Can my Magnolia trees be saved? We planted them approx. 3 years ago, and they have done fine since then. This winter the top leaves turned brown. We have 2 others that have no brown leaves on them and are very full. These 2 are not doing so well. We live in San Antonio, Texas and have a sprinkler system that waters 3 x a week for 15 minutes, although this winter it was not on. I also noticed a the white dots on the leaves, but they are on the thriving trees also. I would like to do whatever it takes to save these trees before it is too late. Thanks for any help.
Where there is green, there is potential - depending on what, exactly is going on. What do you think happened?
I am really not sure what happened. Our other two trees look great, and they were all planted at the same time. Should I remove the dead leaves? Cut some of the dead branches? Saturate them with fertilizer? Water them everyday? It is now spring and everything is turning green, except for our two Magnolia trees. Any advice?
If they were mine I would prune all the dead stuff off. Make sure they have a good organic manure and mulch and not let them dry out. In my environment here they grow in a cool winter and warm to very hot summer in acidic soil. I recently had to rescue part of my garden from a major blackberry mess. I decided to have the chap that was helping me to just hard prune the magnolias along with other things and drag all the blackberries etc off. You should see how they have revived and I am expecting lots of flowers this spring. Do you think they may have got some spray from a weed killer?? or did they die off slowly? Liz
When removing the dead leaves, do I just break them off? Or should I remove the actual branches? On some of the branches, we broke them off to see if they were still green inside and they were, but still have dead leaves on them. So I should prune them, make sure there is mulch around them and make sure they gets lots of water?
Ok if those branches are still green leave it. It almost looks like it got a dose of some poison from overspray. Wait and see what they do. It would be nice to keep the shape. If however those branches with the dead leaves are brittle and no green, use pruner scissors ( can't spell the correct name) and make clean cuts. Don't break them off. Yes mulching and feeding can only help. I prefer natural manures and bone meal as a feed. Soil should be damp but not boggy. I wonder what those white spots are? Any ideas any one? Liz
