AusBonsai

Hi all it has been a bit wet down here lately but no wetter than usual ,but a few of my Azaleas are suffering from brown tips
do you think it is from wet feet or is there something i am missing.
soil is fairly free draining so i am unsure why they would suddenly show these signs
any advice appreciated

G'day Rawhide . It could be frost burn. If the plants were pushing new growth they might not have been hardened off enough .
Craig

Surprised an Azalea trying to put on new growth at the moment

The rest of the leaves look fine, so I would not worry now and cut them back coming into spring( unless of course you want flowers).

Ken

kcpoole wrote:Surprised an Azalea trying to put on new growth at the moment

Mine also started vigorous growth a few weeks ago and there are no buds visible - can they be re-potted now if I am only going to reduce the root ball for a shallower pot? The climate here is temperate - temperatures not going lower than 7degrees Celsius now.

Lennard

I wouldn't worry about the brown tips, I'd be more concerned about the leaves which have a bad case of Azalea lace bug (grey discolouration) on the back of them. Malathon (Maldison) spray will keep them in check.

Hi Lennard
I repot all mine after flowering in Spring. If you do not want them to flower, you can cut back to remove the buds and repot earlier than usual.
I would not usually do them this early tho, but as you can collect them in winter, there is probably no reason why you cannot repot now.

Ken

To Hackimoto and rawhide: Malathion no longer works well against lace bug, the best insecticide in this case is Confidor. We usually spray preventatively in early Spring and in Summer. Be sure to spray underneath the foliage, like the manufacturer says. Seehttp://www.yates.com.au/products/pest-c ... secticide/
On the whole these azaleas are looking pretty healthy. I have no explanation for the brown tips, but tend towards frost damage also.
By the way, some of my azaleas have put out new growth for several weeks already, and 3 have a few flowers, even though we have had temps of -4 to -6.2 here in Canberra. The plants are out in the open, in protected spots.

Lisa

The brown tips could be the papery sheaths of the flower buds which fall off when they emerge, (Can't quite see the texture of them in the photo.) Second possibility is that it might be fert toxicity burn from fert applied too late in the season or incorrect soil ph.
LLK, Malathon still works for me in my area. The population of them in Canberra have probably developed a resistance to it. I have also used Confidor and any Chlorpyrifos products with good success, but the latter one is too toxic to everything else as well.

Thanks Hackimoto and Lisa,
did spray with Confidor about 2 days after taking these pics was not quit sure what the problem was just thought it was some type of rust .
. Even thou I sprayed i still have a few little clear lacey looking bugs hovering around my radiata pines .would it hurt to spray again ??
Could be fert burn as i did feed all my trees quite heavily this last year

I don't know what the lacey bugs are around your pines, keep in mind that Azalea lace bugs only attack Azaleas and related plants (Rhododendrons and a few other broadleaf shrubs) Hope this link helps you to understand them a bit more.

http://www.agric.wa.gov.au/objtwr/impor ... 004_18.pdf