I have a Larch that has been in the ground 3 years. It gets full sun, a daily sprinkling of water, yearly feeding, and is planted in sandy soil with a little garden soil mixed in. We are in the foothills of the Cascades. The problem is that it's needles are sparce and yellow, not the blue-green of description and it's not growing much - it's not much bigger than when I got it. I'm sorry I don't know exactly which kind of Larch - bought it in a local nursery and hope it's not the variety that grows to 200 ft. (occidentalis). We have cold winters, hot summers, lots of wind in the spring and summer (unfortunately) and are considered a 3B climate zone in Sunset. I don't know if I'm fighting a losing battle and should leave Larchs to the mountains where they occur naturally. Does anyone have any ideas?
Sorry I can't be much help solving your problem, but I really like larches, and I'd hate to see you give up on them. Siberian larches grow like crazy here as well as Tamarack. My present Siberians are shaded by Aspens, and the one I had when I lived in town was in the shade of my house. It grew a foot and a half a year. I shoulda made it part of the sale. The dumb buggers eventually dug it up.
A 'daily sprinkling' of water isn't going to do it, better a good long soaking weekly, and sandy soil may or may not have enough organic matter in there - it's not a pine and while it needs fast drainage, it can't take quite the sparse, arid mix pines can. Full sun is fine.
... hopefully you have not planted your 'yougster' much deeper than it used to be at the nursery... since that can be rather big a problem for the conifers when tranpsplanted... I also believe that giving it ample (A LOT OF IT!!!) watering every couple of weeks will also help!!!... the sandy soil should not be a problem - I know that there are forests of siberianlarch growing in Finland on very sandy soil... I had one larix kaepferi (japanese larch) that took some 5 years before it finally started growing... before that it just had some yellowish growth yearly...
I think you may have Larix decidua, hardy z3a-6, 70-75' in height and 25-30in width, it is a deciduous conifer and the needles turn yellow and shed in fall, not to worry it will leaf out with new needles soon. Janet
I've heard of problems with non-native species of Larix in the cascades not getting enough "something" either it be heat or winter chill. I cannot remember for the life of me at the present time. Someone may refresh my memory as a lot of posters visit various website garden forums. Regards, Dax
