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Split/hole in plumeria trunk

18 years ago

I have a small plumeria that was given to me by a neighbor in 2004. He rooted a large cutting from one of his plummies and it is now about 2 and a half feet tall, with three branches coming off a crotch in the top.

I have treated it the same way he treated all of his- I have left it outside this winter, only bringing it in when the weather gets very cold. We have had a mild winter. There has been some leaf drop, but it is still making new leaves and appears healthy, except for this one thing: at the base of one of the branches is a hole. It does not appear to have been bored, but rather to have split open. The branch has become somewhat hollow inside the hole, and is quite dry also. It is more flexible than the rest of the branch.

The end of the branch is still green and still producing new growth. Does anyone know what caused this, and what I should do about it? I am worried about the dryness and hollowness spreading to destroy the branch or even the entire plant.

thanks,

Priscilla

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Comments (3)

mystwitch
18 years ago
Priscilla-would it be possible to post of picture of your plumeria? It would help maybe identify what is going on and make it easier to figure out how to deal with the problem.

If the tips are still green and growing, that is a good sign, however if the problem is spreading they may not stay green and growing for long!

karen
reptilegrrl
Original Author
18 years ago
Thank you for your response, Karen!

The problem has somewhat solved itself: I bumped into the tree a few days ago and the offending branch snapped off at the dry spot! When it was snapped off I could see that the dryness/deadness had penetrated half of the branch, leaving the other half still healthy.

Since it had snapped off, I did what a local friend suggested: I cut away all the damaged area from both the removed branch and the main trunk, and am letting the branch callous over so I can root it. I would have opreferred to keep the branch on the tree, but if I can save the tree and root the cutting I will.

I am still stumped as to what happened. I searched the web and could not find any mention of something like this. I am hoping it does not happen again, but if it does I am hoping it will happen while my camera is in town :)

Thanks again :)
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mystwitch
18 years ago
Priscilla-I am glad the problem has been resolved for now. It actually was what I wanted to suggest in the first place, while loosing that branch may have changed the symetry of the tree, at least you have cleaned up the damage and will now have a cutting to root. Since you are also in Houston, maybe you would like to visit one of the Plumeria Society meetings if you have the time. Check out www.theplumeriasociety.org and I look forward to seeing you there.

Karen

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