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Gardening in Canada

yellow magnolia dying - maybe heat or water?

11 years ago

bought a yellowbird manolia this spring and promptly caught pneumonia an was down fo a month. Now the leaves are all dying. We've had extreme heat here in Thorold and no rain. I've been watering every day for the last week, but it doesn't seem to be helping. Any ideas?

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Comments (3)

ianna
11 years ago
I;m not clear if the tree was planted. Did you mean that you became ill right after buying the tree and didn't have the chance to plant it in the ground? If so I'm sorry to hear that and hope you have recovered.

What seems to be happening is root shock or root damage. Overwatering will not help. Just keep it damp but not drowning. There were will be die backs as a result. The best think you can do is wait to let the plant heal. Remove any branches that die. The important part is the trunk portion.

Is the hole where this tree is planted properly made? Was the ground properly broken up? If the soil is clay and all that was done was to dig a hole, then what you have is bowl that will hold water. If this is the case, the roots are drowning and rotting away. Best to check if this is the case. Improve the drainage as soon as possible.

If the soil is sandy - did you amend it with compost so there's a bit of water retention. Don't let the plant go too dry between watering.

Also in such dry and withering heat (or extreme winter weather), it would be useful to add some mulching to keep the moisture/temperature level uniform. This only for its first year. Once establish you don't need to do this anymore.

Never fertilize in really hot weather, and never fertilize a newly transplanted plant. High nitrogen fertilizers can burn and destroy roots.
diane_v_44
11 years ago
Hi Dianne

I bought the same yellow magnolia last year .
I live in Barrie further north than yourself

I had planed to plant it in the front yard to replace a tree that I want to be rid of.
But the tree in front, was not cut down and is yet not done.
I put the magnolia in my hospital or trial area. It has come through winter just fine and looking good
I have this small area that has great soil and I put in plants of different sorts. Sometimes something I want to try, or something I want to grow bigger before putting it in the perennial bed. Or something not doing well etc.

Tree is okay where it is for another year but am hoping in the fall to get that tree out in front removed.

Hope you can save your plant. They are just so gorgeous.
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"Perhaps this is destined to remain a horticultural mystery with no ready explanation for what happened." I'm not sure we quite have to declare it a mystery yet. My guess is this is multifactorial: that at some point...or I should say at various points (!)...either in Ruth's yard or at the nursery, the plant might have been both mechanically damaged, and/or subject to freezing during growth, and/or burned by winter sun. And as per typical nursery practice these days, it would have been "optimally" fertilized for maximum speed container growth, which I am quite convinced is not always "optimal" fertilization for winter cold resistance!* Combined these factors, the ability to fully outgrow the damage, and make it through winter, was compromised...even if one incident was some months before the other(s). OTOH take my 'Judy Zuk' whose trunk developed a serious and very alarming looking sun scald/frost crack during the 2nd cold winter (somewhat belying the notion they are solid zn 5 plants, given that in both cold winters it never went below 0F here) - I wasn't even sure it would survive, but it has quickly sealed off the wound and in a couple more years I doubt it will even be noticeable. I'll try to grab a picture later if I remember. Btw that injury was after its first winter in the ground, which was only 1 year after grafting. I think it's quite reasonable to assume that grafted magnolias, whatever their agreed upon hardiness rating, are a little more sensitive in the first couple years after grafting. Though Ruth's plant looks too big for that to be a factor now, it might have been during the time it faced whatever challenge it first faced. And btw in my humble opinion, it is quite possible for a plant to leaf out in spring, even though it's already doomed by that point. I've seen it with winter damaged things. * - surely there is no need for me to rehash the story of the same Camellia cultivar which survived with only minor burning here, in the first cold winter (2013-2014)...but was killed to the ground, unable to even sprout from the roots, at Longwood! Same lows in that particular winter, it's only 40 minutes away! Also their plant was sheltered by building walls, mine was not. The caretaker admitted to me they'd rushed it into fast growth because they needed to get it blooming for breeding purposes.
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dianne0712
Original Author
11 years ago
I planted it before I got sick. The soil in the front yard was all replaced with triple mix and heavily mulched, perhaps too heavily. The water doesn't penetrate. I'm actually a little worried that it may be root bound since I was told that the roots were brittle and if you broke them the tree would die, so I didn't scarify the roots as I normally would. It's October now, so should I wait until spring and spread the roots?

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