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Deformed leaves on Mesquite Trees

13 years ago

A year ago I purchase Four Mesquite Trees in 15-gallon tubs and planted them in my yard. Two of them have more than doubled in size and two of them have hardly grown - except for numerous suckers from the base of the trunk.

But then I noticed that on one of them and eventually on all four of them branches with leaves that don't appear to be forming normally to me. Instead of the elongated pairs of little leaves, they are shortened round crowded little leaves.

I recently transplanted a 5th Mesquite sapling about a foot tall and it is also now sporting the short round leaves.

What is this? And what should I do about it?

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Comments (10)

gardningrandma
13 years ago
Tough to say with the information given but if "recently transplanted" it could be that the plants did not recover from the stress of the transplant.

Photos of the ones you planted a year ago could offer some clues.
tonnee
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks for your input. But I find it hard to believe that the trees would thrive for nearly a year (some doubling in size) and then suddenly be distressed from transplanting a year ago. Even the little seedling that I moved showed no signs of distress at the time of transplant and has looked extremely heathly in the past two months, now growing at the rate of an inch a day. And then just now the leaves on one of the branches are suddenly deformed! I wanted to send pix, but I don't know how to on this site. Can someone please tell me how.
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How true. No matter what, the future is just that, the future, and it CANNOT be predicted accurately. Everyone has heard some surefire wives tale that foretells the end of Winter and the beginning of Spring, whether it is pecan trees budding(which have buds on them here) or mesquite having leaves or certain grasses starting to grow or geese flying north or chickens cackling more than usual or certain flowers blooming or animals shedding more or lightning storms in January or even a groundhog seeing his shadow. These are all just predictions and not fact. The bottom line is, NONE are correct ALL of the time. It would easier to look back at all recorded temperatures in your area through the years and see when the absolute latest frost was and use that as a starting point, then look at the frequency for frosts before that date and get a better idea of what might happen. So, having said all of that, the frosts are over for this season(for here). Kt
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I see the medium has shrunk down quite a bit inside the container. My guess would be your 2 year old tree has never been repotted. From looking at the photos posted, it looks like only 1/2 of the container is now occupied by the planting mix. That mix is more than likely compacted to the point of filling most of the air spaces with retained water, leaving little room for oxygen. Further, compacted soils do not allow for air exchange, thus the carbon dioxide coming off the roots is unable to escape. Both scenarios are not good. This can be seen by looking at the tree's limp foliage. Crinkling of tender leaves is normally caused by thrips sucking the juices out of the leaves. Action on this tree need to be taken soon.. Good luck to this tree.
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gardener365
13 years ago
I don't know the tree but usually a morphological change such as this one is due to environmental factors such as, a dramatic change in climate from the source.

Dax
gardningrandma
13 years ago
I was referring to the ones you recently planted.
There are free photo hosting websites like where you can post the actual files then it will give you directions on how to share them with forums, usually by copying a string of gobelty guck into a message here.
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
13 years ago
need more facts ...

a 15 gal pot might have a 6 foot tree in it???

a 6 foot tree ... will need up to 3 years to become 'established' .. to be able to take the intense heat of AZ in high summer ..

all the growth could have been related to its life the year prior to your transplant ... we dont know ...

when did you plant them.. was that the proper planting time for AZ ...

how big were they..

what is your native soil .. did you bare root them.. did you plant a big wad of peat based media in native sand??

did you mulch...

what was your watering protocol ....

can you provide pics??

we need more hard facts ... other than the fact that they have deformed leaves... otherwise we can speculate forever.. and get nowhere ....

ken
tonnee
Original Author
13 years ago
Recent observation. All the Mesquite Saplings that I have still growing in pots do not get the Deformed Leaves. Until I transplant them into the soil in my yard. Perhaps caused from Something in the soil?
jean001
13 years ago
Perhaps from herbicide drift?

We really need pictures to know what "distortion" means. Some kinds are very distinctive.
tonnee
Original Author
13 years ago
Have photos on my hard drive. Wish I knew how to post them from there to here.
tonnee
Original Author
12 years ago
After contacting every possible source I could think of regarding the distorted leaves on my Mesquite Trees including a tree expert from the city and the top Master Gardener, I finally solved the mystery myself with internet research and an old microscope. APHIDS. The Master Gardeners came close with their diagnoses of Psyllids. But then informed me that the appropriate treatment was to do nothing. A year later all six trees are severely invested with aphids with hardly an ungnarled leaf on them and have all stopped growing.
Jeanette Kluck
6 months ago
They make a spray chemical for aphids. Just curious--- who in their right mind would purposely grow a mesquite tree!!! In south Texas one cannot kill them fast enough!!😊😊😊

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