Camellia Stress after Transplant

10 years ago

We transplanted 4 camellias about two weeks ago. Two look very good-two not so good. We did no research on transplanting. We just dug holes about 1 1/2 times the root balls; place them in our homemade gopher cages; added super soil; watered them and sprayed with miracle grow.

One is on a lattice, and is about 5' high and 6' wide. Before the move it was on a lattice near a wall very protected from weather. We moved it about 5 feet. It is now away from the wall and gets significant amounts of wind. The leaves are still green but kinda droopy. A few have turned brown and I trimmed them off. A few are green but getting crispy.

The second is about 4' x 4'. This plant was moved only a couple of feet so light, soil, and wind conditions are all the same. This plant too is still green, kinda droopy and some leaves are turning brown and getting kinda crispy.

Before the move all the plants were thriving. The lattice plant is about 5 years old. The 4' x 4' is about 15 years old (transplanted from our prior home about 8 years ago). They looked pretty good for a few days after the transplant. They started looking a little droopy so we increased the watering. After doing a bit of research it appears that too much water may be the problem. We live on the coast and the weather is generally cool, windy and damp but we have had a few days in the high 70's recently.

I'm looking for advice to save my once thriving camellias.

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Comments (3)

luis_pr
10 years ago
Japonicas may suffer if they get too much sun (Sasanquas can handle more sun). Wind can also cause drooping when the leaves loose moisture faster than the plant can absorb moisture through the roots. Protection from the winds can help remedy the dropping problem. Protection from too much sun can help remedy the browning of leaves. Maintaining the soil evenly moist can help a little with both issues. Aim for 4 hours of sun or less.

Summer temperatures, summer winds and lack of Spring-like moisture plus transplant shock (an affected root system) are making the shrubs react this way. In Z10, I would have transplanted them during the winter months but I understand that this is something one cannot schedule sometimes.

If they get a lot more than 4 hours of sun, you may need to transplant them again. Temporarily, you can help[ by keeping the soil moist as evenly as possible; block the sun with 35% shade cloth or some other object; protect from the winds with some object. And mulch, mulch, mulch. About 3-4" of mulch. Because the area is windy, I would also maintain about 6" of mulch past the drip line.

Stressed plant should not be fertilized so I would not fertilize until next year. It would be ok to amend however, if you have to tweak the soil pH, etc.

Make sure the plant remains about 1" higher than the surrounding soil. You may also want to use a stake in case there are sudden strong winds.
idixierose
10 years ago
I feel your pain. I totally dread having to move a camellia.

Luis gave you good advice. When I move a camellia, I lavish it with TLC -- monitor the soil moisture every day. Keep the moisture even and moderate.

Also, make sure the new location has good drainage.

A plant that's been moved doesn't need fertilizer. Instead, I water it with plant-friendly tonics such as liquid seaweed, SuperThrive and Roots. I sprinkle SeaHume (a seaweed and humate product) and Mykos (a microrhyzii product) in the planting hole and fill dirt. Then I pray to the garden gods.

If you have time to plan ahead, about 3 to 6 months before you plan to move a camellia, take a shovel and cut a circle in the soil around the drip line of the the bush. This is a form of root pruning that encourages a compact root ball and prepares the plant for being relocated.

I've moved small ones manually, with a shovel, and I've moved monsters with a tree spade. Either way, I still cringe at the thought of having to move a camellia.
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Transplant the camellia when it's dormant (before it puts out new leaves in the spring.) Keep it shaded and watered after you move it until it gets established. Good luck. Rich
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I have had a chance to move some rather large camellias in the past. In fact I moved over a hundred back some years ago. You may be moving them a little early in the year but on the upper Pacific Coast, the weather might be in your favor. First, root prune the camellias at about 36 inches from the trunk. If you can get wider, go as wide away from the trunk as possible. The Camellia has shallow roots and you will get most of them within the top foot of top soil. I would use an 18" sharp shooter. Go all around each plant about 18" deep. Second, prepare the place where you are going to plant the Camellias. I would till up an area about 6 ft. in diameter per plant. After you till the soil to at least 18" to 24"deep, I would add about 3 or 4 cu. ft. of a combination of ground up pine bark and sand. I would till this into the spot and also add some natural fertilizer. If you have cotton seed meal available, I would use that. I would put in about 10 lbs of cotton seed meal into the mixture of pine bark and sand. This will give you a real fluffy mound. It should be about 6 ft. wide. Let it sit for as long as you can before moving the large plants. When you move the plants, the later in the year the better, I would move off the top foot of soil from your prepared bed, sit the large rootball on top of the soil and cover it with the soil mixture that you removed. You will note that you are planting the Camellia on the top of the ground. Do not dig it out so that you are planting the plant in a hole. You want to have it sitck out of the ground at least 8 to 10 inches. Prune the top of the plant back to about 18: from the trunk of the plant. Keep it watered good but do not drown it. Let it settle on its own. Within 3 or 4 months it will settle about six inches and will continue to settle a little more over the next year. Keep at least two inches of the soil mixture over the exposed roots. I would also use some root tone in the hole to stimulate new root growth. I wrote an article for the Camellia Journel several years ago about moving established Camellias. If you would contact Tom Johnson, the chief gardner at the American Camellia Society through their web site, he could probably get you some articles on moving large Camellias. Ann Walton is the Executive Director of the A.C.S. and she may be able to point you to someone in the Washington area who has some experience as well. Bob
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It seems a terrible shame to attempt the dig of this very old camellia. Why not let it survive and thrive where it is? It's a big risk and would take professional resources, in my opinion. Millions and millions of people have left their grannies' homesteads to move elsewhere. Take cuttings with you.....not the plant. Let that part of your heritage thrive where it is. That is my heart-felt opinion, having had to leave a property or two behind. It's a blessing to go back and visit those plants! Another thing to consider is that the older a plant is, the less able it is to recover from stress. Plants get weaker and prone to problems as they age, just like we do. Fact, not theory.
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Root pruning now probably wont help much unless you allow the camellia time to create new feeder roots closer to the trunk which you can then include in the rootball when transplanting. Id probably try to get an 18" - 24" diameter rootball if it is manageable. A shovel with a long blade such as a trenching shovel will probably work best. It is best to face your shovel away from the trunk and sink it vertically in the ground around the entire circumference of the rootball. Place your foot on the rootball as you remove the shovel to avoid unnecessarily disturbing it and potentially fracturing it. If you encounter any large roots, dig back beyond the rootball and prune with loppers or a saw. After you have severed all of the roots around the rootball, sink your shovel in again, this time angled toward a center point beneath the camellia at about a 45 degree angle. Do this around the entire circumference of the rootball. Gently use the shovel to loosen up the rootball and it should pop right out in one solid mass. Move the plant by the rootball (not the trunk) onto a piece of burlap or cloth and bundle tightly wrapping with thick twine. If you try to move a large rootball without securing it in burlap/etc., you risk it breaking apart which will cause unnecessary stress on the plant. Prune away any unnecessary branches/leaves to reduce stress, and remove the majority of flower buds to minimize the plants energy expenditure. or.....rent a tree spade and save your back. ;) good luck, -christian m.
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rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
10 years ago
I don't think that you could have chosen a worse time of year to transplant....I would be amazed if there weren't some wilting.

Just to add to the good advice given by the others, I'll suggest that NEXT TIME you dig the holes no less than three times as wide as the root ball and no deeper than is needed for the plant to sit a little above grade. And you should not amend nor 'improve 'the backfill.

It's been proven that plant roots establish much faster and much farther in plain native soil than any that has been altered. Roots may decide to never leave that planting hole, circling round and round. Also, water may be sucked up into this foreign medium OR become hydrophobic.

Camellia Stress after Transplant

Comments (3)

luis_pr

idixierose

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rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7

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