Wilting Spotted Aucuba or Laurel

Afternoon.

My first post.

My "laurel" plants are dying. I've already lost 3, where the leaves got diseased and blackened and the stems too, then the plant was dead.

Now the lower leaves are turning yellow and falling off.

They are about 4 feet tall with bright red berries, and have been growing against a slatted fence in partial shade fine n dandy since I bought them for £6 each as new, wee plants.
A previous question on another forum said the solution was now illegal, and that the potash in tomato feed is my only chance.
I've tried that, and it may have slowed it down, but I cant be pouring that on for the next 30 years.

I'll try n n add pics.

Cheers.

Steve

 

It looks possibly fungal to me.
Cant see where potash comes into it?

Also found something about waterlogging?

Aucuba blackening

 

Thank you Pete.

The last fella on another website said fungal too, but that the definite solution had been banned, so tomato feed's potash was his suggestion.

We've had a dry Summer up here in Dundee, except for Tuesdays monsoon.

Just a shame that a real sturdy plant is dying away in my garden, just where I wanted a sturdy hedge, when it survives robustly everywhere else..

 

I could be wrong, but I've never heard of a potash feed being a cure for a fungal infection, having said that, I honestly dont know what the problem is.
You could try a fungicide , maybe one of the rose sprays perhaps, I know a lot of the really good ones have now been banned.

You say its been dry, have you tried watering?

I assume they are well established plants?

 

Thank you chaps.

"I just wonder if your weather has been that bit colder than us in the South."

Beautifully put.

I'll try n get some fungicide n see what that does.
Here are some pics to give you maybe a better idea.
Its hardly exposed, on the North side of the fence.
The gaps left n right are where the others died.

I pruned back some great growth a month or so ago that was coming outwards, to keep it hedge like.

Cheers

 

From the pictures all I can see is old leaves dying, but the new growth looks fine.

 

I've sprayed on some rose fungicide stuff so we'll see.


Cheers all.

If they die, I'll blame you....

 

While you are all here...

The pics down the garden are looking to the sunny and slightly warmer South...

The pyracantha to the right is 4 plants pruned to form another hedge.

Next to that is a purple beech 'hedge.

Would be great one day to lose the fence n have my natural border.

The pyracantha has great growth on top, but the North n South sides ain't great, as I guess with the fence, neither get direct sunlight.

If I sawed a section of fence out between the fence posts, which coincidentally matches up with the hedge, would the increased sunlight give that side a surge of new growth ?

I'd screw back the fence panel in Winter for security, then take it down again in the Spring, hoping it would really thicken up, then I'd just bin the fence panel.


Answers on a postcard

01 811 8055

 

Swap Shop reference there....

I've scooshed on some rose plant fungicide stuff as well as I can.

The healthy leaves will soon be outnumbered by yellowing leaves, then my plants will be past the point of no return, with no new buds on the main stalks to replace the fallen ones.