Hi--- Hope all is well. I'm having trouble with my hogyoku. It is 3 years old and has been a GREAT tree. I live in Fort Collins, CO, so our summers are hot and dry. Over the last several weeks, we've been pushing mid to upper 90s. This tree is in a pot, so I can move out away from sun, and keep it shaded if need be. About two weeks ago, the tree started to randomly drop a leaf or two. Each morning I'd come out and find another leaf slightly wilted which would later fall off. My best guess in reading Vertrees is spider mites? I'm thinking it's not V. Wilt or anything root / fungal as there is no significant dieback -- just the random leaf here and there. Trouble is, over two weeks, lots of leaves are missing now. Here are some photos: http://gallery.me.com/tjchermack#100131 you can see there is some discoloration on the leaves in question.... any ideas what I am dealing with here? Tom
Hi, This post caught my eye because I, too, have a Hogyoku in a container and I have kind of struggled with it. I think it must be sensitive to root fluctuations, whether it be water or temperature. Mine has been in a pot 4 years. Like yours, it has sometimes looked that way. I figured mine got too hot or too dry, but couldn't decide which. The last two years we have had record rainfall and it's looking pretty good. Is it possible yours maybe got a little dry? If not, the heat stress makes sense. I have one in a container (JB33) that is doing the same thing right now and I think maybe it got a little hot and dry. Kay
Just to echo what the other have said this looks like heat stress to me as well. In the New England area we had a number of days about three weeks ago where the mercury hit upper 90's to low 100's. Nearly all of my container JM took a beating; I have a rather large Orange Dream that literally close shop and dropped 70% of its leaves. Now that the weather is much more typical, the second set of bud is pushing through. I had a frost damaged 'Tamukeyama' that is also pushing its second set of bud out now. When I looked at your photos - I believe in the third pic, I *think* I can see the second set of buds poking out on the middle node of that branch. These things happen. If I get around to it, I'll post a photo of a laceleaf seedling that I dug up this year from a friends house; it dropped all five of its leaves in the 100F weather and is now sending out new leaves. All the best CSL
