You've found the famous Dave's Garden website! Join this friendly global community that shares tips and ideas for home and gardens, along with seeds and plants!
Check out the DG homepage for a brief overview of what you'll find in this gardening mega-site.
Login
If you don't have an account yet, visit the registration page to sign up.
Maybe 3 weeks ago I planted a 30 gallon Drake Elm at my home in Central Florida. This past week the tree has been getting a lot of yellow leaves and the last two days the yellow leaves are doubling and falling off. I noticed today that a lot of bark seems to be flaking off (green underneath) too. I know this type of tree has bark that sheds but I don't know if this is normal. I am worried that something is wrong with the tree with all the yellowing leaves. Help!
Could it be going through shock from being planted weeks ago?
I have been watering it daily expect for a 4-5 days where we had probably 15 inches of rainfall.
When planting it I used the "kit" from the nursery (Pell's in Osteen) which included fertilizer and black cow manure. I also cut into the root ball as suggested in three places.
What do you think? Is it normal for Drake Elms to go through a shock period?
Any plant can get transplant shock...but if yours looked fine until you had all the rain I suspect that 15 inches in a week was a bit too much for it (that's an awful lot of rain...here it's nice if we get that much in an entire year! LOL). The leaf yellowing/dropping symptoms you describe are consistent with overwatering. The good news is if the rain doesn't continue and the plant dries out a bit it should hopefully be OK. Just make sure you do the "finger test" and make sure the soil's dried out a bit before you go back to watering it.
Losing leaves is a common response to overwatering, and even if your soil is sandy and drains fairly well, 15 inches in that short a time period could cause stress for plants. I've seen posts in other forums from other people who've experienced similar heavy rainfall lately and some of them are even seeing some problems with more established plants, so it's not at all abnormal. The good news is that a one time incident of overwatering like this (whether it's your fault or Mother Nature's) most likely wouldn't kill your plant, it's if you constantly keep it too wet that you end up with real problems. I would keep an eye on your own watering frequency too once things dry out a bit--once a day watering could be appropriate, but it could be too much or too little too depending on how your soil drains, how hot it is, etc. Doing the finger test is always a good way to tell if it needs water--stick your finger down a couple inches into the soil near the root zone and see how it feels. If it's still really wet, then you need to hold off on watering but if it's feeling dry then give it a drink.
