Araucaria Puzzle?
 

Firstly hello one and all!

I am hoping for some help with a question I got asked today which I am not really sure about.

A customer of mine has a fairly small (6-7 foot) Araucaria Araucana which got tangled up last summer with a dose of bindweed. In order to correct this he sprayed the bindweed with some weed killer. He is not sure of the type of weed killer but i think it was more than likely glyphosate based as the bindweed has clearly died off with no sign of new growth.

The Araucaria now has several patches of bron around the middle of the trunk and on some limbs. I suspect is is from drift from the weed killer he sprayed.

He wondered if this has damaged it for good or if it is likely to survive.

Can anyone advise from similar experience?

Many thanks

Alex

Hi Alex, My gut feeling is that it should be ok, no doubt he will end up with a few branches that will be brown but it shouldnt kill the whole plant. Luckily, most modern weedkillers now are inactivated on contact with the soil so, even though its in the ground around this tree, the active chemical will by now be locked away by the clay colloids in the soil. He may have to cut out the brown bits just so that the tree looks better but as you know, as these things grow, the lower branches die out anyway, so even the damaged branches wont look so bad as it matures and grows. As long as the top branches are not dammaged it will be ok and even then, it would very soon put out a replacement leader. He should be ok!!
Lannerman

And let us remember that Araucaria eventually shed the lower branches anyway.

Great,

Tanks for your advice both. I had a feeling this might be the case but wanted to make sure before advising!

I will now pass this on with a bit more confidence than before.

Cheers

Alex