Newly planted plants not looking too well (growing, Butterfly Bush, butterfly)

[jtvaj125]

Planted a batch of plants a little over a week ago - 1 dusty miller, 4 myoporum, 2 blue juniper, 2 bush daises, 2 euonymus, 4 dymondia, 1 boxwood, 1 blue fescue and 1 day lily that was left over from the previous batch. There's also a flat of gazanias not yet planted.

With the heatwave that started recently here in S. Cal (high 90s - low 100s) I've noticed some of them aren't take it too well. The dusty miller looks badly wilted. 3 of the myoporum are looking pale and loosing leaves. One of the daises is a bit wilted. 2 of the 4 dymondia have their leaves curling and looking white. The other 2, not more than 12" away are ok. The gazanias are also looking a little stressed too.

I've been watering them all every other day for about a minute or two each. I don't know if I'm not watering them enough or two much. I stuck a finger down the soil around the dusty miller and the stressed dymondia and it doesn't feel dry but it isn't moist either. They were all planted with a bed of 50/50 existing soil and mulch mix.

[Hemlock140]

There is nothing worse for new transplants than a heat wave. Without an opportunity for the roots to settle in and go deeper that heat will penetrate to the roots and cook the tender feeder roots. Then the leaves get less moisture at a time when they need it most. Curling white leaves means they were cooked, probably those were in a cooler, shaded place before you bought them. It's just unfortunate timing on your part, and while there are things you can do, it may not save them all. Mulch more heavily around them, leaving the mulch 1/2-1" away from the bases. That will help keep the soil cooler. You can offer shade by driving in posts and hanging a sheet or tarp over them. As for watering, with well draining soil, I would water daily until it cools off. At 90-100 with shallow roots that water doesn't last long.

[ABQConvict]

You need to give them much, much more water. I am in 90-105 for the last week and my even well established annuals are getting daily soaker hose treatments for about 1 to 1.5 hours.

I find the soaker hose works best for shallow rooted (young) plants in well drained soil. Watering by other methods just passes water past the roots too fast. you need to keep the top 4 inches rather damp, not just perceptibly moist to the touch.

With this heat and a dry climate, the root zone will dry out enough overnight to prevent root rot and frankly the current evapotranspiration (water loss through leaves) rates are unreal.

[jacqueg]

Agree with the posters above - provide shade and more water.

Alsop, don't give up hope! The current leaves may look terrible, but if that all-important growing point at the union of stem and root is intact, you will see new leaves in a 2-3 weeks..

[taimaishu]

Could be due to shock from transplanting.

I planted 2 avocado trees on Monday. 1 is doing just fine. The other one is wilting. The one wilting, I didn't do a good job at not disturbing the root ball. I had a hard time removing the tree from the pot and the roots were heavily disturbed. Soil surrounding the roots were falling apart and roots were all exposed.

And I made things worse by trying to readjust the tree as it was planted and disturbed the roots even more.

Hopefully, they recover. The hot weather isn't helping. But it seems to be much cooler today.

[Macrina]

Originally Posted by Hemlock140

There is nothing worse for new transplants than a heat wave. Without an opportunity for the roots to settle in and go deeper that heat will penetrate to the roots and cook the tender feeder roots. Then the leaves get less moisture at a time when they need it most. Curling white leaves means they were cooked, probably those were in a cooler, shaded place before you bought them. It's just unfortunate timing on your part, and while there are things you can do, it may not save them all. Mulch more heavily around them, leaving the mulch 1/2-1" away from the bases. That will help keep the soil cooler. You can offer shade by driving in posts and hanging a sheet or tarp over them. As for watering, with well draining soil, I would water daily until it cools off. At 90-100 with shallow roots that water doesn't last long.

We're having a heat wave up here in Northern California, as well. Does your advice (the bolded part above) hold true for plants in containers?

[jtvaj125]

Thanks for all the advice and suggestions. Besides the very basic plant necessities, soil, water and sunlight, I'm a total newbie at this. I'm really just learning as I go but I did try to avoid just getting anything that looked "good" and tried to get plants that were at least somewhat drought tolerant.

I'll give them a good drenching tonight and get them some shade for the hotter part of the day. It doesn't look like these high temps are going to let up anything soon.

[Hemlock140]

Originally Posted by Macrina

We're having a heat wave up here in Northern California, as well. Does your advice (the bolded part above) hold true for plants in containers?

Yes, especially plastic pots that will get hot enough to cook the roots. The best method is drip system on a timer. I use that for many of my plants and the vegetables in the greenhouse. Today we only got to 72 but 100 inside the greenhouse, and I have it set for 15 minutes once a day with 1 gallon/hour emitters. When it gets hot here (80s) the greenhouse gets to 110, and I'll simply increase the time to a half hour, and if we get above 90 (rare) will go even longer or even to twice a day.

[Eldemila]

What kind of soil did you plant all this in? Did you amend any soil. Do you even need to. Did you plant appropriately? Not all plants are to be planted at soil level, some may be right above. You didn't say if these are in the ground, or in pots.


I have planted plants in the past, a butterfly bush, in a spot in my yard, which died. I replaced it with another bb, same spot, it died. There is something wrong with that particular spot. It could be roots, it could be some type of contaminated soil that may have been years before I bought the house, but plants just don't like this particular spot, so I won't be replanting anything in this spot.


Sometimes, plants die with having amended the soil as there is something wrong with the soil.


I would agree with others that you need to water more, at the roots (don't water the leaves, water slow, and low. If you have access to clean gallon containers (like what milk comes in, even water) you can punch small holes in the bottom of the bottles, put them near the base of the plant and let them slow drip to water the plants. Refill as necessary.


Good luck!

[Macrina]

Thanks for responding! I'm not able to use a drip system on a time, it's all hand watering. My patio is on the northwest corner, and because of foliage and architecture the plants get about four hours of direct sun., unfortunately in the hottest period of the day. Today that temp is 105 degrees.

I'm mostly concerned about my cordyline, which I've had since January and haven't killed it yet. Have been watering itonly once a week which has worked well. I think they don't need much water ~ do you think once every other day will do it? It's in a 15" plastic pot with a drain hole.

Thanks for your help; I'm very much the novice, here.