Encore azalea help

[jdutton24]

I repotted earlier this year about 3 months ago in mainly kanuma mixed with lava and pumice. I've had to use city water as there has been very little rain here recently. Leaves are droopy and just doesn't seem well. Its outside. Morning sun afternoon shade. Central Alabama.

 

[Glaucus]

It is wilting. If this isn't resolved by watering, you removed too many roots. If that is the case, maybe removing leaves will help?
But if it looks this way while the roots and soil are wet, then that's not good. This is classic acute drought.

 

[jdutton24]

It's looked that way for at least a month. Soil is wet. Should I repot in a different mix or prune leaves back to hopefully save it

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Your potting mix looks okay in the photos. Don't disturb the roots. It is trying to grow new roots.

I would cut each branch back to no more than 4 leaves per branch, this should lower water demand.

You nave a number of places where you have 3 or more branches coming out at the same spot. Reduce all these branching positions to 2 branches, or the main trunk or sub-trunk and a side branch. You do not want 3 or more at a single point.

Getting rid of the surplus (triple) branches will also reduce water demand on the roots.

Once you have lightened the water demand, wait 2 weeks to assess the response.

You did not mention your municipal water quality. If your water is more than 150ppm as calcium carbonate you should really think about switching to using distilled or deionized water. Every time you use municipal water to water your tree, add some acid based fertilizer, like Mira-Acid or some other water soluble plant fertilizer for Rhododendrons. Or add a small amount of acetic acid, to the water. Household vinegar is 4% acetic acid, so a larger amount of vinegar might be used to acidify water. A teaspoon of acetic acid 30% active (5 ml) or 3 tablespoons of 4% active vinegar (45 ml) should lower the pH of the water to make a difference.

If you are a home owner, collecting rain water is fairly simple. I scattered a few 3 gallon buckets around the back yard, and was able to fill a 55 gallon barrel with rain water in less than 4 months of spring midwest rain storms. This "rain barrel" then is used for my few azaleas for the entire year. Collecting rain water is easy, and rain water from a roof can be huge volume.

 

[Glaucus]

Well, if it is like this for a month then it isn't actually acute, but it does look that way. Normally, the leaves would perk back up after watering. But then it is also not wilting. So maybe removing leaves will allow it to evaporate less water while taking up the same amount, bringing it more into balance.

 

[jdutton24]

Well, if it is like this for a month then it isn't actually acute, but it does look that way. Normally, the leaves would perk back up after watering. But then it is also not wilting. So maybe removing leaves will allow it to evaporate less water while taking up the same amount, bringing it more into balance.

I'll trim it back and see what that does. I've added some more fertilizer (super thrive granules) but it didn't help much but did make it greener

 

[jdutton24]

Your potting mix looks okay in the photos. Don't disturb the roots. It is trying to grow new roots.

I would cut each branch back to no more than 4 leaves per branch, this should lower water demand.

You nave a number of places where you have 3 or more branches coming out at the same spot. Reduce all these branching positions to 2 branches, or the main trunk or sub-trunk and a side branch. You do not want 3 or more at a single point.

Getting rid of the surplus (triple) branches will also reduce water demand on the roots.

Once you have lightened the water demand, wait 2 weeks to assess the response.

You did not mention your municipal water quality. If your water is more than 150ppm as calcium carbonate you should really think about switching to using distilled or deionized water. Every time you use municipal water to water your tree, add some acid based fertilizer, like Mira-Acid or some other water soluble plant fertilizer for Rhododendrons. Or add a small amount of acetic acid, to the water. Household vinegar is 4% acetic acid, so a larger amount of vinegar might be used to acidify water. A teaspoon of acetic acid 30% active (5 ml) or 3 tablespoons of 4% active vinegar (45 ml) should lower the pH of the water to make a difference.

If you are a home owner, collecting rain water is fairly simple. I scattered a few 3 gallon buckets around the back yard, and was able to fill a 55 gallon barrel with rain water in less than 4 months of spring midwest rain storms. This "rain barrel" then is used for my few azaleas for the entire year. Collecting rain water is easy, and rain water from a roof can be huge volume.

Yea I need to collect but if it doesn't rain not much I can do lol

 

[Glaucus]

My tapwater here is about 150 ppm carbonate. I do not collect rainwater. This works great for azaleas in peat/perlite. Sadly, this year I have to water almost every day in summer, as there is very little rain.
But for plants in kanuma, this did not work well. They either needed more fertilizer, or they cannot take that much carbonate. Substrate has less buffering capacity.

Tapwater will eventually create an ion imbalance in the soil or substrate. Because you add a lot of some ions and very little of some others.
For any bonsai in substrate, the golden standard is very soft or demineralized or rainwater, combined with very dilute chemical fertilizer.

But if you have an azalea in 100% kanuma and you add very hard tapwater, this is not the symptom you get. The symptom you get is chlorosis or a very pale colour.

 

[jdutton24]

My tapwater here is about 150 ppm carbonate. I do not collect rainwater. This works great for azaleas in peat/perlite. Sadly, this year I have to water almost every day in summer, as there is very little rain.
But for plants in kanuma, this did not work well. They either needed more fertilizer, or they cannot take that much carbonate. Substrate has less buffering capacity.

Tapwater will eventually create an ion imbalance in the soil or substrate. Because you add a lot of some ions and very little of some others.
For any bonsai in substrate, the golden standard is very soft or demineralized or rainwater, combined with very dilute chemical fertilizer.

But if you have an azalea in 100% kanuma and you add very hard tapwater, this is not the symptom you get. The symptom you get is chlorosis or a very pale colour.

Mine is about the same. I thought about getting some soil acidifier from espoma to help with watering with tap. I added some fox farm potting soil in there as well just not very much

 

[Glaucus]

Trying to acidify the soil in pots is generally not recommended. If the soil is bad, do a repot if other factors allow that.

For lowering the pH of the water, use pH down, citric acid, or if you know how to work with chemicals, a strong acid like sulphuric acid or nitric acid.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Looks like a couple issues to be aware of.

The repot was really late for your location, temperatures in Central AL already maxing out at 90F/32C so there wasn’t any time for the roots to recover before the transpiration load went sky high.

Coupled with hard water likely caused a chain of events leading to where the plant is now..

Folks have helped you with the water and top hamper already.

A couple more thoughts. (Have done this before, quite a few times… mostly on purpose.)

The water issue has to be resolved to make the below procedure work….

Seal every cut. If the cuts aren’t fresh, cut a bit off to fresh green. Then seal.

Remove all leaves. If it’s going to survive all the leaf surface has got to go so there is little danger of fungal leaf issues and drain on the roots. From what the images show leaves aren’t doing the plant any good anymore.

Move tree to an area out of direct sun. Or until late afternoon. Here it would be about 4pm ish. Selected spot should have about 50/50% open or indirect shade/full shade and off the ground. Deep under a deciduous tree or pop up canopy would work really well.

Mist frequently, let dry, repeat all day as possible. Also mist the ground below the plant. Water sparingly by misting the surface a bit as needed. Dramm makes great misters… on Amazon… or there are plenty of pump misters there too.

Ensure misting is stopped for the day to allow the leaves to dry before sundown.

If the plant has enough energy to do so, small multiple white buds should begin to appear on the bark in about 3 weeks (in our area).

Continue misting regime even when small green leaves begin to appear, as these get larger, cut down the misting times. but keep the kanuma moist.

Moss helps immensely for recovery, so if you have it around, moss the entire surface.

Once the leaves begin to achieve 1/2 normal size, move into more open shade. A week later a bit more sun.

Continue tapering misting. Do not stop until until all the buds are all at least 1/2 size leaves. One can shift to normal watering about that time.

Continue to add more sun each week. Morning is the best, until the plant gets morning sun until 11ish and open or partial shade all afternoon

If things aren’t too crazy in the morning I’ll try to shoot some images of recovering azaleas once defoliated and pruned back.

Cheers
DSD sends

 

[jdutton24]

Trying to acidify the soil in pots is generally not recommended. If the soil is bad, do a repot if other factors allow that.

For lowering the pH of the water, use pH down, citric acid, or if you know how to work with chemicals, a strong acid like sulphuric acid or nitric acid.

Should I add citric acid or vinegar to the tap water and be good? Is the water being to akaline part of the issue?

 

[jdutton24]

Looks like a couple issues to be aware of.

The repot was really late for your location, temperatures in Central AL already maxing out at 90F/32C so there wasn’t any time for the roots to recover before the transpiration load went sky high.

Coupled with hard water likely caused a chain of events leading to where the plant is now..

Folks have helped you with the water and top hamper already.

A couple more thoughts. (Have done this before, quite a few times… mostly on purpose.)

The water issue has to be resolved to make the below procedure work….

Seal every cut. If the cuts aren’t fresh, cut a bit off to fresh green. Then seal.

Remove all leaves. If it’s going to survive all the leaf surface has got to go so there is little danger of fungal leaf issues and drain on the roots. From what the images show leaves aren’t doing the plant any good anymore.

Move tree to an area out of direct sun. Or until late afternoon. Here it would be about 4pm ish. Selected spot should have about 50/50% open or indirect shade/full shade and off the ground. Deep under a deciduous tree or pop up canopy would work really well.

Mist frequently, let dry, repeat all day as possible. Also mist the ground below the plant. Water sparingly by misting the surface a bit as needed. Dramm makes great misters… on Amazon… or there are plenty of pump misters there too.

Ensure misting is stopped for the day to allow the leaves to dry before sundown.

If the plant has enough energy to do so, small multiple white buds should begin to appear on the bark in about 3 weeks (in our area).

Continue misting regime even when small green leaves begin to appear, as these get larger, cut down the misting times. but keep the kanuma moist.

Moss helps immensely for recovery, so if you have it around, moss the entire surface.

Once the leaves begin to achieve 1/2 normal size, move into more open shade. A week later a bit more sun.

Continue tapering misting. Do not stop until until all the buds are all at least 1/2 size leaves. One can shift to normal watering about that time.

Continue to add more sun each week. Morning is the best, until the plant gets morning sun until 11ish and open or partial shade all afternoon

If things aren’t too crazy in the morning I’ll try to shoot some images of recovering azaleas once defoliated and pruned back.

Cheers
DSD sends

Thank you! Good information however I did repot about 3 months ago

 

[jdutton24]

Your potting mix looks okay in the photos. Don't disturb the roots. It is trying to grow new roots.

I would cut each branch back to no more than 4 leaves per branch, this should lower water demand.

You nave a number of places where you have 3 or more branches coming out at the same spot. Reduce all these branching positions to 2 branches, or the main trunk or sub-trunk and a side branch. You do not want 3 or more at a single point.

Getting rid of the surplus (triple) branches will also reduce water demand on the roots.

Once you have lightened the water demand, wait 2 weeks to assess the response.

You did not mention your municipal water quality. If your water is more than 150ppm as calcium carbonate you should really think about switching to using distilled or deionized water. Every time you use municipal water to water your tree, add some acid based fertilizer, like Mira-Acid or some other water soluble plant fertilizer for Rhododendrons. Or add a small amount of acetic acid, to the water. Household vinegar is 4% acetic acid, so a larger amount of vinegar might be used to acidify water. A teaspoon of acetic acid 30% active (5 ml) or 3 tablespoons of 4% active vinegar (45 ml) should lower the pH of the water to make a difference.

If you are a home owner, collecting rain water is fairly simple. I scattered a few 3 gallon buckets around the back yard, and was able to fill a 55 gallon barrel with rain water in less than 4 months of spring midwest rain storms. This "rain barrel" then is used for my few azaleas for the entire year. Collecting rain water is easy, and rain water from a roof can be huge volume.

Is that vinegar or acid per gallon.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Thank you! Good information however I did repot about 3 months ago

???

That’s the point, it was way late. For our location in the PacNW the latest we repot azaleas is mid April. In Alabama likely earlier.

The goal with azaleas is to repot 6-8 weeks before temperatures above 85F so the roots have time to recover completely before max transpiration load occurs.

btw Wondering if you completely root washed the all the old media out of the root ball? Or food you match the previous media with the old media?

Wondering
DSD sends