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Black leaf tips of Melaleuca and Eucalyptus
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Posted by redtitan (My Page) on Fri, Jan 2, 09 at 16:30
Hello,
This winter I had to bring in my tea tree plants (Melaleuca alternifoila) along with my Eucalyptus plant (Eucalyptus gunnii) inside from my greenhouse due to a really low winter temperatures. They seemed to be doing fine at first, but then the leaves on the tea tree plants, particularly the newest leaves, started turning black on their tips. It seems to be getting worse, although a few of my tea tree plants seem unaffected. The new leaves on my Eucalyptus plant are starting to shrivel and darken and I think it's having the same problem. My thoughts are that they might not be getting enough light since they're indoors (but I'm not sure why only the new growth of the plants would be affected) or they might be getting too much phosphorus (but they've been in the same soil for a long time and I'm just noticing this problem now - plus I heard eucalypts and melaleucas can handle more phosphorus in the soil). I looked online at deficiency problems as well and I thought they might be having a problem with calcium deficiency, since the soils here in Washington state tend to be low in Calcium, and I added crushed up oyster shells to the soil. One of the plants actually started doing better but another is doing worse, so I'm not sure what to think. Have any of you seen this problem before and have an idea as to what it could be?
Here are some photos of the plants:
-Adam
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Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Black leaf tips of Melaleuca and Eucalyptus
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Hi,
Was hoping one of the experts would help you. I am not an expert by any means but I may have an experienced the same problem.
When I moved to Australia I wanted to plant an all native garden, so I consulted with some experts as to what plants to put in. Unfortunately I was lead a stray with many of the plants suggested which were then purchased and planted.
The first winter I had the same problem you have, dead leaf tips. The eucs were natives but were not suitable for my climate, it got too cold for them and they were getting frost bit. So my guess is that the damage was done by the cold and prior to moving them into the warmer house. Another thought which is just general gardening knowledge, is leaf tip die back can be a symptom of too much water. Severe yellowing can also be a symptom of it being too cold for natives. I had some banksias, gervilleas and a few other plants that turned very yellow the first winter. The advise was that they needed Iron, then other nutrients were suggested and so on. After spending a good deal of money and following the advise exactly, nothing fixed it. One day a local sheep farmer was here, he looked at them and said I was planting the wrong plants. That these plants were yellow because it is too cold for them. Sure enough he was right, as soon as winter was over they all greened up again. They did this same severe yellowing for the next 3 winters and I finally took them out. I used to live in Gig Harbor (on the west side of the sound), still have web feet. |
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