Melaleuca quinquenervia doesnt feel like living anymore

[Naimul]

I bought my Mel around this time 2 years ago, and it was powering on since until about 3 weeks ago. Initially after buying it, i slipped it into a larger plastic pot while shaving the sides of the root ball and cutting the bottom off since i wasnt sure how to root prune it properly at the time. Since then it has grown considerably, and ive cut back hard twice, but i havnt repotted it since.
Now, as of three weeks ago, for some reason it the leaves started to dry up and look wilted. at the time it had quite a bit of foliage and it was quite dry windy weather so i was not surprised about the wilting, and admittedly i may have forgotten to water it twice during that time, but since then i have kept up the watering and historically it would come back quite quickly, but now it has just gotten worse as the days went on. I have since cut it back thinking that might help.
i thought maybe there might be a dry bubble or something in the rootball but i was too scared to disturb the roots, so i just got a long stick and poked a lot of hole, going all the way through to hopefully penetrate any dry areas. i also slipped it out of the pot to see if it was rootbound, but it didnt look like it. at least not like when my other trees were rootbound.

Im completely stumped. i have since moved it to a sunnier position to maybe stimulate something in the tree (though it was doing very well where it was before). i am scratching the bark every day or so, on most branches and it is still green underneath, though some of the finer ones are starting to die back.

Any thoughts? I couldnt get any photos today, but ill try to get some up tomorrow, of the tree and the roots as they are now.

[Rory]

Without a full assessment/pic it sounds like you may have let this get too dry for too long. Mel Q is not a species you want to leave really dry. They handle slight periods of wetness better then long periods of drought.

Also, from my experience and area they are not a tree that likes to be constantly pruned. I let mine grow free and happy, and only cut back once every year or two.

They also don't like to be shaded for long periods of time.

[dansai]

When you slipped it out of the pot how did your potting mix look? Was it dry? Is the tree in a plastic nursery pot or a bonsai pot?

This time of year is hard for watering as the warm windy days with low humidity can dry a lot out quicker than a hot humid day with little wind. If a nursery pot with a standard potting mix which maybe high in pine bark or other organic material it may be bone dry on the inside and watering will only wet the top 5mm and a bit on the outside. It probably could do with a good soak overnight in a tub filled to above the rim of the pot. A dash of season if you have it wont hurt. Being a mel it may just survive. I have one that did the same and will give it a few months before I give up.

[Bougy Fan]

Yes I want to know how it looks under the soil. My first thought is the old mix is no longer free draining, especially if you left a lot of it in place. This could mean either shedding water on top or roots staying too wet. I would get it out of it's pot and check it out.

[Naimul]

Sorry for the late photos.

@ Rory, The reason why i cut back as often as i did was because it was pushing new growth so profusely that it would eventually become a small bush, resulting in it drying out and wilting considerably fast. having said that, i would prune back hard once a year to get my main branches to form, and a light prune sometime mid-late summer just to keep it manageable. It is in a 200mm pot i believe. and it would come back quite strong too, which lead me to believe i was doing the right thing.

@ Dansai, I bought the tree from Ray Nesci's, so i assumed at the time the mix would be fine to leave as is. It was in aplastic pot, smaller that what it is in now. when i trimmed the rootball, i replaces with a mix of some generic gravel that i use in my mixes, and some off the shelf potting mix. Currently it doesnt look like it has compressed anymore than what i currently use for my other trees (roughly 60% gravel stuff and 40% potting mix)

@ Bougy Fan, it looks as though the water is penetrating through the top layer and inside, though untill i get the cajones to open up the root ball, i cant be certain at all.

I guess at this stage it cant possibly hurt to dig around and perhaps do an early repot, especially with Spring more or less under way.

also, not sure if it matters, but there were 3 slugs at the bottom of the pot, they cant have affected the tree could they?

[Bougy Fan]

If that was mine I would get an old saw I have in the shed and promptly cut off the bottom half of the rootball. Then I would roughly tease out the remaining rootball and repot into a very free draining mix. Then and MOST importantly for mels I would keep in a deep saucer of water until it recovers. Since I have started following this regime I have never lost a mel through repotting. I always use Seamungus when I repot, but I have no scientific evidence that it helps, just my own experiences.

[Steve B]

on the deep saucer of water post repotting!

Took a lot of slaughter to work it out, but eventually the combination of repotting just prior to bud burst and the saucer of water to follow for a couple of weeks has cut mortality rates right back on the mels and calistimons. I've got quite a bit of time on good behaviour to serve for crimes against the plant kingdom.....

[Naimul]

thanks guys, i really appreciate the advice. Ill get on it as soon as possible. i think ive lost that second trunk, but itll make some nice dead wood.

[Naimul]

so i got around to repotting today. cut off about half the rootball, teased out the remaining and put it into 90% gravel 10% potting mix. decided to put it into a training pot i had lying around, since it was shallow and wide, i didnt want it to compact again in that nursery pot.

i pulled apart the other half of the rootball and didnt find any dry soil whatsoever. Though there was quite a lot of fine feeder roots, pretty much held all the soil together quite tightly. maybe 2-3 thicker roots, even then only at 5mm at most. Judging from that is it safe to say that it was indeed rootbound and that it could not handle how compact the rootball had become?

finger's crossed it pulls through.

[Naimul]

so it seems like this tree has moved on, which is a shame, it has progressively lost all the "greeness" from under the bark to the point where today i peeled off a large section from low on the trunk only to find dry hard wood and no sign of green. I see a trend forming where seem to kill all the trees i like the most...

[Andrew F]

I see a trend forming where seem to kill all the trees i like the most...

Gotta break some eggs to make an omelette. Dont let this discourage your drive. Have you tried mel linarrifolia?

[Rory]

My suggestion is to have another stab. You can buy Mel. quinquinervia from 'the big flower' in Ourimbah on the central coast. They have good thick stock for $10.00

Most large native nurseries also usually stock them. I find it to be one of the hardiest of the Mels.

Don't let it get root bound. Leave it in full sun.
Make sure you don't let the roots dry out.
And basically, learn from your mistakes and have another crack.

If you let the roots become pot bound, then there is a great chance that large portions will miss soaking up the water, and the roots die off in stages due to underwatering. This is such a beautiful stock to use, I strongly recommend having another go.

[Jarad]

My suggestion is to have another stab. You can buy Mel. quinquinervia from 'the big flower' in Ourimbah on the central coast. They have good thick stock for $10.00

Are you sure? Last time you told me this I went there after you cleaned the place out

[Rory]

My suggestion is to have another stab. You can buy Mel. quinquinervia from 'the big flower' in Ourimbah on the central coast. They have good thick stock for $10.00

Are you sure? Last time you told me this I went there after you cleaned the place out

Last time I was there they still had stock that is 2 to 3 cm thick at the base. But more importantly, they were not pot bound. But regardless, a lot of native nurseries will have this and other mels, but usually it is the paper bark mels in particular that takes peoples fancy, and you can usually find them around fairly easily.

There is a fantastic spreadsheet for the common natives, or cheat sheet if you'd like to call it on the state forest nursery from musselbrook that shows you the condition of soils that each species prefers, drought tolerance, flower etc etc.

http://www.hunterlandmanagement.com.au/ ... s-List.pdf