Crumbly green leaves?

Not sure what happened but I have a logwood/campeche that I bought late last year. It has been growing well since spring but recently, some of it's leaves started turning yellow and dropped. Others stayed green but turned crispy and crumbly...some on entire main branch. I still have a lot of healthy leaves but wondering what caused the crumbly green leaves.

The tree is in a partly shaded area and only get direct sunlight about 2 hours in the afternoon.

Anyone have any ideas?

Dario

Whenever I've had a leaf or series of leaves turn crispy while still green it has indicated a root issue, and/or something has happened to impede the flow of juice to those leaves.
-Jay

These take a lot of water and I am surprised how fast they dry out, especially in old nursery soil and root bound.

Thanks guys. I will take a peek and see what's happening. It is possible that it is drying w/o me knowing since it is on the back though I have been watering it as usual...maybe the lushness accelerated drying of the soil.

I hope it is just that and not a root issue.

Hi Dario,

you say it was bought last year rather than dug up, so i would have had it out of the pot and in my own soil mix at the soonest safe opportunity. Other than trees i buy from a very few good sources (just 2!) I would never trust a nursery or other growers soil mix - they are often poor or unsuitable mixes used for cheapness. Also you find solid lumps of old soil under the trunks as many growers will not remove it properly. I often get 'hospital care' trees in from friends - and it is always the wrong soil, or poor (too wet & soggy or solid and dry) pot conditions that weakens the trees - roots are effected first and then the foliage shows up the problem after..

If the leaves dont remain perfect 95% of the time it is because the roots are unable to supply them correctly. Then the tree tries to make more leaves but if the root conditions are unchanged the new leavees will die off too - eventually this weakens a plant too much for it to accept the rigors of life as a bonsai

have a look and always repot new trees as soon as you safely can

cheers Marcus

Dario, I'm having the same problem with a Shimpaku someone gave me this summer. It's in a turface/organic mix. I was also thinking the roots, so given that a tree's not doing great. At this time of yr., when would be an acceptable time to repot? I don't want to wait till next spring. Would I do it till temps are no longer above 80F say, or wait till Nov?

Thanks Marcus.

The tree stopped having leaf problems for now...I will just watch my watering regimen for it and start using the chopstick method again. This tree supposedly prefer wet than dry soil (not quite like cypress though).

Fore wrote:Dario, I'm having the same problem with a Shimpaku someone gave me this summer. It's in a turface/organic mix. I was also thinking the roots, so given that a tree's not doing great. At this time of yr., when would be an acceptable time to repot? I don't want to wait till next spring. Would I do it till temps are no longer above 80F say, or wait till Nov?

On Junipers wait until at least Nov.

Billy M. Rhodes wrote:

Fore wrote:Dario, I'm having the same problem with a Shimpaku someone gave me this summer. It's in a turface/organic mix. I was also thinking the roots, so given that a tree's not doing great. At this time of yr., when would be an acceptable time to repot? I don't want to wait till next spring. Would I do it till temps are no longer above 80F say, or wait till Nov?

On Junipers wait until at least Nov.

The juniper will go dormant about Nov so no damage or good will occur until about April as long as it doesnt sit waterlogged and/or frozen all winter. Not sure about turface or high organics for a scale juniper though - feels too moist for me, but it depends on your climate. Also if you are given a sick tree it will take one to two years to recover rather than months - I offer a bit of 'hospital' care for friends trees and most junipers need to stay for 2 years to recover - but often the damage or neglect has taken at least 2-3 years to show through.

Dario - i still say if you have a tree in a soil that needs loads of mucking about testing if it needs watering (or not) then get it in a proper soil mixture you know and get on with as soon as you can. chop sticks are for chow mein Life becomes easy when you basically water the trees equally, and wet ones hold the water and dry ones let it go quickly - thats the aim really to maintain a varied collection.

cheers Marcus

Thanks guys, I appreciate your help!

Just an update. I did not dig under to investigate the root since the plant started sprouting again. The areas that dried are totally dead...good that it just extended as far as half of the branch length and the bottom half sprouted so no real harm to the tree. Just a natural trimming/pruning I guess or a tree survival technique by sacrificing some of its branches and leaves. It could have dried out more than I thought on one of my weekend trips.