What is wrong with my Chinese pistache?
My 12' chinese pistache, planted last summer, looked terrific until about a month ago; and then the leaves started turning color and dropping off.
We we live in South Texas and have pretty clay-filled soil and it's gotten really hot lately - 100+ every day. Instead of watering with a garden hose, I recently installed a dripper system that feeds it about 4 gallons an hour, in a ring about 3.5' wide. I usually run it 2-3 hours per day. Some of my other trees are showing some stress as well. I'm assuming it's heat stress. But this Chinese Pistache is troubling me.
our water is pretty hard so I do sprinkle some Epsom salt around the base, to make sure it's getting magnesium and able to draw nutrients more easily from the water
Does this look like a watering issue? If anything, I'm inclined to think I'm over-watering. But even the guy I bought it from said "you almost can't water enough during our hot summers." But, with all the clay in the soil, maybe I'm drowning it?
Really need some help!
Comments (11)
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
7 years agoken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
7 years agoRelated Discussions
Restoring tree bark on Chinese Pistache
Comments (5)FIRST... YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL WATERING THIS YEAR .... insert your finger to the second knuckle and water deeply when the soil at the root level starts to warm or dry ... superficial watering will not do ... and provide a 4 to 6 foot ring of good mulch ... to a depth of about 3 inches.. once it settles... keeping it off the bark ... SECOND ... is it possible that what you are seeing is the tree growing its bark from a juvenile to mature type of bark .. without a picture ... it is hard for me to say ... it would answer that as the trunk matures and swells.. from the bottom up .. that this might be happening... very familiar to me on oaks... so smooth and grey in youth.. moving .. from the ground up into the cragly bark of an older tree ... but you say the thing was thriving... before you moved it anyway ... PLEASE DONT HARM THE THING with too much love.. trying to fix a problem that really isnt there ... and stop scratching the limbs... you did your test.. i know you are anxious.. but too many wounds MIGHT end up worse than just allowing some patience .. you will know.. soon enough.. if it will make it through spring ... good luck ken...See Moremy poor chinese pistache!
Comments (7)Thanks for the feedback. Here's a thought that has been lurking in the back of my head: The leaves on the sagging branches seem to be acting sort of like a parachute or sail--such that they now catch even the weaker gusts of wind. Conseuqently, the sagging branches seem to be getting tossed and turned more and more easily these days. At this point, do you think I can minimize further damage by trimming some of the leaves from the sagging branches? ...or, is that just a ridiculous idea, and are my branches NOT weakened? (Feel free to be brutally blunt with your feedback--I have pretty much zero experience with tree care.) Thanks again. P.S. One more question: If I do nothing, will my sagging branches eventually become erect/upright on their own again, or are they going to remain arcing downwards from now on?...See Morechinese pistache losing leaves
Comments (16)Astro, if someone hasn't yet, I'm going to tell you-so-called "deep-root feeding" is a complete waste. The feeder roots, those that actually absorb water from the soil-with nutrients dissolved in that water-are shallow, upturned things, just under the turf usually. Now every tree is different, and somewhere, for some reason, there is an exception, like in fissured, karst soil, where air gets far down into the soil profile, but that's an extreme case, not the usual one. Also, if anybody in the world knows what level of nutrients a Chinese pistache needs....and if you know precisely what levels of these nutrients are presently found in your yard's soil, then you would have a scientific basis for knowing what to use and how much of it to use. But nobody does, you don't and it doesn't matter anyway. Simply providing a light application of any lawn fertilizer, on top of the ground or mulch layer if present, is all you need to do, if that. See what I'm saying? Because of the vast acreages devoted to, say, growing corn, agronomists have worked out very detailed nutrient schedules for that crop, across a wide variety of soil types and nutrition levels. But Chinese pistache? No, definitely not. +oM...See MoreWhat's wrong with my Chinese Wisteria?
Comments (3)Looks like you have a Leaf spot disease caused by a fungus and probably accelerated by over watering (too wet)....You could try to apply a fungicide to try to control the spread. The fungus causes premature leaf drop and may or may not kill your plant....depending on the severity. Ian...See More
Smivies (Ontario - 5b)
7 years agowisconsitom
7 years agobostedo: 8a tx-bp-dfw
7 years agolast modified: 7 years agowisconsitom
7 years agobostedo: 8a tx-bp-dfw
7 years agolast modified: 7 years agoNick Anderson
7 years agoMizGG nailed it! I was over-watering. I quit watering when the tree had almost no leaves on it and we were in a stretch of 100+ degree days. A couple weeks later I noticed a few new leaves and now, a month later, my tree is back to looking awesome! I think I've killed a bunch of trees we planted by over-watering them. Lesson learned. Hopefully I can salvage a few new fruit trees we planted in the early summer. If I can make it to mid October, when we get down to the upper 80's and low 90's, I'll have it made!
Bostedo- the subject came up because I mentioned that I use Epsom salt on my plants and trees because that's what everyone around here does; and I followed the heard. Something about either the well water around here or our soil but every gardener around here swears by sprinkling some around the base of plants and watering it in. Lol!wisconsitom
7 years agoNick Anderson
7 years ago
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