Sick Catalpa tree

[Calcat]

I have a sick Catalpa tree. It slowly flowered its leaves this spring - but they are small. Fairly new tree - third season - did great last year.
Any suggestions?
Thanks

 

[Treeman14]

It may have been planted improperly. Check the Burlap and twine thread under the Nursery Forum for more info. I've found most problems with trees under ten years old can be traced back to the nursery or the planting technique.

 

[Ray Morneau]

CalCat --

Brett (Treeman14) has good info for you in his post.

In my experience, I'd rank the problems:
1. Nursery stock - poor root development, check for pot-bound, girdling roots, circling roots, and/or trunk scrapes.
2. Planting - inspect for mishandling (trunk scrape, especially near root flare) and/or buried root flare (should usually be 1- to 3-inches higher than surrounding grade).
3. Watering - too little (maybe too much, but less likely) - especially to existing rootball.