Lavender Tree Help

Discussion in 'HortForum' started by BobEGreenThumb, Jul 18, 2020.

  1. BobEGreenThumb

    BobEGreenThumb New Member

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    Hi, bought a bloomimg lavender tree a couple months ago from HD. It is indoors and gets about 4 or 5 hours of sun. I know it needs more but we don't have other choices except for outside but we are in an apartment so can't plant outside. New with lavender so read up on it and started caring for it. We watered it every few days about a cup of water. Everything looking good, nice blooms strong stems and robust leaves. Read to trim the lavender once it blooms and they start dying. I cut about 1/3 of the stem and stayed above any wood stems. Now for some reason we are getting long wood single stems with growth from them at the top of the stem. Also the leaves on the bottom turned grey at the tips and then turned yellow. Also the green stems look thin and wak not like before. We are now watering less and put outside for a few hours a day when we can but the green leaves are drooping and look weak. Any help as I have searched for answers and I am guessing to much water or root rot but when I
    don't water the green leaves start wilting. Any help appreciated.
    Thank you.
     

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  2. Acerholic

    Acerholic Paragon of Plants Forums Moderator VCBF Cherry Scout Maple Society

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    Good evening @BobEGreenThumb, the one thing that will kill a lavender is over watering. These plants thrive in arid areas.
    It does not need watering every day. For watering you should check the soil first, if dry then water, if moist then don't.
    You need to remove your tree from the pot and check to see if you have root rot. I think you will find that the roots will appear dark and be rather smelly. That is the sign.
    If this is the case the rotten roots need to be pruned off and the tree left to dry out. Do not replace in the pot until it is dry. Give it new free draining compost when you do place it in the pot again. Ensure your Lavender does not sit in water within the larger pot, that will cause root rot all over again.
    Hope this of help.
     
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  3. BobEGreenThumb

    BobEGreenThumb New Member

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    Thank you. I was thinking that as well from reading. I have taken the tree out of the pot, shook the soil loose a little. I really didn't find anything smelly except for a couple clumps that smelt a little moldy. Nothing was black except around the trees base a little in very compacted soil, so I loosened that up and shook the soil out. I also noticed the root ball was very moist and several inches of soil was also moist at the bottom so I changed it to a smaller pot. I also added more perlite, some small stones, and a lime/perlite/coarse sand mixture. I also put rocks on the bottom to protect the holes from filling up with soil. The soil is about 2 inches out from root ball in the new pot all around it. I will be putting it outside daily as I can. I'm not that great at this with plants but doing ok as I have done some farming in my younger days, and the wife loves plants. This ones are a new variety to us and we are seeing we need to adjust drastically from what we were doing, more like a cactus from what it's looking like. Been doing alot of watching and reading about lavenders but nothing really explains things I'm looking for, LOL. Especially info on the tree. Our other lavender is two lavender phenomenal stems we are growing, and are doing well in two small clay pots.
     

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  4. Margot

    Margot Renowned Contributor 10 Years

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    It is worth noting that Lavender (Lavandula) is a shrub, not a tree, even when trained upright on a single branch. Identifying it as a tree may lead to expectations that it cannot fulfil as evidenced by a growth habit where it produces "long wood single stems with growth from them at the top of the stem." If you believe in the 'right plant, right place' philosophy, growing lavender mostly indoors will be fraught with difficulties.
     
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  5. Acerholic

    Acerholic Paragon of Plants Forums Moderator VCBF Cherry Scout Maple Society

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    @BobEGreenThumb, good morning, looking at what you have now done and the fact the soil was 'very' moist when lifted from the pot tells the real reason behind it's demise.
    Lavenders like full sun and thrive when the roots are allowed to dry out between watering. They are a hot location plant.
    You need to replicate it's natural ideal growing location the best you can to have success with this plant and all plants tbh.
    I totally agree with @Margot in that growing this indoors is fraught with difficulties. Now if you had an Orangery or Greenhouse then that would be a different matte, I have seen many in these locations successfully grown.
    So to sum up, lavenders are more successful the worse they are treated and the vast majority are killed with kindness. Let the 'roots' dry out in-between watering.

    Do update the thread on how things progress.
     
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  6. BobEGreenThumb

    BobEGreenThumb New Member

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    Yes thank you, we know indoors will be hard but we wanted to give it a shot and we do have an option to ask the landlord to plant outside as there is a spot for it out front of this two family house. I think watering to much and not enough sun is the cuprit right now and adjusting as we learn. First time we had a plant that liked to be abused, LOL. Thanks again.

    Yes I do believe our issue is to much water and not enough sun. Just hope its not to late. We do have an option to ask the landlord to use a spot in his garden, but we wanted to give a try at it indoors. Not that easy with this one and we have alot of indoor plants thriving. Thanks for the help, will keep updated with results.
     
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  7. scilover

    scilover Member

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    Place your container grown lavender plants somewhere they receive full sun (at least 8 hours per day) and water them sparingly. Allow the soil to dry out between waterings, but don't let it get so dry that the plant wilts. Lavender likes heat, and many varieties won't survive a cold winter. Goodluck!!
     
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