I wanted to post some pics of what a certain kind of cold damage looks like. I believe that this happened because there was a great deal of wind, coupled with dehydration and cold temperatures. It was 33 last night, and temps haven't hit freezing yet. The cultivars that have this damage might be particularly susceptible. I have about a half dozen that look like this.
Here's another one:
Here's another particularly bad-looking one:
Here is another one:
I cut into this one today, and it is clearly a goner. It has a brown ring in the center:
It's not a great loss because these were just cheap unnamed ones, but it shows that cold damage can come in many forms. Usually it starts at the tips, but sometimes it starts at the roots or from the stem as well. This one is probably a goner too.
My poor Ylang Ylang tree was not at all happy with the 33 degree temp!
Claire, can you seal those up or do you think they will be ok in the long run?
clare i'm thinking dehydration.
Thanks, Hetty. The coldest part of our winter is about to come in January and maybe even February. I moved most of the ones that weren't in the greenhouse to the patio yesterday, and I covered the rest with our car covers. I hope you never get ones that look like this also.
Robin, I had a couple last winter that looked like this with a couple side slits, and they recovered okay, but when the nodes start to sink in and the tips start to shrivel, you know that it is fatal. That is why I cut into the first one. If you look at the pieces in the container, you can see that they are past the point of no return. The brown ring in the center confirms that. There should be only white in the wood. I'll have to watch the others to see if they can recover or not.
Dete, yeah, I agree. I have been watering less like I usually do in winter, but we have had some wicked drying winds here, coupled with heat waves and then cold, and I think most of these lost their leaves fairly quickly so that probably didn't help. The Jeannie Moragne and yellow-flowered Aloha Palms cultivars could have been particularly susceptible to begin with. The AP was the first to get black tip early in spring this year.
I do hope they all survive for you.
Thanks;-) I appreciate that. I guess these things happen when you grow tropical trees in subtropical areas. LOL! If I had a bigger greenhouse and more room, I would shelter more of them, but there is only so much space here. I may bring some more onto the patio today.
C, your pics scared me into putting my precious plumies in the garage. I do have a noid that I planted 3 years ago which I have left outdoors and it has survived. However, it doesn't get taller than 2 ft. Another one that I tried leaving outside died, but this toughie one is making it. Reason could be it is surrounded on all sides by other (bigger) plants. That might provide enough protection. Dunno.
I checked for cracks on my plumies and was relieved there weren't any.
Hi Nery! I found another damaged one yesterday and cut into it, and it is completely devoid of sap. We've had more than our share of fierce winds for days at a time this past year, and we just had another two days of winds with gusts up to 39 miles per hour. I am convinced that my damage is dehydration-related as Dete mentioned above. The cold weather may have added to the problem. I've never experienced this problem before, but there is a noid yellow that it is happening to the most so maybe it is particularly sensitive to problems. I have a Vishanu Gold from Thailand that has it, which makes me really sad, but fortunately, I have a second one that is doing just fine. This is very strange. This is worse than any cold damage that I had last year, and we had record cold temps last January.
I'm glad you don't see this on yours. I do believe this is caused by the high winds we've had in combination with the cold weather. It is amazing and lucky that you had one survive outside in your zone. I agree with you that the overhead protection from the other plants is helping for now.
clare have you had any leaf damage on these plumeria? i would think that the leaves would give you a warning sign first. i'm curious because there might be something else underneath it all.
i don't always get sap flow during the winter.
dete
Clare, I'm so sorry you have damage to your plants. I had mine wrapped in burlap and row cover last week, but DH finished the greenhouse last weekend, so they are all tucked in now and I feel a little better about them. No visible damage, at least.
Now we have the rain coming, which is better than the Santa Anas, but I hope it's one of those on/off type rains, not one calling for the ark! At least the night time temp should go up a little (we hit 29 here at one point).
Kathleen
Hi Dete, all the leaves were gone on these. Maybe they dropped because of the dry winds, or they could have dropped from the cold first. I haven't used any pesticides or anything unusual on them. There still should be some sap flow in the winter when you cut into them. I've grafted in the winter before and had at least a little sap flow. These were dry as dry can be. Here is a pic of my four-year-old seedling which hadn't blomed yet. It got sent to the yard bin today. I did save a cutting of it which didn't look too bad. There was a teeny amount of sap that I could see in the trunk, but the dark brown ring looked bad.
Thanks, Kathleen. I agree that we need the rain really badly. It is supposed to give us record amounts of rainfall, according to one guy. You are right that the nighttime temps should become warmer while it is raining, which is good. I'm glad your babies are all tucked in and warm now in your new greenhouse. That should bring you peace of mind for the winter for sure.
Here's the center of that seedling:
This is Vishanu Gold. I cut off the top damaged part and kept the bottom. Maybe the bottom will sprout new branches from the nodes if the bottom isn't damaged as well.
clare it looks like you're suffering from root rot and the slit are a symptom of that. do you have any that have slits and don't have rot in the core?
Hi Dete, you know, I considered that as well, but there are ones with slits that have no dark core as of yet such as the Vishanu Gold. I cut off the top damaged part, but the bottom part looks fine with no dark core. There is also the one with slits that got them after the freeze last year that lived; although, it did poorly this year. Its root system is fine as I checked it out recently when I lifted it by the trunk, and it came out of the pot. I hate it when that happens! LOL! The graft that I cut up today was a rainbow with a AP yellow root stock. That one had a slit on the root stock only. The wood was all white, but there was no sap to be seen.
I do believe that the initial damage was caused by all the incidents of high winds that we got in the fall -- coupled with the cold weather, leaf drop, and more winds -- causing these particular ones to lose their sap, become dehydrated, and decline. I think the rot came after, and I agree with you that the eyes of 'Vishanu Gold' especially look like rot. I think, after the sap was gone, the plumie began to rot. The black eyes are the beginning of the rot, but I think the slits are the dehydration symptoms. The more typical root rot that I've experienced usually starts with the roots, and the brown rot travels upward rather quickly.
Thanks for figuring this out with me. I don't think any new occurrences have started. We just had some pretty good winds though for the last two days, but they have calmed down now, and rain is on the way. I watered really well yesterday to ward off any more dehydration.
I checked all my plumeria and I don't see any damage. We did have a couple of mornings with frost on the roofs and ground but mine are protected by the overhang of the roof, apparently it works to shelter them from frost.
Clare, my babies are in the shed with a nice warm light on them...safe and sound!
That's great, Louise! That overhang works very well. I have a bunch under there too against the house. It sounds like you have peace of mind now with your plumies in the shed, and that's great!
Just to update everyone on this damage, as I suspected, it's not rot. The root systems are perfectly healthy. I obviously can't say for certain what is causing this damage, but it looks to me like it is dehydration caused by the combination of dry weather, winds, and cold. The good news is that it is not happening to any of the plants under the overhang, on the patio, and in the greenhouses.
I removed the soil and some of the roots on this Pupukea Crepe so that I could see what was happening with the base, and there was no rot to be found.
Clare sorry to see this! It was in the low 20's here and some of my plants are in the ground. And just had blankets throwed on top of them. I left for a visit with my sister and it was the coldest weather here in 5 years. I was just checking the condition of the ones left out. A couple have black tip and thats it. The ones with no leaves I stopped watering and have a few still flowering I water those I wonder if its the watering? that sure is a strange one. Happy to see you posting hope you had a Great New Year...Dana
Hi Dana! I'm glad that you didn't have more damage than that. Be sure to watch in the spring because some cold damage can be delayed until growth starts. Many of us here in Southern California saw all sorts of problems with growth in the spring after having record cold temperatures in the winter. A hard freeze will make the damage realily apparent, but some damage can take quite a while to show up. I heard Northern Florida got hammered recently, and I know of at least one collector with some losses.
Even though my damage looks like cold damage, I've discovered that it isn't cold damage at all. I started a new thread here about it: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/802473/ It was actually Roundup that caused the damage and ultimate death of 8 plumerias.
