These look well on the way to being ex-trees. Regular watering, in the shade, in a big terracotta pot with 1 little drainage hole in what looks like a heavy soil = possible root rot. The red one atropurpureum? in particular looks like its got it. I have made the mistake this year of watering a deshojo red maple that has a large root ball in old soil containing some peat in an old pot to death probably as I made no allowance for lower demands due to it being trunk chopped. As they are this far gone, I'd be tempted to remove them from their pots and check if there is any healthy white roots there. You'd also get a chance to see how wet it is down there. You may find that there is not much root too speak of. You can try re-potting in new pots in a mix of 80% horticultural grit and soil conditioner (composted bark) making sure that there is plenty of gravel in the bottom of the pots to allow for drainage. Give them a little drink every few days when the pots feel light. Some people recommend watering with a fungicide. I have all sorts of other acers getting a good dose of full sun and wind all day that are thriving - loving it in fact. My back yard is a suntrap up into the 90s the last few weeks so I wouldn't say that was your problem. Once the leaves have lost their vitality the sun and wind will turn them brown and crispy in as little as a few hours which is why an overwatering or root problem is often mistaken for underwatering. You then apply more water and total collapse can ensue.

Dear lsst, I don't know whether this is any consolation, but I also garden in Zone 7b (SC) and have about forty young seedling camellias in gallon-sized plastic pots that look similar to yours. The leaves are spotted and brown around the edges. I'm hoping that they're showing cold damage and will recover in the next few weeks. The seed parents of our seedlings are 'Berenice Boddy,' 'Christine Lee,' 'Imura,' 'Leucantha,' and 'Lady Vansittart.' A few are from unidentified seed parents. A few of our older camellias that have been in the ground for a number of years show a little cold injury, most noticeably a variegated 'Adolphe Audusson.' We've also had a poor blooming season due, I think, to the drought and a couple of periods of extreme cold during which we experienced a couple of nights with temperatures near ten degrees Fahrenheit. 'Governor Mouton,' which is, for us, normally a spectacularly beautiful and dependable variety, had, at best, a mediocre showing this year. Our forty-four-year-old 'Governor Mouton' was fairly pretty, but not up to par. However, its foliage looks fine. Our camellias that bloomed best this season were two 'Magnoliaeflora' japonicas, a 'Flame,' an 'Adeyaka,' and a 'Pink Perfection.' I've got to make a trip out to the northside of the yard to check on the 'Diddy Mealing' and the 'Turandot' japonicas. Our very late blooming 'Pink Champagne,' or 'Camellian,' japonica has a number of swollen pink buds that look as though they will be gorgeous. However, the nearby 'Eleanor Hagood' and 'Yuki Botan' have had poor quality blooms. 'Imura,' which normally blooms well for us, has had a poor season. And even 'Berenice Boddy' hasn't been up to par. One of my favorite seedling camellias that is about forty years old was on the verge of opening a huge number of blooms just as one of the cold fronts swept through. It was blackened by the cold. It came up underneath a 'Lady Clare' and a 'Governor Mouton' in my aunt's garden in the 1960's and produces a profusion of imbricated and rose-form dark pink tinged purple medium-sized flowers. But not this year. _Mais c'est la vie_. Another sad note is that our 'Lady Clare,' which in normal years blooms from November till March, also bloomed very poorly this year. In the past few days, however, I've noticed a number of fresh blooms on it; and its leaves look fine.

The first article says that greenhouse tomato growers need to replace their perlite because of salt and pathogen buildup, OR they can take care of both with a hot water process. It is obscure to this discussion because: 1. Geoff's plants are not in a greenhouse so they are leached by the rain 2.The timeframe is still wrong (1-2) years before replacement, not 4 months 3. Tomatoes are less salt tolerant than figs, and this article outlines successful tomato growing only.4. there are dead tomato roots in this equation, they prolly contain some salt. The article clearly states that salts can be leached from perlite, it tells you to use hot water but remember they are killing insects and diseases too. So your article proved what I said earlier, perlite does not hold salt, because it can be leached easily. The second web address is to a basic potting media guide that makes no mention of the topic.? If you think I missed something important then why not post the quote so everyone does not have to copy and paste those links into their searchbar and read through to find what you are talking about. Because they should not just take your word for it, the info you provided is obscure and irrelevant like I said. There was one gem that applies to Geoff's situation though, the play sand specifically. His mix has poor drainage and aeration as a result of fine sands. "Fine sands (0.05mm - 0.25mm) do little to improve the physical properties of a growing media and may result in reduced drainage and aeration." FYI I know there are more types of salts. Your response to Geoff's question was gobbldygook related to this very topic. You say that "salts" are accumulating in his media, but fertilizer salts, you called them "nutrients", are leaching because the mix is too "porous". Care to explain how that is possible?

I have the same issue going on with my Mortgage Lifters...did anyone provide any insight about what is causing this for you? Did the problem get resolved? Thanks!