Can anyone tell me what to do for my little Chinese Elm. It was a nice green and healthy, now it is getting yellow and some brown tip on some leaves! It is planted in partial sun, water 3 times a week on a dripper. I tryed changing the dripper from a 1gal to a 1/2gal . No change, it is slowly getting worse.
It is only 15" tall and been planted since aprox 6-7-08
For the life of me I can't figure out why you want to grow a Chinese elm. I've got 4 left in my yard and pick up two truckloads of limbs from them every spring plus the occasional limb or two once a week all season long.
I associate yellowing with too much water but I'm no expert on trees (or anything else for that matter). I'd cut back on water unless someone else has a better more knowledgeable suggestion.
The planting time could be your problem, summer is not a good time of year to plant things. Especially if you've had some hot weather it could just be transplant shock, often when you plant in the summer, the plant can spend most of the summer having issues like that but if it can survive the summer then when the weather cools off and the rains come it'll start to look healthier. I would definitely check on your watering though--without knowing what kind of soil you have or how long you're leaving the drippers on for when you run them it's hard to say whether that's too much or too little water. What I'd do is next time just before you run the drippers, go out and stick your finger down a couple inches into the soil and see how it feels--if it's bone dry then you probably need to run the drippers for longer periods of time, but if it's really wet then you need to water less. If it turns out the watering is fine, you might want to try and rig up some shade for the tree, that should help too.
This message was edited Jul 15, 2008 7:22 PM
Pick up limbs? Why are the branches weak? My husband picked them out so we planted two!
There were a dozen Chinese elms here when Judy and I started going together almost 20 years ago. Her GGF was first in the family to own the ground and she remembers them being big when she was a young'un. Figuring the trees were 20 YO back then that makes them over 70, maybe 80, now. She remembers picking up fallen limbs most of her life. We've cut down 8 in the last 10 years. Of the 4 remaining I see dead branches interspersed through the trees.
The windy conditions here on the prairie are harsh on trees. I've seen a few Chinese elms in town where they are more protected from wind and they look the same as ours out here with dead branches all over, but many green branches, same as here. The young ash I planted 6 years ago have a definite lean to the northeast due to the winds.
Chinese elms are considered fast growers. I think that is why so many branches die and drop off. The available "food" is channeled into new growth and the older branches are starved to death. With all the dead branches showing they lack the beauty of an oak or maple or ash. They will provide shade much faster so it's a trade-off.
Gary
Wow, I had no idea! Thanks gk1153 for the info. Maybe I wont worrie about it if one of ours does not make it. We get heavy winds up here in the mtns. in the winter. Anything like what you describe is not a good thing. :) Smiling !!!
3 times a week is quite a lot of water for a tree. you may be water logging the soil. trees need air as well as water. Normally you would not water a tree (or any plant) until the soil was thoroughly dry.
Right. It is the wrong time of year to plant trees.
Hmmm I was told to wait untill the April threat of frost passed, and then plant away!
So I started my planting in mid to early May 08
In most areas of California, fall just as the rains are starting is actually the best time to plant things. Anything that's going to be borderline hardy I always wait until spring since newly planted plants are going to be more susceptible to frost/cold damage, but something like your elm that is hardy to much colder zones typically do best with fall planting, that way they have the winter rains to help them get established before they have to deal with hot weather. And unfortunately if you plant in May, you'll frequently get a heat wave within a few weeks of when you planted and that can get plants off to a really bad start (and you mentioned in your first post that you planted this in early June, if you are going to do the spring planting right after frosts are over thing, you need to be on top of it literally right after the chance of frost is gone, don't delay until the beginning of June). Have you done the finger test yet to see how wet the ground is? The best thing you can do for it right now is make sure you're watering it the proper amount.
The finger test shows it to be quite damp. I have backed off the water and am watching
to see if the color gets better.
Unfortunately the leaves that are already yellow most likely won't come back and become green, often they'll continue to decline and eventually die and fall off so don't worry if they even continue to look worse as time goes on, it's all from damage that was already done. The thing to watch for is whether the leaves that aren't yellow yet are staying green, what you should see as it dries out is that hopefully no more leaves start to turn yellow. And keep doing the finger test on a regular basis, that's the best way to tell if it really needs water or not.
