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Abelia death - soil disease, poisioning?
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Posted by lorrikeet NSW Australia (My Page) on Thu, Jul 1, 04 at 0:16
Hi,
We have a small abelia hedge which is about 5 years old. Recently 2 plants developed blotchy yellowish leaves and eventually died. When I dug them out I discovered that the stems and branches are blue on the inside. It seems to me that they may have taken up water or chemicals or something. The two plants in question were at the end of the hedge. Other plants in the hedge do not have any sign of problems and do not have the blue colouration in the stems. Can anyone advise what the problem could be.
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Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Abelia death - soil disease, poisioning?
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Without much info to go on here I would venture to say that some sort of fungal infection is occurring....usually this occurs when the soil in which the plant is growing is lacking in mycorrhiza which tend to protect the roots from attack by the pathogenic fungi
You can increase the mycorrhizal activity in the soil by mulching with similar plant material to the plant you wish to protect
Basically what happens is that when litter falls from a plant it decomposes and in so doing forms a protective sheaf on or around the roots of your plant. This enables the plant to absorb nutrients at a greater rate and thereby become healthier
Sure its a little more complicated than that but always remind yourself that the healthiest plants are those growing in the nearest aproximation to the natural conditions found in a wild state
So the answer is yes your plant is being poisoned but not like you think it is
cheers
Peter |
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