Hi I recently was given a copper beach from a friend's nursery. Unfortunately It took me a while to decide where to plant it, so It stayed in a bucket for a couple weeks. By the time I planted it it had begun to wilt. It has now lost most of it's leaves, and has been in the ground about three months without any sign of recovery (just hanging on to a few sickly leaves). I am wondering if there is anything I can do to help it along such as fertilizer, pruning, etc. I have been watering it about twice a week. Thanks, and next tree will get in the ground right away! Kurt
It's good that you took your time to decide where to plant the copper beech, Kurt. I recall a saying that fertilizer is food, not medicine. You probably just need to leave your sapling alone to fend for itself. Don't risk overwatering it. Que sera sera.
Fagus are notoriously slow growing plants BUT usually fairly long lived ; don't give up on it and stay the course with a regular watering regimen . Keep the foot traffic light on the area and guard it from hard wood loving critters because fagus species are so slow growing they do not readily bounce back from damage .
I always find it amazing when I see things that are slow growing and take a long time in the northern climes seem to grow like a weed down here. When I saw beeches in England and Switzerland I was told they were there for a long time but they were so slender and fragile. We have two down the road that are huge and have a really wide girth . Would take two to hold arms and sourround them. They are so history tells me about 100 years old. We had two in my family home either side of the drive way. They went in as young potted plants and when I saw them recently they were gigantic in both girth and height. (45+ yrs old now). They also weathered a bushfire in 1983 that totaled the garden. We have many things that grow like this here. including stuff that has become weeds in our bush. Sycamore trees come to mind. They are everywhere around this area. Liz
Beech isn't all that slow here, either - about 50cm/year when it's young, and I doubt it would be any much different in NY, either. On the specimen in question, keep up the watering, and hope for the best. No fertiliser, that wouldn't help and could hinder.
Michael are we speaking height 50 cm a year. I definatley saw some on a ravine in Switz. that were very high (like our moutain ash eucalypts) but the circumfrence was really small. From memory Burnham beeches forest (sp) in UK they were also slender but tallish. Ours look really solid and clunky. Maybe that is because they are grown in a garden situation or because of the warmer weather and they don't have to stop growing for long winters. (We have not had one this year and everything is puting on leaf already.) Liz
Yep! They get tallest (40-45m) in sheltered valleys with plenty of rainfall; in more exposed situations they are shorter and stockier as you have found. The one thing they can't take is drought; I'd not be surprised if a lot have been lost in Australia in the recent drought years.
On the contrary , in my Northern Canadian climate drought does not seem to affect the native fagus very much . The oldest fagus growing in the 3 acre woodlot on my property is over 100' tall and approx. 140 yr + old and it has experienced many droughts over the decades . There is a quercus macrocarpa of similar size and stature growing in the same woodlot .
That's American Beech Fagus grandifolia, which is more drought tolerant than European Beech (Fagus sylvatica, the species from which nearly all of the copper-leaf cultivars derive).
update on the tree mentioned in the beginning The leaves have now fallen off altogether, but there are new buds coming in so I will be patient until the spring. Thanks for the input. Kurt