AusBonsai

Not sure why but after a week of storms, wind and rain followed by a couple of hot days I found my acacia seems to have lost older leaves and some leaves have turned brown.

It’s planted in 60% pumice 40% pine bark - so yes the medium does tend to dry out quickly. I reported in early spring and up until a few days ago it was quite healthy.

Also found a strange bug on it this morning.

I wonder if it just dried out partially in the days following the rains. Does that seem like a reasonable assessment or is something else at play here?

Thanks for the advice!





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Remember that leaves only have a finite life. Even evergreen trees have leaves that get old and need to be replaced, usually after 2-3 years so each year older leaves will drop as new ones grow. That's probably the reason for the older leaves to turn brown and dropping off.
Younger leaves turning brown is not so natural. Mine do that if they get a bit dry. We tend to think of many Aussie plants as quite tolerant of dry conditions but so far all the acacias I grow all suffer if the pot gets a little dry.
The good news is that mine have always made a good recovery when moisture levels return to normal and I expect yours will too.
You can trim off the damaged parts. The tree should then bud out from the remaining leaves an/or nodes on the branches.

The beetle looks like a Botany Bay Weevil to me. Can be very bad news for some species of acacia's. The beetle itself wont do too much, might chomp on some foliage, its the larvae that are the problem. The larvae feed as borers in the wood and roots. Im not sure if howitti is on the list of acacia's that this thing eats though.

Yes I suspect that's the bigger cause for the rapid decline. It didn't lose many leaves when we were just emerging from winter despite a very windy August. How do I get rid of the weevil?

I love sticky wattles. Haven’t came across them in Wa.

Holly shari that weevil loooks amazing. I found one similar to that think it was an elephant weevil less colourful. Your plat looks sweet. Just keep an eye on it.

You could just pick him off and flick him into the neighbors. I would personally keep him as a pet.

Submerge that pot in water for a couple or 3 days . Might kill anything that could be in the pot.