WHAT..Autumn in february???

[bodhidharma]

In the central highlands of Victoria we have been experiencing such unpredictable weather that it has been very, very difficult to predict what to do with my trees. I have just repotted all my Figs because the weather has been humid and muggy (25-30 and 80% humidity) and now the weather has plummeted to 15-22 during the day with nights as cold as 9 degree's. It is so unpredictable, and has been since Christmas, that my Willow has gone into Autumn Mode and is starting to turn. It is turning from the interior and pushing new growth on the outside as i have not changed its feeding regime. I now do not know what to do. Stop feeding it and cut its watering down or stay with its regime until April, which is when i usually start to modify its feeding and watering. All very confusing.

[Chris]

From hot to humid to 2 days of winter thats all i can say

[Greth]

Bodhi, the tree doesn't have a calendar, so do what the tree tells you, not the calendar.

[MattA]

Hey Bodhi,

There's a few of big deciduous trees in the neighbourhood that are doing the same thing (chinese elm, liquidamber, mulberry & pomegranite that I have observed) My the trees are defoliating due to the extreme heat & dry we had up here. The liquidamber in my street is always in leaf thruout winter and then has a quick colour up before dropping its lot in January.

I would stick with your regular routine and consider this a defoliation, maybe take advantage of it & trim while you can see inside...

Matt

BTW Bloody nice willow...

[Mitchell]

Interesting you say that Bohdi, the last couple of weeks in Sydney I have noticed a copious amount of leaves which have been shed. I was thinking to myself the other day, sure looks like autumn for summer.
Today I was raking leaves in the front yard like it was autumn.

[Bretts]

Hey Guys
I am not convinced what you speak of is from the cold!
There may be a couple of factors going on here and this is just a suggestion but I was having trouble keeping the water up to my Willow this year. I should have repotted agian half way through the season as the roots are chokers. Even with a gravity fed system it was drying out and some of the interior leaves started to yellow and drop. I gave up and placed the pot in a tub of water. No more yellow leaves.

Also although many trees in my town and my collection are much better with fungus this year I have noticed some species have still been attacked. Most notable is the purple leaf plum. I noticed the one in our front yard covered in a rust like fungus. It started to drop leaves and at one point the front yard looked like Autumn. I have since noticed other purple leaf plums in town that are even worse than mine and are almost totally defoliated. The couple in my collection seem unaffected though! I also have a Robina in the front yard that has not grown as much as I like for the last few years after planting it. It has lost leaves through the season (and shown leaf distortion at times) and I now think the same thing is happening with it. This heavy rain after long drought is a sure recipe for many types of fungus.

It seems a fact that trees leaves can change colour and drop for more reasons than a change in the weather so it is worth considering

[Matthew]

It certainly feels like autumn , we had 2 nights of 6 degrees and another 4 around the 10-12 mark i woke up this morning with a jumper on and a heavy dew everywhere, sure as hell beats 40 + all this week will be 25-28 daytime and 10-13 at night

[Kyushu Danji]

Our purple leaved plums and dogwood always drop a substantial amount of leaves around this time of year. Over the last few years I thought it was because of heat stress, but this year has been exactly the same and we have had VERY consistent rainfall. The willows in our area are still green as anything though, and we haven't had much in the way of fungus on our trees.

[bodhidharma]

Hey Guys
I am not convinced what you speak of is from the cold!
There may be a couple of factors going on here and this is just a suggestion but I was having trouble keeping the water up to my Willow this year. I should have repotted agian half way through the season as the roots are chokers. Even with a gravity fed system it was drying out and some of the interior leaves started to yellow and drop. I gave up and placed the pot in a tub of water. No more yellow leaves.

G'day Bretts, this is not the case here as this tree is the most spoilt and looked after tree in the history of mankind. If it is anything it would be that the tree is overwatered and over fed. But i think that is impossible with Salix. The very cold nights, i think, are the culprit. Unless the humidy and constant rain we have had has caused a problem with the tree i am betting on the early cold.

[Bretts]

Have you checked for fungus Kyushu. It is not normal for purple leaf plums to drop leaves when it is hot. So something is going on and if you thought it was heat stress it does not sound like it was cold!
Fungus is a slippery little bugger. It could start on trees that are tapping into water reserves that you don't realise are gone from the drought and then when the rain comes heavy and constant it makes perfect conditions to attack the weaker trees and then if there are enough spores around it will then effect the stronger trees.
Also once a tree has a fungus it has it for life and can lay dormant until conditions are right agian.

The willow can go yellow from lack of water. With plenty of rain this would not be affecting the willows growing happily in the ground.

I just checked to see if the leaves left still had the fungus and took a pic of one of the worst affected still on the tree.

fun.jpg

Now I may be wrong that the fungus caused the purple leaf plums to drop their leaves and have not checked the other trees in my area for the fungus. Only that I noticed the tree had a fungus and then it dropped HEAPS of leaves mid Summer and it has never done this before so I gathered that was the reason. Now I wonder if the same thing has been happening to my Robina the last few years?

Hey Bodi

It sure looks well cared for so I thought you might say that But if you could humour me a little more and if you get a chance inspect the substrate to see how compacted the root ball is and also have a close look under the leaves for any fungus. I have noticed various trees in the past have leaves that turn colour on the interior through the growing season and always figured it was because the tree was lacking in some way but it has always been on less cared for stock so I have never fully investigated.

[Kyushu Danji]

Honestly Bretts I can see nothing like that on our plums or dogwood. Did you say that you have a purple leaved plum as bonsai? I would be really interested to see that if you get the time to upload a photo

[bodhidharma]

Hey Bodi

It sure looks well cared for so I thought you might say that But if you could humour me a little more and if you get a chance inspect the substrate to see how compacted the root ball is and also have a close look under the leaves for any fungus. I have noticed various trees in the past have leaves that turn colour on the interior through the growing season and always figured it was because the tree was lacking in some way but it has always been on less cared for stock so I have never fully investigated.

[/quote]

No Fungus and the root ball is compacted, but, it always is. In my experience i have never root pruned mid season and the tree has never suffered. I feed it tons (both liquid in the irrigation pot and solids on top ) as you can see in the photo. The tree is predominantly wet like this almost all the time. It does not matter what size pot i put it in, it fills it by Oct- Nov and then their it stays. That is why i feed it like hell. I have had this regime with the tree for the last 8-9 years to get it to this stage with no ill effects on the tree. Now, hold my hand here Bretts as this is said tongue in cheek, friend to friend..ITS THE BLOODY COLD SNAP..

[Bretts]

That's the spirit, Fair enough Bodi. I don't think it is the cold doing it to mine though. For the first time ever I got Rust on my willow last Autumn. I hope I got the care right in time to give it plenty of strength going into Autumn again. Wait and see.

I would still not back off on the water with yours though. As you say it is never too much water for a willow so I don't think keeping the water up will do any harm but backing it off may!


It is a weird and wonderful world Kyushu and I have no idea why purple leaf plum would drop leaves in the heat of Summer if not the same reason mine did. Heat stress often makes Autumn colour very short with the leaves dropping soon after they start shutting down but not sure if that is what you mean or they dropped mid Summer as mine did?

Oh the purple leaf plums I have are cuttings. The biggest I think is about 35-40mm. Might be ready for a plan next season but very far from Bonsai. Steven has the best one I have ever seen. Maybe do a search for them because I think we had a thread with a few in it.

[Bretts]

Went for a rap on the scooter checking on the kids at the park and thought I would get a pic of a purple plum down the road that is almost totally defoliated. This came about at least 4 weeks ago in the heat of Summer.

plum.jpg

Here is our Purple plum for comparison. Lost lots of leaves but not as bad.

plum2.jpg

Lucky I mowed the lawn today

[Kyushu Danji]

that first photo is disturbing.. so little foliage! Our plums are pretty massive, maybe that has something to do with it? I will certainly look out for that thread. Thanks for the heads up