Replanted a tree...it’s not doing well

[rezello]

A bit of advice needed please....

I’ve had to pot Trev the magnolia sapling (2years old). 

Admittedly I didn’t know what I was doing, I grew this chap from a seed...planted him in a boarder and he grew and grew untill my other half made me pot him amid fears that he would grow too big for the garden we have, so I went and bought a huge pot (more than sufficient for his size which he grew to about 6ft). I pulled him up quite easily although I did split one of his main roots but only by about 2cm but I thought he was a big boy so could handle it ok. I popped him in his well drained pot ( a good few inches of gravel topped with a whole bag of compost) however within 2 hours his leaves all drooped bar the very bottom branch which his leaves are still there and in fairly decent shape 4 days later however the others have all dried up on the same day I replanted him....

please will someone tell me if he will come back or is he a lost cause...I don’t want to give up on him but at the same time I don’t want a dead tree waiting around if he is not going to recuperate...😟 any advice is most welcome 🙏 

I didn’t think to replant him with any of his own soil from the boarder, only that that was stuck to the root which wasn’t a lot 😞 

I feel like a terrible tree mother at this point and I can’t seem to find much off the internet 😢

[charliehorse]

Trev should survive okay in the long term I think rezello

Its probably better to repot in the future either later in the year (October ish) or early spring before the growing season.

Also, a quick search suggests magnolias don't like an alkaline soil Always use soil or compost designed for ericaceous plants, or with a PH balance of 4.5-5.5. so check what your compost composition is.
Googling the brand name should give you that information.

[rezello]

Jul 16, 2020 11:47:54 GMT charliehorse said:

Trev should survive okay in the long term I think rezello

Its probably better to repot in the future either later in the year (October ish) or early spring before the growing season.

Also, a quick search suggests magnolias like an alkaline soil Always use soil or compost designed for ericaceous plants, or with a PH balance of 4.5-5.5. so check what your compost composition is.
Googling the brand name should give you that information.

Thankyou...I thought it was an easy straight forward ‘what could go wrong?’ Kind of job....unfortunately it’s not untill now that I am finding out how many things I did wrong with it 🤦‍♀️. I will look at the composition of the compost, I think it was miracle grow from the supermarket ...

[charliehorse]

Jul 16, 2020 13:10:56 GMT rezello said:

Jul 16, 2020 11:47:54 GMT charliehorse said:

Trev should survive okay in the long term I think rezello

Its probably better to repot in the future either later in the year (October ish) or early spring before the growing season.

Also, a quick search suggests magnolias like an alkaline soil Always use soil or compost designed for ericaceous plants, or with a PH balance of 4.5-5.5. so check what your compost composition is.
Googling the brand name should give you that information.

Thankyou...I thought it was an easy straight forward ‘what could go wrong?’ Kind of job....unfortunately it’s not untill now that I am finding out how many things I did wrong with it 🤦‍♀️. I will look at the composition of the compost, I think it was miracle grow from the supermarket ...

OOps - that should of course read magnolias DON'T like an alkaline soil - hence the below 7 ph value.
Have edited the original post and given myself a talking to regarding carefully reading what i've typed before posting 

The miracle grow stuff is usually 6.0 to 6.8. Not ideal but definately not going to hurt Trev in any way.

[Postmodern Smoking]

Jul 15, 2020 23:31:27 GMT rezello said:

...I’ve had to pot Trev the magnolia sapling (2years old). 

Admittedly I didn’t know what I was doing, .... I pulled him up quite easily although I did split one of his main roots ...

I didn’t think to replant him with any of his own soil from the boarder...

Poor Trev (the wilted tree!)

[spikeyfridge]

He's . You've ripped him up and put him in a strange environment (to him). His leaves have lost their energy because he is now needing his strength in his roots to adapt. He will come back next year.
What you could do is scratch the bark (gently!)in about 2 or 3 weeks to see if it's still green.
I repotted a small fig tree but managed to rip off half its roots. It looked dead for ages but then sprouted leaves and now seems quite happy at about a foot high.
Don't be tempted to bin him.

[rezello]

Jul 17, 2020 7:14:23 GMT spikeyfridge said:

He's . You've ripped him up and put him in a strange environment (to him). His leaves have lost their energy because he is now needing his strength in his roots to adapt. He will come back next year.
What you could do is scratch the bark (gently!)in about 2 or 3 weeks to see if it's still green.
I repotted a small fig tree but managed to rip off half its roots. It looked dead for ages but then sprouted leaves and now seems quite happy at about a foot high.
Don't be tempted to bin him.

Would it help if I deleafed him like you would deadhead other plants ? 

[rezello]

Jul 16, 2020 17:28:13 GMT charliehorse said:

Jul 16, 2020 13:10:56 GMT rezello said:

Thankyou...I thought it was an easy straight forward ‘what could go wrong?’ Kind of job....unfortunately it’s not untill now that I am finding out how many things I did wrong with it 🤦‍♀️. I will look at the composition of the compost, I think it was miracle grow from the supermarket ...

OOps - that should of course read magnolias DON'T like an alkaline soil - hence the below 7 ph value.
Have edited the original post and given myself a talking to regarding carefully reading what i've typed before posting 

The miracle grow stuff is usually 6.0 to 6.8. Not ideal but definately not going to hurt Trev in any way.

Ha ha that’s fine I did get that! It was actually Bord Na Móna Growise Multipurpose Compost. No idea of ph value as it’s not written on the bag and I can’t find out on the internet either 🤷‍♀️

[spikeyfridge]

Jul 17, 2020 10:18:49 GMT rezello said:

Jul 17, 2020 7:14:23 GMT spikeyfridge said:

He's . You've ripped him up and put him in a strange environment (to him). His leaves have lost their energy because he is now needing his strength in his roots to adapt. He will come back next year.
What you could do is scratch the bark (gently!)in about 2 or 3 weeks to see if it's still green.
I repotted a small fig tree but managed to rip off half its roots. It looked dead for ages but then sprouted leaves and now seems quite happy at about a foot high.
Don't be tempted to bin him.

Would it help if I deleafed him like you would deadhead other plants ? 

No, you've tortured him enough. The leaves will fall off in due course.  Leave him be.  water but not too much. You could sit next to him and profusely apologise.
All I'd advise to do is let him recover in his own sweet time. This may be next spring. He'll look a bit worse for wear until then but things are working in nature's miraculous way where you can't see it happening.

[Pepperty]

I feel your pain! I'm also googling gardening and i never thought I would EVER utter 'Monty Don says....'

This is my first year with a garden (after 3 decades of having a yard) I can't say it was very imaginative when we moved here, a lawn with border around? the only plants were set 3 foot apart and the type that grow from nothing/flower/then die off leaving bare earth - very grim!

I think I've rammed 30 plus new plants in? all from the sale section in various stores and garden centres locally. Lock-down has proved oddly convenient for me as they have a surplus of plants and selling for pennies so I snapped up loads. I'm absolutely clueless and have tried to focus on evergreens and 'stuff' that hangs about through winter, even if they are plain and boring its better than bare beds! Quite a few plants weren't even labelled so its pot luck what i'm growing!

Later on i'm planning a small pond (as frogs eat slugs) because the slugs here are vicious and I've taken to wandering about in the dark wearing a head torch and flinging them into the next field. I bought some wooden troughs for the gravel area because it looks a bit like a graveyard so I've slammed bench/swing-seat/chimney pots with flowers and lots of tubs with colour to cheer it up. Now the butterfly's are laying eggs in bulk on my first attempt at homegrown veg I've been picking caterpillars off too.....

I cant put out slug pellets as I've a dog ( who enjoys lurching through the beds crushing plants underfoot.....) its a good job nothing planted cost more than a fiver as they need to be hardy to survive my ineptitude and his bulk cracking through the undergrowth (dog, not me!) I've bought beer traps but it seems a waste of good ale...... But it is rather wonderful having outside space

[Perpetua]

I think perhaps we ought to have a ' Show us your Garden ' thread!

The before and after if you've transformed your outside space - whatever that may be . . . . or a garden that's your pride and joy, even if it needs some work.

[rezello]

Jul 17, 2020 16:39:43 GMT Pepperty said:

I feel your pain! I'm also googling gardening and i never thought I would EVER utter 'Monty Don says....'

This is my first year with a garden (after 3 decades of having a yard) I can't say it was very imaginative when we moved here, a lawn with border around? the only plants were set 3 foot apart and the type that grow from nothing/flower/then die off leaving bare earth - very grim!

I think I've rammed 30 plus new plants in? all from the sale section in various stores and garden centres locally. Lock-down has proved oddly convenient for me as they have a surplus of plants and selling for pennies so I snapped up loads. I'm absolutely clueless and have tried to focus on evergreens and 'stuff' that hangs about through winter, even if they are plain and boring its better than bare beds! Quite a few plants weren't even labelled so its pot luck what i'm growing!

Later on i'm planning a small pond (as frogs eat slugs) because the slugs here are vicious and I've taken to wandering about in the dark wearing a head torch and flinging them into the next field. I bought some wooden troughs for the gravel area because it looks a bit like a graveyard so I've slammed bench/swing-seat/chimney pots with flowers and lots of tubs with colour to cheer it up. Now the butterfly's are laying eggs in bulk on my first attempt at homegrown veg I've been picking caterpillars off too.....

I cant put out slug pellets as I've a dog ( who enjoys lurching through the beds crushing plants underfoot.....) its a good job nothing planted cost more than a fiver as they need to be hardy to survive my ineptitude and his bulk cracking through the undergrowth (dog, not me!) I've bought beer traps but it seems a waste of good ale...... But it is rather wonderful having outside space

Omg this gave me a good laugh this morning!

You’ve been bloody busy! We had to replace this gardens grass with fake. Hate fake grass at the best of times but no option as I have tried year after year and failed miserably at getting that perfect grass as the drainage is so terrible here. Probably something to do with it being a new build and onto car park land so it was never going to be beautiful fertile soil underfoot so now I am not wasting time on the grass I can concentrate on the borders. Admittedly I went for the most expensive money can buy and pleased I did because it really doesn’t look fake thankfully.

 I have one border that’s full of well established fucias (or however it’s spelt) and hydrangeas both of which as extremely hardy and come back year after year bigger and bigger and are beautiful to look at. i have another that I’ve gravelled as it’s the kids swing and climbing frame side. It’s got a couple of pathetic plants dotted in but nothing I’m going to cry about if they get pulled up by the kids! I’m just after a few “structural” hardies for the other side now as I have most of my plants in it such as hot lips, acers and hydrangeas and a few others I’m not sure what they are called though. 

Best of luck with yours it actually sounds like you know what your doing more than me ha ha it’s trial and error, gotta break a few eggs to make an omelette! 

[rezello]

Jul 18, 2020 7:08:17 GMT Perpetua said:

I think perhaps we ought to have a ' Show us your Garden ' thread!

The before and after if you've transformed your outside space - whatever that may be . . . . or a garden that's your pride and joy, even if it needs some work.

Mines a bit embarrassing at the minute but yeah I’m up for a bit of garden stalking 

[rezello]

Trev

[Pepperty]

I managed to almost murder a hydrangea, i fried it in full glare of sun, so in desperation i took a spade to it.... what i mean is i dug the bugger out and threw it under another random bush, and its revived! in fact its happily growing it must like a bit of shade then?

Then i saw the fern was a blackening mess so i got a massive HUGE spade and prized it out (it took me laying on lawn grinding my teeth to heave it out whilst viciously chopping its roots apart) and you know what? its liking living behind bushes and is glowing over being shaded?   frankly I'm amazed!

The only job 'him indoors' tackles (very sporadically) is lawn mowing, and of course the dog has peed all over it, burnt the grass and its pathetically patchy but TBH neither of us mind because fore mentioned dog is ancient and really thrilled-happy to have his own grass that its rather sweet to see his joy (whilst intermittently trampling down my flower beds) I can hardly shout at him

I'm starting to feel like a rescue center for deformed plants as everything I've bought is twisted, stunted and very very cheap so i will give them a shot and by pure luck they seem to be grateful for the chance to grow except the dahlias that are slug fodder  OH! and all my grow your own veg is now latticework 



p.s saying prayers for 'Trev'