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Darn it!! I forgot to water my new weeping purple beech

7 years ago

Okay, I know this is my fault, but my question is, will it die? The tree was behind the garage still in the landscape pot, as I bought it about 4 weeks ago and was preparing the spot I wanted to plant it, yet. I was watering it daily and it was doing well. Then, we had a regular period of rain and I figured it was getting watered the natural way. Well, I went back there today to water it and the leaves are all dry and crackly. Crap!!!! Did I for sure kill my new tree? I'm planting an entire new front landscape and this was next to go in. Errr.... Why did I rely on mother nature!! BTW - the other trees I had back there were all fine, this was the only one that didn't take it well. Any suggestions to help it? Should I go ahead and plant it and give it any vitamins or anything to help?

Comments (4)

laceyvail 6A, WV
7 years ago
Dry and crackly is not good. Fertilizing it certainly won't help. It's probably potbound which may be why the rain wasn't sufficient. You can try transplanting, teasing out the root ball and watering well, but the prognosis is not good.
davidrt28 (zone 7)
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
Yeah these aren't the most forgiving plants, but there's no harm in trying. "Heel it in" in a shadier than would be optimal spot, after a couple years recovery you can always move it again. Tease the roots out and water but do not overwater. If any of it were still green (or purple!) I'd be more confident you could save it, usually plants have a way of "orderly killing off" their branches to try to save their own lives. (way over anthropomorphizing, but the analogy is useful) when the last leaf turns brown, that's often the end.

If it's any consolation it's very easy to misjudge that if you think something was getting rained on...in fact that reminds me I need to go water now since we got stiffed in the last 48 hours of convection! Also you have to remind yourself that the amount of water that lasted x days in late April is now lasting 0.3x.
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wisconsitom
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For a plant in a pot, that pot is its entire universe. What is happening for stuff in the ground has no bearing on the potential needs of a potted plant. Plus, they always dry out faster than an equivalent plant in the ground. Much faster.

I'd agree-you may as well try.
Kaye Mason
Original Author
7 years ago
Thanks for your help - I think I will try and plant it and just see what happens. :)

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