Cercidiphyllum japonicum

Is Treesurfer around..?..my little tree is in desperate need of help...:(

 

Little Orme Hi. I am no expert on this tree but did you re pot it when you got it home? My experience of garden centres is the plants are usually very pot bound. If it is re pot it in a bigger container with nice fresh compost with some sand for drainage and give it a good feed. You may have to prize open the roots a little if they are all wrapped round the outside of the root ball. Pop it in a shady sheltered place for the meantime and talk nice to it.

 

Thank you for your reply ..i did repot it when I got it home in a sliightly larger pot..it was fine to begin with..and then it started to show signs of being unwell..I really hope I can save it..I am hoping Treesurfer see's the picture, as he did ask to see the leaves and so did Fredy...Cheers

 

Hi again littleorme. From the pic there's nothing that leaps out at me, but as I said before, I'm certainly no expert. The main reason I asked for a pic was in the hope that treesurfer could throw more light on it. The only thing I can think of is watering, have you under/over watered ? Go easy with the feed though, I don't think it's a good idea to keep on feeding if a plant looks like it's in trouble. Maybe carefully take it out of it's pot and see how the compost seems, to check for moisture level. If it's sopping wet, that may well be the cause of it, IMO. Sorry I can't help you more.
Cheers...freddy.

 

Thanks Freddy..maybe Treesurfer will take a peep ?.

 

Maybe send a PM ?

 

Cheers Freddy..I will

 

Hi littleorme,

What are the signs of ill health in this tree particularly? I'm afraid the pic isn't that detailed to offer a concise opinion, but the only thing I did see is the tree may be suffering a little from nitrogen deficiency, as shown by the ever-so-slightly chlorotic leaves. This is remedied by adding a nitrogen rich feed which you can get online or from your nearest good garden centre. Well rotted manure also offers good nitrogen levels, but for a tree that size it's probably not worth messing around with it.

Freddy's advice of over/underwatering is sound, but I would refrain from actually disrupting the tree's roots by taking out of the pot again. Try and leave the root system as intact and healthy as possible as this will help the tree in overcoming any problems.

Hope this helps,
Matthew

 

Hi It could be just a little disturbed by the pot change and I am sure it will recover well.
If you have used fresh compost and being a young tree feed may be too much, perhaps leave feeding till perhaps leave the feeding till spring.

What compost did you use to pot up?

 

Many thanks Treesurfer...I am very grateful for your advice..

thank you happy mundays...

 

Hello all, I just came across this post, and registered to add this. I was looking for advice on pruning this tree as I don't want it to get out of control in a smallish garden.

I bought it on impulse at a reasonable price some years ago. I potted it into ever larger plastic pots as it did seem to dry out quickly. Finally it was about 8 feet tall when I decided to put it in the ground but have since read that it is fast growing and can reach 150 feet in its natural environment.

At the moment it is a single stem and growing well. It isn't the weeping variety. When it was in pots it did tend to loose leaves when it suffered but recovered ok when watered carefully. In the ground now for 20 months it is happy - I would say that it probably isn't a suitable subject for a pot.

But with mine, can I risk cutting out the top to encourage dwarfer bushier growth? I dont really want it over 18 feet. It is about 12 feet tall at the moment.

many thanks,