California Peppers & Afircan Sumacs

[kcobabe]

I live in Las Vegas, NV and I recently had several trees planted:

1 - 32" Box Cal Pepper
3 - 24" Box African Sumac
1 - 24" Box Live Oak
5 - 15 Gal Cal Pepper
2 - 15 Gal Sumac

Well I was a little suspicious of the 32" box from the start because the bark was pulling away from the tree. It look as though new bark was coming in under it so I just let the nursery plant it anyway since it was going to be under warranty.

Well now several of the trees (Sumac, Pepper, & Oak) are showing wilting leaves and brown color even though they are suppose to be green year round (The reason we bought them in the first place). The Oak only has this problem on a couple of the leaves towards the bottom. The sumacs are pretty much the same as the Oak.

However, several of the 15 gal peppers look brown and like they are dying. The brown leaves are still intact even though we have had a couple windy days recently. The 32" box pepper has several areas at the bottom that are brown as well, but the top still looks fine.

The trees are still under warranty. I was told to water them every other day for the first 2 weeks (As long as the ground is not wet from the previous watering or rain). We are on week 3 from the planting time.

So is this normal? Should I have the nursery come out and look at them? Are they dead? Is there something I can do to restore the green?

 

[kevinj]

Peppers on trees ???

I've grown peppers for years, but never seen them grow on trees. Except when I hang them on the Christmas tree as an ornament. Huh!
But anyway as far as the leaves turning brown, this could possibly be transplant shock. To prevent this, whenever I transplant or plant directly from container into the ground, I'll always use liquid seaweed. 2 TBL.per gallon of water. I also use it as a foliage spray on all of my vegetable plants.
If you want, try to GOOGLE liquid seaweed and see what you come up with.
Good Luck!

 

[treeseer]

sounds very bad. you need an arborist on site for an inspection; http://www.isa-arbor.com/findArborist/findarborist.aspx

post a picture her eif you want, but do not add anything to the water or your warranty may be hurt.

 

[Ekka]

Just guessing but what about cold/frosts etc?

Also, are the browning wilting leaves soggy or crisp?

What sort of soil do you have there. Sandy or clay?

And when the hole was made was it just the size of the tub and the tree dropped in or was it a lot larger and a soil mix 50/50 of existing plus nursery soil dropped in?

Did they throw fertilizer into the hole, especially a chemical fertilizer? I have seen many plants/trees etc get scorched from being planted on top of a handful of some aggressive fertilizer like CK88.

Did they lay mulch on top to prevent the surface roots drying out?

If the root balls were kept in tact and the problem stems from not enough water that's pretty straight forward and an easy fix. Perhaps dig and see how moist the soil is say 12" down. Sometimes the surrounding soil has a wicking effect and moisture migrates away from the root ball, water with a wetting agent.

If it's over watering you'll find out when you dig that small hole.

But either way to have such a problem so soon after planting is not good. And usually the soil that the trees come with are prone to drying out. In nurseries they like well draining soils and plants are watered very regularly (daily). Now we expose the trees to a harsher environment, water them less, let the roots contact a foreign soil, maybe no mulch to prevent the top layer drying out etc and there's a quick shock for the tree.

 

[kcobabe]

The leaves are not really cisrpy, but they are getting that way. I was there when the nursery planted them and they did everything, that I know about, correctly.

They planted them with the soil that was in the box or containerand then broke the clump around the tree filling in native soil after. Then they made a basin for the water and placed mulch in the basin and around it.

The soil is mainly sand. The weather up till earlier this week was 60-upper 70's. The sun has still been out and the ground only frosted ealier this week as well. The wind also only started this week.

I followed the watering schedule to the "T." I think the only way to find out what is going on is to have the nursery send their arborist out.

 

[Matt K]

Watering every other day is too much for November/December in Las Vegas, so that could be one factor. It is likely that the trees were planted too deep also, but I don't think that would be the problem so soon after planting.

I wouldn't neccessarily trust the nursery arborist. I live in Las Vegas, send me an email if you would like assistance from someone independent of the nursery.