Feedback would be appreciated!

I water about every three days. Tree is planted in a bag that is 25" tree box equivalent.

explain the cat issue.. has it been pooping or peeing in the pot...

no plant holds its leaves forever.. this looks like somewhat common shedding of older ...lower leaves ... perhaps increased by a substantial increase in nitrogen.. aka urea ...

does it need water every three days???.. water when a plant.. pot .. needs it.. not on some random schedule ....

if its normal shedding.. there is no reason to drown it ...

ken

I know nothing about michella trees, but I seem to remember being taught that excess nitrogen caused a thicker leaves, deeper green in leaves and leaf curl. So fully yellow leaves is a nitrogen LACK? Over fertilization caused yellow leaf margins or full yellow and leaf drop of older leaves first? Shoot I just googled it:

• Nitrogen deficiency shows up as a general yellowing. Older, inner leaves turn yellow first. As it progresses, yellowing moves outward, eventually reaching young leaves, too.
• Potassium deficiency shows itself when leaf edges turn bright yellow, but the inner leaf stays green. Older leaves show symptoms first, and leaf edges soon turn brown.
• Magnesium deficiency starts as yellow patches between leaf veins on older leaves. Veins stay green as yellow moves from the leaf center out. Leaf edges turn yellow last.
• Iron deficiency also shows as yellowing between leaf veins, but it hits young leaves on plant tops and branch tips first.
• Sulfur deficiency starts with the newest leaves, turning them yellow throughout.

Interesting about the cat's ah... contribution. Wonder if that caused a nutrient lock or something. Ken will no doubt know more.

This is much more likely to be a water issue rather than a nutrient issue. Both over and underwatering will lead to the yellowing and dropping of leaves. But we need much more information to make a determination.

• What kind of potting soil do you use?
• When was the potting media changed or refreshed?
• When you water, how much do you supply? Do you allow it to flush through all the soil and drain fully or do you supply a set amount?
• Do you water to a schedule or when the plant and the soil condition tells you it is necessary?
• Do you fertilize and if so, with what and how often?

The answers to these questions will go a long way in us helping you to help your plant.

I would like to comment on the certainty with which one contributor described nutrient deficiencies. It is extremely difficult for hobby growers to diagnose nutritional deficiencies even when the species is known and the grower has a cheat sheet in hand highlighting nutritional deficiencies in the species being diagnosed. IOW, you cannot copy/paste something from a website and expect it to be even close to reliable. Too, for a nutritional deficiency to rise to the level of being conspicuous, it reached the level of being serious and there are likely more than one deficiency. The most appropriate method of treating a suspected deficiency is almost NEVER by addressing one or two suspected deficiencies. Flush the soil thoroughly the next time the plant needs water (to reset the nutrient level in the soil solution to as close to 0 as you can get), then fertilize with a recommended production rate of a soluble synthetic fertilizer. For almost all plants in containers (there are some nutritional outliers), fertilizers with 3:1:2 ratios are best; this, because 3:1:2 ratios come closest to providing nutrients in the ratio at which plants actually use nutrients, which allows the grower to avoid deficiencies using the lowest level of fertility possible. Examples of 3:1:2 ratio fertilizers are 24-8-16, 12-4-8, and my favorite by fat, Foliage-Pro 9-3-6.

@RoseMe SD As I look at the images, I think fertility or watering. I did take note that you said that after the cat peed or pooed? in the pot that the foliage started greening up. That would tend to add credence to the idea 'it's nutritional' line of thinking, especially if it peed.

Answering the questions asked would give us more to go on and help solidify a diagnosis.

Al

Hi All!

I was having technical problems replying and getting notification from this website. I still can't type on it normally as a reply so hopefully this reply gets copy and paste through!

1) Water: Since the pot is a "bag" it drains extremely well. Under my care, the tree has grown from 1 foot to almost 5 in just 18 months. I water according to the weather, temperature, and season. In general I kept the soil on the dry side.

2) Fertilizer: Biggest shock of all is that the reason the top part grew like mad before lower part yellowed is the naught cat not just peeing but also pooping in late winter (when soil was still.kept on the dry side longer). I didn't realize it even until there is a sudden growth of large amount of new foliages. It was so sudden and so fast I took a close look and found the "treasures" in there. I resumed water normally and most likely flushed urine out fine, but kept pieces of poop in. This went on for a good month and the new foliages and branches grew almost 1foot.

3) After the pleasant new growth, that was when those large old.leaves turned yellow, seemingly fast and sudden, but I don't know if the speed is normal or not.

4) I have since discovered a few more "servings" of natural fertilizer, and have scooped them out as much as I could and watered to flush them out. I do have Al's fav 9__3_6 but will wait a bit, as I wonder if my cat has accidentally over fertilized this lovely Alba tree. Can over fertilization speed up foliage yellowing and falling out?

Will post a separate photo of its drastic growth stage.

May 2021, April 3, 2023, May 3, 2023

(in reverse order).

Any feedback welcome!