Crape Myrtle help

Chadguay

I just rescued a crape myrtle (not an indica species) from a local garden center. It was packed in dripping wet sandy soil and the leaves were covered in dust. But the nebari looked really quite good, so I decided to give it a try.

I brought it home and repotted it back into its 3 gallon container but with basic bonsai soil. I didn't trim the roots or doing any pruning. I just wanted to get it out of that compacted soil it was in. I had to use the hose on a very light spray to dislodge some of the soil from the root ball as the sand was like stone in there.

A few days later, the leaves curled up lengthwise and became completely dried - as in they turned to dust if you crushed one. Was it the repot at this time of year? the washing of the roots? or is this an bad but acceptable result that will bring new growth in the spring?

any advice would be great. sorry no pics right now.

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anttal63

all of the above but should be fine maybe some die back. good luck

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Antonio . . .
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bwaynef

I think they're sensitive to having their roots messed with late in the season, and before dormancy. Don't toss this one out 'til next June or July. I wasn't diligent in watering my crape myrtle last fall and the leaves on it all turned red and dropped off (a week or 2 before my landscape crapes dropped any). It then developed leaves and an early frost took them. ....Then it developed another, even tinier, crop of leaves that the cold temps were having none of. Lets say that the tree was stressed a little.

I was pretty worried about the tree during fall and winter and babied it a little more than normal, bringing it in at night for 3-4 days (<16°f for the lows for a little while). This spring I continued to water it like I did all my other trees that leafed out but it still showed no sign of life. Finally, in May it started to leaf out.

These trees are tough. Give it good care the rest of the fall and winter. Don't water it quite as much right now since it doesn't have leaves but don't count it out just yet. The "dust" may've been powdery mildew but if there aren't any leaves now theres no need to tree for it. Be careful getting the leaves wet when they'd stay wet for a few hours (watering at night?) and the powdery mildew would be less likely to reappear.

Good luck with it.

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Chadguay

that's a big help, thanks for the advice. my follow up question was:

the tree needs to be topped - it has two exactly straight trunks that are about 16" high. should I wait until it recovers and then some or go ahead and cut it back next spring?

I was going to cut it down pretty close to the base.