At 05:03 PM 4/13/03 +1000, James Quinan wrote:
Hi everyone. I bought this miniature wisteria (ko fuji) a while ago as a
seedling. For some reason the soil it was in didn't absorb much water and
eventually most of the leaves fell off. I finally worked out what was
happening and repotted it into a new pot with a soil mix of roughly 50%
organic material to 50% sharp sand & gravel (maybe 60/40). It drains well
and the water seems to be reaching the root ball now, but I'm still having
leaves brown and shrivel at the ends, especially at the bottom of the tree.
Anyone have an idea what I'm doing wrong? Too much water? Not enough water?
Is it normal and I'm freaking out over nothing? I'd love some basics on
wisteria care - as I understand it they love wet feet and full sun, but I
could be wrong.
James
I doubt very much that this is Wisteria sinensis or W. floribunda. It is
much likely that it is not Wisteria at all, but rather that unfortunately
named "Dwarf Wisteria" which is Mellitia japonica. I do have some of these
but not very much experience with it. It seems much more tender than
Wisteria, and I doubt that it likes to be constantly wet. My guess is that
it contracted some sort of root fungal disease from being too wet. It
sounds like you cured the environmental part of the problem. It will
probably recover by itself if you don't keep it too wet. Do not water until
the surface it quite dry, and the soil is only a little damp about an inch
down, the typical bonsai water test. Mellitia does have a nasty habit of
dropping its leaves at the drop of a hat and then taking a while to
recover. Since you are entering autumn, you may not see any good new growth
until next spring. Mine have done that before.
Brent in Northern California
Evergreen Gardenworks USDA Zone 8 Sunset Zone 14
http://www.EvergreenGardenworks.com
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