Plants dropping their leaves

Post by **lee** » October 22, 2011, 2:41 pm

We planted several hedge type plants before the rain season. Several months on some of them are growing OK and look bushy whereas others have dropped all their leaves and look very unhealthy. Some people say it could be the soil conditions e.g. too much acid/salt or possibly too much water (some of the plants had an inch or so of water around them for several days during the rain season).

As you can see in the photo below the plant on the left looks normal and the one on the right which is only a few meters away looks like like it's on it's last legs. I'm not sure what I can do to rescue them.

Post by **rick** » October 22, 2011, 4:36 pm

A small rate of failure is normal, but best bet is to dig one up and look at the roots - if they are sickly plant is dying; also could be due to attack by insects. Do not think flooding will have much effect unless for a week or more - in my garden bananas and a lemon tree get waterlogged most years. Salty soil is unlikely to be localised - i would expect all sick or not.

Post by **Manadon** » October 22, 2011, 11:21 pm

Not sure how long your plants were in containers before planting, but I had roses of many colors in smaller containers, I wanted to keep them as "dwarf" roses. Then decided to put them in nice pots......
when I took them out of the smaller containers I noticed their roots were pretty much "root bound"..meaning they were contained in a small enviorment for so long, they start to live on each other. I took the dirt off the roots, put them into new pots where they could "roam" and I never seen such roses that became. We had about 20 roses on 1 plant. I have done this with many plants for many years, and plant them in good soil, with some kind of fertilizer, cow poop, egg shells, and they will go CRAZY!

Post by **Manadon** » October 22, 2011, 11:38 pm

And sometimes when you "stick" the plants into the ground, you need to :flush: the soil. Meaning: you can put a plant in the ground and create a pocket under the plant where dirt does not meet dirt....you need to take a small shovel and water and work the soil down around the plant.
This is how you will have great plants. Actually, I forgot to mention , all my rose leaves fell off....this is why I took them out and replanted them and they went crazy!. My plants were the same as your pics.

Post by **Khun Paul** » October 23, 2011, 7:53 am

having over the years planted many many plants, it is not uncommon for some to lose leaves, then after a brief period they come back.
Sometimes it is due to insects, i planted two small trees, after 6 months the insects found them asnd they were devpoid of all leaves, now they are 3 metres high and flourishing, I had some plants that heve been there for 5 years, last month lost all leaves, now regrowing.

Why I do not know, a few occasions underground bugs damage the plant , but not normally, rain can affect young plants newly planted but rarely, soil make-up can affect but again rarely.
I always dig a hole put in a half a bag (depending on size of plant) and plant the new plant in the new compost, I have about a 97% success rate on new plants or moving plants.

I have learnt that here plants do not react as in the UK and sometimes it leaves you wondering but in the main they are OK ( the plants I mean )

Post by **Galee** » October 23, 2011, 9:28 am

The best solution is to get a Water Buffalo or an Elephant. The manure will work wonders.

Post by **Galee** » October 23, 2011, 9:31 am

Khun Paul wrote:I have learnt that here plants do not react as in the UK and sometimes it leaves you wondering but in the main they are OK

Good pun.

Post by **lee** » October 23, 2011, 9:45 am

Thanks for the feedback. I'll try digging one up to see what the roots look like. If they look OK I'll just leave them and see if they revive eventually.

BTW Galee I tried buffalo manure, not sure where I'd get an elephant dung from unless I follow the one's that walk the streets of Udon with a plastic bag.

Post by **Aardvark** » October 23, 2011, 9:59 am

What are the Names of these Shrubs Lee ??

Post by **parrot** » October 23, 2011, 9:59 am

There's buffalo manure and there's buffalo manure....meaning, you've got to be careful about using the fresh stuff on a young plant as it's too strong. We've bought old rice sacks full of manure that weighed a ton and others that weighed a quarter as much. Our gardener always tells us the lighter bag is the better manure because it's been dried out.

Post by **Khun Paul** » October 23, 2011, 11:06 am

Yes that is so true Parro, however i have been digging various composts including buffalo pooh for the past 9 years and I now have where most of the bi-annuals and annuals are at least 9 inches of good top loam/soil in line with the recognised depth as proscribed by the RHS

Took a lok time including retaining walls otherwise the rain washes it all away onto the grass and you have to start again.

Post by **stattointhailand** » October 23, 2011, 12:37 pm

i have been digging various composts including buffalo pooh for the past 9 years

KP finally admits to "Shovelling the sh*t" :-"

sorry couldn't resist the chance

Post by **lee** » October 23, 2011, 5:57 pm

Aardvark wrote:What are the Names of these Shrubs Lee ??

I've no idea Marc. Apparently they're a Japanese import, they have them lining the walls at UD Town and various housing estates. The garden center said they are a fast growing and a very hardy plant, maybe she meant to say the opposite. LOL. I bought them to make a hedge, I thought it would be a nice alternative to a concrete wall.

parrot wrote:Our gardener always tells us the lighter bag is the better manure because it's been dried out.

That's the stuff I've used, we get it free from the buffalo farmers.

Post by **KHONDAHM** » October 23, 2011, 7:23 pm

I'm no green thumb, but you could try crushing up charcoal (carbon) and mixing it in the dirt around and under the roots. A huge bag only costs THB 120.

Post by **parrot** » October 23, 2011, 7:52 pm

Don't know if the plants in the photos are the same, but here's some personal experience.

Two years ago, our gardener planted a few hundred 2-baht light green, and a few hundred 2-baht dark green hedges in the rough shape of a fish.

The dark green hedges grew no problem.

Half of the light green died. We replaced the ones that died only to have the next batch die again in the same area. We removed those, replaced the dirt in that area and replanted again. We had to nurse those along....and finally late last year they took....and now are grown in. What was the cause? Beats me....beats my gardener.

Post by **parrot** » October 23, 2011, 7:55 pm

Fat fingers hit submit before I added the photos.

Post by **parrot** » October 23, 2011, 8:04 pm

Here's another view from a different direction. Sorry if this doesn't directly answer your question, but I hope it goes to show that sometimes you just have to stick with it.

Post by **lee** » October 24, 2011, 8:10 am

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

BTW Nice garden John, do you have a gardener or do you take care of it yourself? It must take a fair amount of time to keep it looking like that.

Post by **Marcelo** » November 10, 2011, 2:56 pm

Galee wrote:The best solution is to get a Water Buffalo or an Elephant. The manure will work wonders.

That was a pretty smart answer given to him..
I mean solution..!!