That is very sad! I have had a few losses too and it is always disappointing.

It is a bit hard to tell what they all are and how old they are. I had a small one pack up and die - but we had 4 days of hot weather and I forgot to water it! Also, mulch or soil around the trunk has caused a couple of mine to go to plant heaven too.

If it is widespread, you could take a sample to one of your friendly native plant nursery and ask if they think it could be fungal.

Don't give up on them, they are well worth it. My banksias have flowered for the first time !!

Aggie

Marion, I really hope it's just the dry weather that has done it, because it will eventually rain. Easier to deal with than some nasty disease.

Ah, the curse of the CQ sun .... thankfully, the cyclone seems to have heralded the arrival of cooler days, but I suspect that the accompanying wind will dry leaves prior to the next blast from our merciless sun.

As you know, I have a much smaller block than you, but even on my patch, one thing holds true : the plants which are more than 1-2 metres from anything else definitely do it tougher than the rest. I know overplanting is evil, and will result in the need to move several of my plants as they grow larger, but they really do love the microclimate created by other plants in close proximity (particularly rainforest species). Your approach seems to be a much better approximation of nature, but it also looks very much like the bush during the hard times.

All this could be mere speculation, and I know nothing of fungal diseases etc, but it seems that natives only give in to this type of attack when they become stressed. A decent downpour and your problems could disappear overnight.

Good Luck,

Artie

Rose..I think I will give up on Callistemons, which are the ones causing the trouble , I have a happy little Hakea and quite a few of the Brachytiton family growing well. I also am happy with the way the Tuckeroo is growing.

Artie.. I was trying to have a row grow along the fenceline for a bit of a dust break from the road.
We have very poor clay sludge type soil about 8 inches deep and then very hard solid granite stuff, many a root is coiled when it hits that.

Pos02...When is saw the dying bits I started to water them but it hasn't seemed to make a difference.

Marion

i think it is the deep affects of the continuing drought the water table has most likely diminished and that leaves that sub soil very dry. as we found on this block until you get moisture in the sub-soil on the whole no amount of watering will work, unless you had very unlimited water and could set up a permanent drip system. we lost many trees that way in the beginning and even now trees around 1 meter high that have been growing well over the past 2 to 3 years with the good rain are starting to die.

nothing can be done not enough water to use on them, even now we are having to water our heavily mulched citrus trees the first time since they established after planting over 3 years ago. we've even got regrowths dying.

we need good rain and soon that cyclone we keep calling for to cross our coast is the only answer to the drought, just hope ingrid comes across as a low and gives us some autumn rain.

len

How often and how deeply have you been watering? Is the water from a bore and does it have any salts in it? What sort of soil do you have? etc. etc.

If it was just a rhetorical question then you already know the answer.

You have described a dispersive or sodic soil, which would benefit from applications of lots of Gypsum (calcium) and compost. A lot of the soils in your area are sodic; if you wish to know more about sodic or dispersive soils do a Google. Sand would also help but I cannot see you easily getting that into your garden.

Gypsum will alter the soil structure into a more friable (pedal) structure. This opens up the pore spaces in the soil alowing water and air to penetrate and thus plant roots to grow.

Sodic/dispersive soil is so common in Australia. Many farmers struggle with it as it is so difficult to deal with on a large acreage. You are going to have one hell a problem getting water and roots to penetrate if you do not open up the soil.

It is very likely that your dam water is high in sodium as well. Water runoff will pick up the stuff up easily. If the water from the dam is very clayey then that is a classic dipersive soil.

Good luck.

yes gypsum and oodles of it, you can't realy overdose with it, if not mulched as well gypsum needs reapplication every year, and get good quality gypsum the more like talcum powder it is the better the quality.

you do have a sub surface lack of water problems, sounds pretty typical scrub type country badly degraded and only sub-soil on site, you need to get soil structure working eg.,. worms and other bacteria. not sure how big your block is but maybe a planned attack say pick one section that you can gypsum and heavily mulch and get working then move to another planting you trees as you go.

it takes the big trees in the bush to put water into your aquafa, so without them you need to do something else consider doing rip lines along the contours to let water into the sub-soil the soil structure need moisture to work. also do all your planting along contours forming rows of mulch between the trees as well as around them this traps water from flowing down the slope ans with the rips (that will eventually dissapear as you no longer need them) will put the water underground.

the rips act like swales if you are familiar with permaculture, they did wonders on our block we are still carrying good green pasture grass when everyone else around is bone dry and brown. just when all the big trees get big enough they will do the job of the rips.

saw a doco' once this gardener up darwin way improved soil like yours by using a chook run that he moved around and gardeneig either side of it the chooks with their poo attracted the worms then the gardens outside the run gave the worms somewhere to spread to, and with gypsum and mulch good results.

you need to plan a manged attack and in time i reckon you'll be able to grow what you want callistemons and all. but you need to get real big time on the mulching maybe buy it you the truck load if you can?

for watering when you plant a tree put a length of that black 4" flexible ag' drain type pipe down either side or on 3 or 4 sides if you like try to get as deep as you can (a meter is good), this gets you water down in the root zone area and cuts evaporation loss, maybe hire a post hole digger with a hole drilling auger on it when you do you plantings?

find somewhere for bulk manure eg.,. a dairy farm where maybe you can go collect it from the yards top stuff that.

feel free to continue by e/mail if you wish. lots to say but takes space.

len

mail len

lens garden page

One important point that I thought of later was you watering regime. The photos show what might very well be salt burn on your plants which could very well be from you watering. More information would be needed for me to be certain of that, but it would be one of the more likely reasons. The best method for you is drip irrigation.

You need to use that saline water from the dam very sparingly. You can easily cause a build up of extra sodium salts by watering too much. Excessive watering will also bring the salts in you subsoil up the surface. Minimal soil disturbance is very important in sodic soils.

You really should get a soil test for salts soil salinity (Electrical Conductivity (EC)) or sodicity (Exchangeable Sodium Percentage (ESP)). Being in a farming area you can often get it done for free by any bulk fertiliser/gypsum supplier. They will tell you how good or bad you soil is. The local Landcare folk would also help you on that.

Here are some web pages that might be of help. There might be stuff in them that is not relevant to you but most of it is helpful I think.

http://www.science.org.au/nova/035/quirk.htm

http://www.dpi.qld.gov.au/fieldcrops/3163.html

Don't want to draw too many comparasions with our 30 ac the other side of town from you; however some bits might be relevant. We have grey duplex soil that's quite acidic; haven't done lab tests much as I'd like to. Also iron bark, with blue gum, alphitonia, quinine tree, cocky apple, black tea tree and 2-3 wattle species away from the riparian zone. The quinine and the black tea tree said to be indicator species for low phosphate and salinity respectively. The creek water according to the DPI too salty to irrigate just about everything except date palms. We promptly put in a dam, never been tested but no sign of leaf burn. We also used the dam water successfully through the bathroom and laundry before a second r/w tank arrived.

My mother moved onto the place in '82 to house sit for 10 years; her farmer friends off vine scrub country were all doom and told her she would never grow anything there. She planted two long lines of trees and shrubs running north-south each side of the house with ample irrigation from 1.5" poly with holes punched in as required and a swale on the uphill side. The rels used to bring in yard manure and mulch hay by the truck load...basically the friends were proved wrong.

We came back and organised a timber plot and a three row windbreak. Forestry chose the species; the lemon scented gums have done reasonably well, the wattles/ blue gums and casuarinas for the windbreak did not. They were flogged by predators or just failed to grow. All went into deep chisel rips and were hand watered by hose and pressure pump from the dam to establishment. I experimented with various species to fill in the gaps and from memory some that did just fine were Hibiscus tiliaceus (cottonwood), Euc. curtsii, Mt Morgan wattle, Grevillea banksii (a local grevillea), Lypsiphyllum hookeri (native bauhinia), Euroshinus falcata, white cedar and (sssh) a couple of exotic legume trees (not leucaena).

Think this anecdotal stuff supports Robert and Len's material: let the water in and minimise loss from the soil surface, add as much organic matter as practical, plant a wide variety of likelies to spead the risk.

Jealous of your lucerne hay!
Rose

go to it put the welcome mat out for those elusive worms.

len