ...

tell DH to take a chill pill ...

stressed plants leaves do weird things.. but unless you solve the stress .. it really doesnt matter whats going on with the leaves ... i suspect watering issues.. base on what is known now ...

ken
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Lisa Neglia
Original Author
5 years ago
Hi Ken

These were planted in January of this year. Should we remove the stakes? Our gardener never said anything about removing them.

We had them in a daily water schedule in the morning but was told to switch them to a late evening schedule to allow the water the chance to soak in given the 100 degree temps we were hitting during a week where we hit temps around 102.

Thanks!!
Lisa
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
i suspect you are severely underwatering them ... leading to high stress ... that is causing harm to the leaves ...

take a hand trowel .. and dig 3 or 4 holes in the gob planted.. and in native soil.. ar4ound the tree.. and find out if there sufficient moisture at root depth ... which is probably 6 to 12 inches down ...

who made up this drip schedule?? .. when i used drip ... to get one foot down in my sand.. i had to leave the drip running for 6 to 8 hours.. are you close to that.. i suspect not ...

most likely.. you would be best served by putting a hose on trickle.. and letting it run for a few hours.. around each plant ...

UNLESS YOU HAVE NON DRAINING CLAY SOIL... ADVISE IF THATS THE CASE ... then maybe too much water .. especially since the wall limits any significant wind ....

the wall also accumulates and retains heat thru the day ... reducing the effectiveness of the usual cooler night time recovery period ... and this is worse.. because they dont have an established root mass to offset the weather stresses ...

those are shipping stakes.. and unless the plant is wobbly in the hole.. they serve no purpose ... get rid of them ...

even if you replace them.. you will end up in the same place... unless you perfect watering for a large transplant ...

so it is said.. so it is written ... lol.. or some yul bryner paraphrase ... who knew ...

ken

see section 12 here and read the rest just for the heck of it: https://sites.google.com/site/tnarboretum/Home/planting-a-tree-or-shrub