My small coto is dying

I have a small cotoneaster horizontalis I bought it as nursery stock last year, this spring (In Feb) I repoted it since it was still in nursery heavy soil but I did the mistake of putting it in almost pure peatmoss (don't ask I messed up)


Instead of making another repot I decicded to wait till fall to repot it again and was watching our watering, all was fine, it leafed out and put on some amazing growth.

On April 16th I did some branch selection on the new growth and it was still fine till 2 days ago, today all the leaves are wilted it was in full sun so I moved it to a shadier spot, is there an easy way to know if it is over or under watering ? are these chaps hardy can it recover or should I not put in high hopes?

thanks

If peat moss dries out it can be very difficult to get wet again. It could also stay too wet. How did you water? We don't usually recommend total emersion, but in this case that might be the solution.

thanks for the reply, i'm watering when the surface is becoming "rough" and starts to dry out. I then water heavily

This is the only one I have in such cr@p all the rest are in well drained soil and I guess it is not a good idea to make another repot now specially that it is in bad shape

If you water peat moss from above when it is dry, the water might wet the surface and then run around the sides. Try floating the pot in a pan of water.

hi,
the choice is simple - do nothing and it will probably die, do a second repot into better soil and the chances are 50/50 it will live - add a humidity tent with a plactic bag and you have a good chance,

cheers Marcus

Marcus is probably right, i went ahead and repotted i one more time.

Roots were a pity, most of them black but it had grown a few new roots at the base, these were still white. I put it in a fast draining soil as it should be and the whole into a home made greenhouse for humidity.

Thanks