I have an arbutus I transplanted from the road side into my yard 4yrs ago which has been doing very well as I planted it exactly like it was by the road..It was only 2 ft and now it is about 12ft tall. But this early spring and summer I noticed little spiders attacking it and used an organic pest control spray on it 2X and it seemed to work for the rest of the summer as no leaves fell, they looked nice and green, I didn't see many spiders etc. etc. My problem is we left for 2wks and the tree was fine before we left Sept 27-Oct 14th but when we got back the leaves are still green but all drooping! The smaller tree next to it ( about 3ft tall) isn't doing this but the large one is. It is heartbreaking to think we would lose this tree, could it be a frost while we were gone that would do this?
Re: arbutus..Oct 22/08 In future never spray spiders unless it is determined these are in fact actually mites rather than spiders, and there is a heavy buildup that is damaging the plant or may be about to do so. Spiders are always predatory and therefore beneficial in the garden. The tree sounds like it may have root rot or another problem which has damaged the roots, thereby affecting the top. It may be too late to do anything for it. If it now goes brown then you will know it has probably been lost.
Re: arbutus..Oct 22/08 Thankyou, for your input.. No..it hasn't gotten brown leaves as of yet, and this has been a couple of weeks now..but I will keep an eye out..it hasn't even lost any leaves they have just drooped! And the bug sample with one leaf was shown to tree/plant place and I just used what they recommended. I can't even remember what kind of bug they called it. And the spray was an organic thing.
