I have 5 old Abutilon Standards that have trunks about 3" in diameter. Big sections of the top are dying off. The roots and lower trunks are fine. On the two yellow ones, I cut the trunks down to about 10" and selected a strong new leader and am training new standards from these. Today, I had to cut off half of the top of one of my pink ones. All of the leaves had wilted and when I cut off the branch, all of the cambium and heartwood was dead. The other half of this standard is still green and healthy looking (for now). Also, there are new shoots coming out all up and down the trunk. Has anyone ever heard of this happening? Any ideas on what could cause the top to die, but not the roots and stems?
Abutilon Dieback
Have you just had problems recently after we've had some cold weather? That's what it sounds like to me--many of them are rather tender and given the cold weather that's been happening lately it wouldn't surprise me if it got cold enough to damage them. If that's the case you should not cut them back--the frost/cold damaged parts will help protect what's left of the plant from further damage if there's more cold weather. So if you get any more cold damage during the rest of the winter I would leave it alone until spring.
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