Hi,

I've just lost a 2 foot tall Magnolia and a couple of 15cm Camellias
which have just wilted in the sun. The soil in the area is fairly
moist and I water almost daily.

Is there anything I can do to stop this trend?

I live in Sydney 10 minutes drive from Botany Bay.

Han.

--
G'day Han,
With the hot & dry weather we have been having I would
tend to suspect dehydration. Watering every day is not the way to go. Small
waterings daily only wet a very shallow soil profile and can actually force
the roots to stay around the soil surface, where they remain vulnerable. It
is better to water heavily and less often. Flood the ground several times
with a water breaker type nozzle or set a sprinkler going. So instead of
walking around the garden with a hose in your hand, set the sprinkler to
reach a modest area, and you can still poke around in the yard checking
things out and keep moving the spray around every 10 - 20 minutes. Hopefully
this rain will solve your problem, {:-) . Another thing may be that an over
generous feeding is the culprit. Have you fed them lately? How long have
they been in the ground? Are they planted in Botany sands ? Does your dog
spend far to much time bonding with them? Had the plants been 'hardened of'
before planting?


China
Wingham
NSW

"China" wrote in message ...

With the hot & dry weather we have been having I would
tend to suspect dehydration. Watering every day is not the way to go. Small
waterings daily only wet a very shallow soil profile and can actually force
the roots to stay around the soil surface, where they remain vulnerable. It
is better to water heavily and less often. Flood the ground several times
with a water breaker type nozzle or set a sprinkler going. So instead of
walking around the garden with a hose in your hand, set the sprinkler to
reach a modest area, and you can still poke around in the yard checking
things out and keep moving the spray around every 10 - 20 minutes. Hopefully
this rain will solve your problem, {:-) . Another thing may be that an over
generous feeding is the culprit. Have you fed them lately? How long have
they been in the ground? Are they planted in Botany sands ? Does your dog
spend far to much time bonding with them? Had the plants been 'hardened of'
before planting?

Thanks for the suggestion of flooding the ground. I'll try this with
a watering can.

I have fed them some fertiliser just recently, though it wasn't that
much. The Camelias and Magnolias have been in the ground about 6
months now. The soil isn't the sandy type and the dog generally
leaves it alone. I didn't harden off the plants before planting them
- how do you normally do this?

Could it also be too much sunlight?

Thanks for the response,

Han.

"China" wrote in message ...

With the hot & dry weather we have been having I would
tend to suspect dehydration. Watering every day is not the way to go. Small
waterings daily only wet a very shallow soil profile and can actually force
the roots to stay around the soil surface, where they remain vulnerable. It
is better to water heavily and less often. Flood the ground several times
with a water breaker type nozzle or set a sprinkler going. So instead of
walking around the garden with a hose in your hand, set the sprinkler to
reach a modest area, and you can still poke around in the yard checking
things out and keep moving the spray around every 10 - 20 minutes. Hopefully
this rain will solve your problem, {:-) . Another thing may be that an over
generous feeding is the culprit. Have you fed them lately? How long have
they been in the ground? Are they planted in Botany sands ? Does your dog
spend far to much time bonding with them? Had the plants been 'hardened of'
before planting?

Thanks for the suggestion of flooding the ground. I'll try this with
a watering can.

I have fed them some fertiliser just recently, though it wasn't that
much. The Camelias and Magnolias have been in the ground about 6
months now. The soil isn't the sandy type and the dog generally
leaves it alone. I didn't harden off the plants before planting them
- how do you normally do this?

Could it also be too much sunlight?

Thanks for the response,

Han.

"China" wrote in message ...

With the hot & dry weather we have been having I would
tend to suspect dehydration. Watering every day is not the way to go. Small
waterings daily only wet a very shallow soil profile and can actually force
the roots to stay around the soil surface, where they remain vulnerable. It
is better to water heavily and less often. Flood the ground several times
with a water breaker type nozzle or set a sprinkler going. So instead of
walking around the garden with a hose in your hand, set the sprinkler to
reach a modest area, and you can still poke around in the yard checking
things out and keep moving the spray around every 10 - 20 minutes. Hopefully
this rain will solve your problem, {:-) . Another thing may be that an over
generous feeding is the culprit. Have you fed them lately? How long have
they been in the ground? Are they planted in Botany sands ? Does your dog
spend far to much time bonding with them? Had the plants been 'hardened of'
before planting?

Thanks for the suggestion of flooding the ground. I'll try this with
a watering can.

I have fed them some fertiliser just recently, though it wasn't that
much. The Camelias and Magnolias have been in the ground about 6
months now. The soil isn't the sandy type and the dog generally
leaves it alone. I didn't harden off the plants before planting them
- how do you normally do this?

Could it also be too much sunlight?

Thanks for the response,

Han.

--
G'day again Han,
I hear on the radio that Sydney is getting this
rain, so are we up on the mid-north coast, (-:}

You wrote: ... I didn't harden off the plants before planting them,
how do you normally do this?...

You had every right to have presumed they had been
'hardened off' when you bought them!
Unfortunately, rights and expectations often diverge.

You wrote: ...... I have fed them some fertiliser just recently....

So, what sort ,and how?

You wrote: Could it also be too much sunlight?

Yes, could be,..... to much Sun?,....to little
Water?,....to Much tucker?,.

You didnt answer the question... how do you 'harden off' plants? I've never
heard of this before.
Jade.


"China" wrote in message
...

--
G'day again Han,
I hear on the radio that Sydney is getting
this
rain, so are we up on the mid-north coast, (-:}

You wrote: ... I didn't harden off the plants before planting them,
how do you normally do this?...

You had every right to have presumed they had been
'hardened off' when you bought them!
Unfortunately, rights and expectations often diverge.

You wrote: ...... I have fed them some fertiliser just recently....

So, what sort ,and how?

You wrote: Could it also be too much sunlight?

Yes, could be,..... to much Sun?,....to little
Water?,....to Much tucker?,.

You didnt answer the question... how do you 'harden off' plants? I've never
heard of this before.
Jade.


"China" wrote in message
...

--
G'day again Han,
I hear on the radio that Sydney is getting
this
rain, so are we up on the mid-north coast, (-:}

You wrote: ... I didn't harden off the plants before planting them,
how do you normally do this?...

You had every right to have presumed they had been
'hardened off' when you bought them!
Unfortunately, rights and expectations often diverge.

You wrote: ...... I have fed them some fertiliser just recently....

So, what sort ,and how?

You wrote: Could it also be too much sunlight?

Yes, could be,..... to much Sun?,....to little
Water?,....to Much tucker?,.

You didnt answer the question... how do you 'harden off' plants? I've never
heard of this before.
Jade.


"China" wrote in message
...

--
G'day again Han,
I hear on the radio that Sydney is getting
this
rain, so are we up on the mid-north coast, (-:}

You wrote: ... I didn't harden off the plants before planting them,
how do you normally do this?...

You had every right to have presumed they had been
'hardened off' when you bought them!
Unfortunately, rights and expectations often diverge.

You wrote: ...... I have fed them some fertiliser just recently....

So, what sort ,and how?

You wrote: Could it also be too much sunlight?

Yes, could be,..... to much Sun?,....to little
Water?,....to Much tucker?,.

You didnt answer the question... how do you 'harden off' plants? I've never
heard of this before.
Jade.


"China" wrote in message
...

--
G'day again Han,
I hear on the radio that Sydney is getting
this
rain, so are we up on the mid-north coast, (-:}

You wrote: ... I didn't harden off the plants before planting them,
how do you normally do this?...

You had every right to have presumed they had been
'hardened off' when you bought them!
Unfortunately, rights and expectations often diverge.

You wrote: ...... I have fed them some fertiliser just recently....

So, what sort ,and how?

You wrote: Could it also be too much sunlight?

Yes, could be,..... to much Sun?,....to little
Water?,....to Much tucker?,.

"China" wrote in message ...
You wrote: ...... I have fed them some fertiliser just recently....

So, what sort ,and how?

I gave them some slow release fertiliser that I picked up from
Bunnings about 4 weeks ago. I dug the fertiliser just 1-2cm below the
surface.

You wrote: Could it also be too much sunlight?

Yes, could be,..... to much Sun?,....to little
Water?,....to Much tucker?,.

I had 6 Camellias to start with, all only about 10cm tall, two have
since died. I think the first one was due to a lack of water, but the
second died despite me watering it with a hose every other day.
Perhaps I didn't water it deeply enough.

Han.

Jade wrote:

You didnt answer the question... how do you 'harden off' plants? I've never
heard of this before.

I have heard it in the aspect of nurserys.
A nursery raises seedlings in a hot house with high humidity.
They are repotted and moved out into the open, under say 90% shade, buy
only get daily watering. So they are hardened to water.

Later they might be movesd out to 20% shade cloth and thus "hardened to
sunlight.

Think of it as training the plant to adapt to different conditions.

Jade wrote:

You didnt answer the question... how do you 'harden off' plants? I've never
heard of this before.

I have heard it in the aspect of nurserys.
A nursery raises seedlings in a hot house with high humidity.
They are repotted and moved out into the open, under say 90% shade, buy
only get daily watering. So they are hardened to water.

Later they might be movesd out to 20% shade cloth and thus "hardened to
sunlight.

Think of it as training the plant to adapt to different conditions.

G'day,


You wrote:

....I gave them some slow release fertiliser that I picked up from
Bunnings about 4 weeks ago. I dug the fertiliser just 1-2cm below the
surface....

Go check the label and see how little space is devoted to 'digging in'.
Fertilizers are a concentraion of many different salts and, just as when
someone leaves your kitchen salt out on the table after a good barbie ,
they will suck in moisture if they can. If they (the fertilisersw) ,
happen to be mixed within the soil, then that is where they will suck in
their moisture. To cut a long story short it is called 'osmosis', (their
word, not mine!).

Years ago, it was called 'Killing with kindness'... {:-(



You wrote:

.... second died despite me watering it with a hose every other day.....

Refer to my earlier post on this matter.


China
Wingham
NSW


Professionals built the Titanic.
Amateurs built the Ark!

G'day,


You wrote:

....I gave them some slow release fertiliser that I picked up from
Bunnings about 4 weeks ago. I dug the fertiliser just 1-2cm below the
surface....

Go check the label and see how little space is devoted to 'digging in'.
Fertilizers are a concentraion of many different salts and, just as when
someone leaves your kitchen salt out on the table after a good barbie ,
they will suck in moisture if they can. If they (the fertilisersw) ,
happen to be mixed within the soil, then that is where they will suck in
their moisture. To cut a long story short it is called 'osmosis', (their
word, not mine!).

Years ago, it was called 'Killing with kindness'... {:-(



You wrote:

.... second died despite me watering it with a hose every other day.....

Refer to my earlier post on this matter.


China
Wingham
NSW


Professionals built the Titanic.
Amateurs built the Ark!