Q. My purpose for writing is that the bottle trees that I planted
last year and until now have thrived, have suddenly been stripped of all of
their leave at just the very top. The rest of the trees and the leaves look
healthy. I live in a very windy area, and my landscaper suggested that the wind
stripped the leaves. I have doubts that this is the case since my next door
neighbors’ bottle trees which are the same age look perfectly healthy. The
trees have been been watered on a drip system twice a day, three time a week
for the past month. I have 10 trees that look like this. Any advice will be
greatly appreciated.
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| Bottle trees can drop leaves if they are too wet. They grow along streambanks in the dry parts of Australia. |
A. From the sound of it and the pictures you
sent it sounds more like a watering issue – the soil staying too wet between
irrigations. Bottle trees have sensitive roots to wet soils…the roots will
easily suffocate if the soils stay wet. This type of overwatering can be seen
in the tree by its loss of leaves. Unfortunately we often see the same results when the tree is not
given enough water but I don’t think that is the case with your tree.
Right now (Late spring, April) we should be watering trees and
shrubs once or maybe at the most twice each week. When temperatures get warmer
in about May or June is when three times a week watering is most common.
Depending on the soil and its drainage would determine if watering three times
a week is okay now. Watering that often this time of year would be okay for
very sandy soils with very good drainage.
You can find out if the tree roots are
ready for another irrigation by using a soil moisture meter stuck in the soil.
https://xtremehorticulture.blogspot.com/2018/09/use-houseplant-moisture-meter-to-know.html
https://xtremehorticulture.blogspot.com/2018/04/when-to-change-irrigation-clock-and-how.html
https://xtremehorticulture.blogspot.com/2018/12/moisture-meters-and-rebar-tell-you-when.html
https://xtremehorticulture.blogspot.com/2013/07/bottle-tree-dropping-leaves-could-mean.html
https://xtremehorticulture.blogspot.com/2013/05/bottle-tree-with-dying-branches.html
Consult this expert on Bottle trees growing in the Phoenix area:
http://www.public.asu.edu/~camartin/plants/Plant%20html%20files/brachychitonpopulneus.html