I am new to the Magnolia world. I bought a 15 foot tall Brakens Brown Grandlforina. It has been three weeks. I planted during drout but irrigate every other day and water the tree by itself slowly every morning and evening. Here's my problem. Any advise is appreciated. The tree is showing new growth at the end of each limb and also along the trunk. Some limbs have buds which makes me think the limbs will fill out. However, all of the limbs have dead or dying leafs from the trunk to the end - where new growth seems healthy. The leaves are browning in the middle and slowy spreading evenly throughout the whole leaf until it falls off. The limbs themselve appear healthy. I do have some leafs, dead and new growth, that have holes in them which tells me I may need to use a pesticide of some sort. The tree is located in Columbia, Missouri, which is generally considered zone 6. Thanks in advance for any advice!
Check soil moisture. Poke around in the soil around the tree and in the original soil ball it came with. These are usually sold grown in containers, often the coarse potting medium used will be prone to excessive drying out even after planting in the ground, where the normally finer textured native soil will have a greater attraction for water than the coarse potting medium. Diligent and careful watering is required to compensate for this until the new plant is well rooted into the soil beyond the original rootball.
Thanks Ron. I checked into it and if anything the soil at this moment may be too moist. We have had a record drought this summer and like I mentioned before I had been watering 2X day after planting, and I also use an irrigation system for the whole lawn. Over the weekend I measured 3 inches of rain (we really needed it) at the house and everything is very moist at this time. Even this morning I could tell there was more new growth on the tree, yet more dead leafs than desirable. My guess is that the tree did dry out at some point during transplant, but is o.k. now assuming I keep it wet until roots are established. I am now concerned that I will have limbs that are "empty" except for new growth. My guess is at this point I should concern myself with helping the root system get established, and worry about the look of the tree next spring. Thanks again! Paul
