Trident Troubles

soltan

I have many tridents growing, mostly seedlings from what appears to be a grafted trident in the niebours yard, some from nursery stock.
I think my only trouble is leaf burn but I thought I better get some advice.
I recently relised that my shade house was also some how a bit of a hot house and it was no wonder I was getting leaf burn on trees such as tridents and hornbeams. I was blaming my watering and lack of humidity until I got around to checking the temp in variuos parts of the shade house. I found cool parts in the shade house and reshuffled the trees to accomodate. I also lowerd the shelves and added a little more shade cloth. Along with some misting at the hottest part of the day this has helped.
What is a little frustrating is seedlings left in the ground are doing quite well. Except for one semi mature, established tree that I believe was also once a seedling from the nieghbors tree. It died early this year from what seemed like it's second year of leaf burn.
That is where the worry comes from that this is more than leaf burn?
The picture shows a nursery stock tree that obviously got leaf burn and is now in a cooler spot. The new growth has leaves that is common with alot of my tridents at the moment. The new growth has a curling like effect. I have been telling myself this is just new growth with burnt tips wich has caused the deformity. I also worry though that it may be some thing attacking weakend trees (bug disease?). I have found no bugs except for what I believe is a lady bird type bug that I let roam all my trees.
Thanks for any advice.
Brett

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revt

It may not be just the temperature, sun and low humidity that is causing your leaf burn. High salt content in the water can also contribute. In my area (Southern California) I sometimes have used bottled or reverse-osmosis filtered water, especially on trident shohins, if I'm getting too much leaf burn. Natural shade under trees or amongst bushes may also help reduce leaf burn if it results in higher humidity.

soltan

The cooler part of the shade house also gets the shade of trees.The temp in these parts gets not much over 30 deg cels at the hottest part of the day. I have managed tokeep larch seedlings fairly healthy at this temp.
Is there a test I can do on my water and what levels would be acceptable.
Thanks

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ALDEVAUX

Soltan,
I do not know exactly what your problem is but leaf scorch and tip burn, as shown on your picture, is a physiological problem that can occur on any kind of plant. It can be caused by a number of things, but, more often than not, it is the result of bad cultural condition, not outside influences such as air pollutants, fluoride in the water, transplanting, soil compaction, a nutrient deficiency, chemical injury, unfavorable weather conditions (such as drought), limited room for root growth etc..
But more often, and this could be your problem, there could be excess salts built up from fertilizing in your soil or substrate, or in the water you are using as suggested by revt. This excess salts in the soil can damage root hairs which as a result aren't able to supply enough water to offset the water lost through the leaves in transpiration when it is very hot. This results in drying of leaf tips and scorching on leaf edges. The problem mostly occurs in summer when it is very hot, or in a hot house as in your case, often on newly planted trees.
Generally speaking, you can remedy the problem without ever understanding what caused it. Just make a few common sense improvements in the conditions you grow, fertilise and type of water for your trees.
To remove excess salts from soil or substrate, you should drench it with lots of water and letting the excess water drain readily out of the drain holes continuously for at least 5 to 10 minutes.
To test your soil or water salinity you have to take a sample of your soil or water at a laboratory that does that type of work or use a conductivity meter which is often used by tomato greenhouse growers.

jbhayman

Don't worry it is the heat.. Every body I know has had there maples a little scorched due to the heat. but mine are now forming new buds with the lower temps and they are all good so far and I am now keeping them under 50% shade cloth.

Jbhayman

soltan

Hmmmm
Like always finding the problem is usually harder than fixing it.

Thanks ALDEVAUX what you say makes alot of sense as in these inoptune conditions for the roots will show up at the time the roots are most in need.
The concern I have is that I thought it was generaly accepted that any water fit for human consumption could do no harm to trees?
I would hate to have to cart water or something other than the housewater supply for the amount of trees I have.

I will try to find the salt content of our house water,What is acceptable?.
I have fertilised very little this year.
I will give all my trees a big drenching to remove any salt buildup. This may help as I tend to drench the soil but I generally don't water for any longer. ie no flushing.

jbhayman I am glad to hear it seems all are happy to call this leaf burn and not a disease.
As I stated I have trident seedlings in the ground some I hardly ever water and they get plenty of sun and have no leaf burn. I feel some how to blame for my potted ones troubles. I hate leaf burn

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ALDEVAUX

Water with a high salinity can cause tip burn and leaf scorch in plants but will not be harmfull for humans consumption because the concentration for us is usually not high enough .
By the way, leaf burn is definitely a well known plant disease. It is not a parasitic disease but what we call a non-parasitic or physiological or abiotic disease.
Since you did not fertilise your trees very much, your problem could be an insufficient amount of feeder roots in your pots (as in the case of pot-bound roots) where water is not absorbed fast enough to supply the leaf tissues when they transpire too much in hot weather conditions.
If it is your water that has too much salt, here are some links that will give you a good explaination of salinity and the way you can measure it :
http://www.waterwatch.org.au/public...electrical.html
http://www.nutri-tech.com.au/produc...ivity-meter.htm
http://www.nutri-tech.com.au/produc...ivity-meter.htm
http://crops.confex.com/crops/wc200...gram/P14169.HTM
Good luck.

soltan

I had the salt content of my water tested by the people who test my pool salt content. I was given the reading of 0.4 ppt Wich I take as parts per thousand.
The lady doing the test new I was testing tap water and stated it was low, but maybe she is used to a high content in pool testing.
I have not been able to find what is an exceptable level for plants in this salt measurment.
I am now getting very frustrated with this leaf burn. It is also badly affecting my hornbeams. Last year I built my shade house to help. I tought I was well on my way to solving the problem again this year after moving trees to cooler spots, but as in picture new shoots from this last week have burnt again. Yet another hornbeam much larger is now happily growing new shoots above it.
The temps are not getting much above 30 deg celcious.
If it is not the salt content then maybe I just have shite root systems on these trees.
The trees seemed to be growing fine at this temp in the spring.
We are in a very bad drought at the moment could it be as simple as lack of miosture in the air. This I find hard to believe because tridents in the ground are growing fine.
Thanks for the help

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Repotter

Often time chemical fertilizers can build up in the pot. Maybe all they need is a repot with fresh soil if its been a while. Or a good flushing might do the trick.

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