Western Australian Casuarina+Allocasuarina

[Patmet]

I think everyone will be able to relate to my excitement and recent fascination with everything Casuarina/Allocasuarina.
I just think they are such unique and awesome trees and/or shrubs!

I see a lot of Eastern States species on here and people doing great experimenting and work with them. Apart from some old threads from Pup working with Allocasuarina Fraseriana, there doesn’t seem to be anything on WA Sheoaks kicking around. I would like to change that and start documenting my experience starting with tubestock of several different endemic WA species.

These tubestock haven’t been in my possession for very long but since potting up to a slightly larger pot are powering along nicely. I have just recently wired some basic initial movement in the trunks while they are still very flexible. I also have Allocasuarina Fraseriana which is my main local sheoak but I forgot to get a photo of that one

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Allocasuarina Humilis - (Dwarf Sheoak)

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Allocasuarina Huegeliana - (Rock Sheoak)

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Casuarina Obesa - (Swamp Sheoak)

[Redsonic]

Good post, thanks. Great to see some unfamiliar species. Keep us posted on their development please.

[Patmet]

[UPDATE]

Whilst just observing and letting these grow out I've noticed the Dwarf, and Rock Sheoak especially becoming increasingly yellow as the weather has been warming up.

It's mainly on the older stems but like i said seems to be increasing.

Not sure if it's a normal thing due to the summer heat, iron deficiency, over watering, or the colour changing as the stems become woody? Wondering if anyone has had this experience with any Sheoak species? Cheers!

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[Rory]

I’m not too familiar with WA casuarinas.
Yellowing and sickly yellow faded needles is often a sign of over watering. However, on some species like distyla, it can very often grow this way on the odd occasion.

However your stock don’t appear in good health.
If they are more Heath type shrubby Casurina, I have found with these types of varieties that slow drainage eventually kills them, as the mix isn’t drying out fast enough.
However with the more forest type casurinas, they can tolerate a wetter mix.

Also, if the roots are becoming heavily pot bound, you can end up with yellowing needles as the tree isn’t getting adequate nutrients and will begin to struggle.

[Patmet]

I’m not too familiar with WA casuarinas.
Yellowing and sickly yellow faded needles is often a sign of over watering. However, on some species like distyla, it can very often grow this way on the odd occasion.

However your stock don’t appear in good health.
If they are more Heath type shrubby Casurina, I have found with these types of varieties that slow drainage eventually kills them, as the mix isn’t drying out fast enough.
However with the more forest type casurinas, they can tolerate a wetter mix.

Also, if the roots are becoming heavily pot bound, you can end up with yellowing needles as the tree isn’t getting adequate nutrients and will begin to struggle.

I had a squeeze of the pots today and they were very firm, so I pulled them out and the roots have filled the pot fairly solid now. I didn’t expect they would be pot bound so fast, but not surprising as they have been growing vigorously since I potted them up months ago from their tubes. Definitely slowed down a lot since becoming sickly and yellow.

My gut is telling me they have been staying too wet, and hearing your experience confirms that even more. As it’s been fairly hot here lately I have been getting a bit overzealous with my watering and I’m now just realising it.

I’ll hold off on water until they dry up a bit and pot them up into the next size tomorrow. I’ll report back with how they go. Hopefully start getting some green back

[dansai]

Unlikely they would be staying too wet if the roots have filled the pot. One indication of overwatering would be few roots in a pot that leaves behind a very wet mix when you pull it out. I would almost think the opposite is more likely, that they have been slightly underwater and therefore the roots have grown rapidly in search of water. They also look very undernourished. Have you been fertilising at all? If so what with and how often.

[Rory]

Yeah it’s always hard to say without being there and looking and feeling your mix.

Definitely repot them now. Open up the roots, and get a fresh mix in there. Don’t cut off any foliage.
Just remove as much of the old mix as you can and get a fresh mix in there.

Water them when they start to get dry, and not on a routine schedule.

Casurina are incredibly gifted at finding nutrients in the toughest of mixes, and the fact that you only recently repotted these is odd that they’d be nutrient deficient so quickly.

Either way, definitely open up the roots and repot all the sickly looking ones and anchor them in, as there may be an issue with the roots too, and you now want them well secured into a new mix to recover their health. Don’t leave them loose in the new pots in other words.

I wouldn’t apply liquid fertilizer now. If you have slow release fertilizer pellets, mix them through the new medium that you pot them up with.

And obviously as dansai says, don’t ever allow casurinas to dry out. Usually a dried out Casurina will exhibit needles that die within a few days, but not normally would this result in the needles gradually turning yellow. Drying out is a quick death, and the needles will go crunchy quickly if they’ve dried out badly.

[Patmet]

Unlikely they would be staying too wet if the roots have filled the pot. One indication of overwatering would be few roots in a pot that leaves behind a very wet mix when you pull it out. I would almost think the opposite is more likely, that they have been slightly underwater and therefore the roots have grown rapidly in search of water. They also look very undernourished. Have you been fertilising at all? If so what with and how often.

Ok so I just looked back through my photos and looks like I potted up into these pots mid June/start of July. That was from little tube stock pots. At potting i gave them Osmocote plus organics slow release.

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Around the end of spring i started using Charlie Carp for the first time. (I had never liquid fed up untill this only ever slow release). I used it as per instruction strength 3 times on all my trees native and exotic at fortnightly intervals but then stopped. The reason i stopped is i had a Banksia Attenuata go crispy and die on me that was otherwise fine right before this. My brother reckons it was Phosphorus toxicity but I didn't think Charlie Carp was high enough in phosphorus? All my other natives seemed to like it but I then started to worry I might do more harm than good to some of them.

I'll post up a picture of the root ball in a couple of hours when i can get to my trees.

[Stu]

Banksias are extremely sensitive to P in fertilizers. Charlie Carp I expect is a general fertilizer. You can feed this to Banksias but you should wean them onto it. Start very weak and build up over time. Other natives aren't fussy, only related genii like (I think) Hakea and Grevillea. Or stick to native specific fertilizers.

[Patmet]

Banksias are extremely sensitive to P in fertilizers. Charlie Carp I expect is a general fertilizer. You can feed this to Banksias but you should wean them onto it. Start very weak and build up over time. Other natives aren't fussy, only related genii like (I think) Hakea and Grevillea. Or stick to native specific fertilizers.

That's a good point about weaning them on. Maybe it was just too much of a shock. Especially seeing as this banksia in particular was weak and neglected from the back of a nursery and wasn't established in it's new pot yet.

[Patmet]

This is what the roots are looking like.

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and also this is my Allocasuarina Fraseriana that was pretty sad in it's heavy nursery mix but has perked up since being repotted into my mix.

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[Sno]

It doesn’t look rootbound . I would be leaning towards hunger and or not enough water .

[Patmet]

It doesn’t look rootbound . I would be leaning towards hunger and or not enough water .

Yeah you're right. I gave them a pot up to the next size today and the roots were holding the medium together nicely but not near circling the pot yet. They weren't the best looking roots though. The mix also is pretty coarse and well draining and upon close inspection didn't seem too wet just slightly damp. Maybe it is a mixture of hunger and not enough water.

I just teased the loose mix off the bottom and a bit off top and put them from the 1.5L pots to 3L. Gave a fresh dose of slow release and watered in well.

[Rory]

I’m putting my 2c on over watering.

They are not pot bound and confirms my suspicion that they couldn’t have been pot bound in such a short time frame.

Casurina take a long time to become nutrient deficient. A long time.

Notice the visible white fungus build up towards the top. I often see that in material that has been over watered too much in my collection. It’s usually a tell tale sign.

[Patmet]

I’m putting my 2c on over watering.

They are not pot bound and confirms my suspicion that they couldn’t have been pot bound in such a short time frame.

Casurina take a long time to become nutrient deficient. A long time.

Notice the visible white fungus build up towards the top. I often see that in material that has been over watered too much in my collection. It’s usually a tell tale sign.

Hmm ok I'm definitely going to be really mindful with my watering now. Getting them into a fresh mix today should help. It's so easy to get complacent with watering and forget how important it is.