Snappy-fish wrote in message
...

Spider Wrote:
Snappy-fish wrote in message
...-

Hi, I've not been gardening long and am looking for some advice on a
hawthorn tree of mine. It's about 10 feet tall, 12 years old and gets
plenty of sun. It flowers in the spring, but not very well. By the
middle of August it's lost most of its leaves - which seem to have
brown marks on them. We've had lots of rain this year. I'm wondering
what I can do to make it thrive again - would pruning help? I would
be
grateful for any advice.

Alan


--
Snappy-fish-

Hi Alan,

I would have expected a 12yr old hawthorn tree to be rather taller than
10
feet. Because of this and the fact that it doesn't flower well and
suffers
premature defoliation, I would be inclined to think there was a problem
at
root level. Could this be possible? What is the planting site like,
apart
from sunny? Is there any substantial competion? Did you plant the
tree ..
was rootball congested .. did you tease the roots out? Sometimes a
potbound
tree never really 'takes off' because the rootball is still circling
its
(now non-existant) pot.
Does any of this sound plausible?
Spider


Thank you for your helpful and friedly replies,

I didn't plant it myself. It's in a rockery and as far as I can tell
its OK. Do you think I should dig down and take a look at the roots -
and if so what should I do to them to improve the situation.

Alan


--
Snappy-fish

Hi Alan,

This isn't going to be at all easy to resolve. After 12 years, the roots
will be very woody and fixed for good, so you won't make much of an
impression on them. At best, you might hope to induce new roots to spread
outwards. This would ususally be done by deeply improving the soil at the
edge of the canopy, adding bonemeal and watering thoroughly, so that the
roots would have to search for these nutrients. However, this is not the
kind of treatment relished by a rockery.

Is the rockery at ground level or built up around the tree trunk? Trees
certainly do not appreciate soil mounded up around their bark, and this
could cause problems. I honestly don't know if the symptoms would be the
same as your tree presents.

If the rockery must stay where it is, there's not a lot you can do. If this
were my problem, I would see 2 courses of action:
1. Move the rockery to another site, then attempt to improve life for your
tree; or

2. Lay a perforated hose around the periphery of the rockery, mulched with
bark or gravel.
This would have the effect of watering the tree's root zone, but not
deluging the rockery. Of course, only you know the scale involved.

Just in case another factor is involved, have you used weed-killer near the
site recently?

Spider