Here’s a pic of Gunnera manacota planted two summers ago at the Port Renfrew Hotel cabin site. They are used to do the final polishing for domestic wastewater following advanced secondary treatment. They were large cuttings from mature plants when planted. While the three plants on the right are thriving, the one on the left is not and appears to be dying. The leaves are turning bronze; no signs of lack of water. The large white rocks in the foreground are local marble, which is to say limestone. There are also cedar planted nearby. Any ideas?
Ron B Thanks for the suggestion but they receive like 4,000-5,000 L-day. So the area is good and moist and appears to be receiving adequate water. Generally when G. manacota receives insufficient moisture the edges of the foliage turn brown. The plant in question leaves are turning a bronze to red colour not on the edges but through out. It did fine the first year. I’ll do several soil pH tests as a start. Here is a pic from last year. Subject is on far left. Thank you again, WetPac
Have not done the pH tests yet. A mixture of bagged peat moss and mixed sawdust more or less uniform from one end to the other.
I guess what I'm really getting at, is that the plant sounds like it is contricted, I know the picture from last year says otherwise, but I'm wondering if there is a big rock or something underground that is causing the plant to need root space. I've seen one of mine do something similar in colour, and it was a rock that seemed to cause the problem. The rock that I finally had to get a backhoe to move was about four feet wide, five feet long. It was suffering from lack of nutrients, but got lots of water.
Thanks Carol, We excavated the area and worked in aged sawdust. Original substrate was talos. So four plants have uniform depth beneath them. Water they receive is expected to be about 10-20 mg/L total N, and say 3-4 mg/L total P so with 4K L-day that is quite a bit of fertilizer. Please tell me more about the change in colour you saw in the leaves. WetPac
There is much to tell, the roots had reached the rock, and had no more room in depth. The leaves went a red bronze colour almost like fall colours. This year that plant looks fine. Which side does the waste come in? Maybe it is getting to much food/water or less than others.
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.23...2&uid=70&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=47698834121877[/B] Tansley Review No. 42. The Nostoc-Gunnera Symbiosis B. Bergman, C. Johansson and E. Soderback New Phytologist Vol. 122, No. 3 (Nov., 1992), pp. 379-400
cyanobacterium may be absent in the rusty foliage gunnera as opposed to the three regular blue green plants?
