Yellow leaves on several trees

Jess

[color=Green:a4bddc99f3][/color:a4bddc99f3]Just an update.

Looks like most of the trees that had yellowing leaves had spider mites. I thought that I had gotten rid of most of them. One of my trees that I purchased (Fukien Tea) had them. Well, the mites got into the baby tears that I was using for ground cover on some of the trees and I did not see it. I have since removed all of the baby tears and sprayed the trees again. We will see in the next few days how they are going to do.

Jess

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Jess

I continue to battle the mites. I have completely defoliated the Fukien Tea and isolated it to another room in a moderately sunny window. I have also sprayed the trees several times. Once with ferti-lome and the last two times with Schuster's pyretherin based house and garden spray. In the research that I have done on the web, this seemed to be the best stuff that was not real toxic. I will see how they do in the next few days. The leaves on my dwarf myrtle are turning dark brown on some of the leave. The bloom on my pyracantha died after being sprayed. The mite found their way onto my oldest sons brand new rock planted dwarf schefflera. I removed the two leaf clusters that showed signs of the mites and sprayed that plant. I also re-sprayed all of the plants. That is one spray followed by another spray about a week later. I bet I will have to spray again in a few days. It has been suggested that I use malathion on all of the plants to get rid of the mites. I may just have to do that, I am just hesitant as it is really cold here in Colorado right now and I don't have a good place outside to spray. I may have to dip them.

The spider mites are driving me insane! I got off to a good start with the bonsai hobby, but now all 15 of my trees are at risk just because I was stupid enough to buy a Fukien Tea that had mites. I really wish that the bonsai nursery that sold it to me would have stopped me from buying it and spotted the mites before I left with it. It was so bad that it had webbing all over it, but I did not know anything about that stuff at the time. I can only hope that with continued spraying and by isolating the Fukien Tea that all of the others will recover. I just have had several of the trees get leaves that have turned dark brown and fallen off. It has been the hardest on the FT, my Kiki Ficus, the pyracantha, the Ficus Too Little and the Serissa. There will soon not be any leaves left on the Serissa. I have also noticed that the leaves on the New Zealand tea are turning as well. Just killing me. I just wish I could kill the damn mites! (I am frustrated, can you tell?)

Jess

Actually, I had the same problem with several of my tropical trees; including ficuses, satinwoods, bouginvilleas, etc. I took them to Harold Sasaki, who's in Wheatridge and asked him his opinion and he informed me that it was an iron deficiency! If you get an iron supplement and follow the instructions on it, it will probably help. It worked for all the trees that were yellowing, and my satinwoods are the last ones to slowly regain their green color.
--Ryan

TreeBay

One thing about iron and many other trace elements is that if the soil pH gets just a bit alkaline, the free iron gets all bound up chemically. So adding a chelating agent (iron treatment) can be a help, but sometimes it's the pH that's at fault.

One of the growers in the area started using a little industrial vinegar (his wife was in the sanitation business) mixed in when he watered, and I have never seen Cryptomeria that green outside of Japan!

Regards,

Matt

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Jess

I thank you for the information. I am just not sure that this is the case with my trees. The leaves that are turning yellow have dirty brown/black specs all over the bottom of the leaves. That is why I was pretty sure that it was spider mites. The mistake that I made was not spraying or getting rid of the baby tears that I had used on several of the plants for ground cover. The trees may have gotten rid of the mites, but then they lived on in the baby tears. Perhaps defoliating the Fukien Tea and isolation, plus spraying all of the trees again will help. How long do you think it will take for the Fukien to start growing any leaves again. I am going to cut back on the water until I start to see some leaves.

Jess

TreeBay

Definitely cut back on the watering if the tree is leafless. You'll find its water consumption will decrease a lot. Trees that are stronger refoliate more quickly, particularly if it is warm. I would think you would see new growth appearing in 2-4 weeks.

If the plant is a semi-deciduous one, like your Bougainvillea, it might not refoliate until warmer weather arrives.

Regards,

Matt

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