Cleveland, United Kingdom
Can anyone help I am new to the site and joined as I have a eucalyptus growing in a large pot that has this summer over the last two weeks started loosing its leaves they are turning yellow and red then dropping off. There is new growth at the end of the branches. I have attached a photo.
- 24 Jul, 2016
Answers
How big is the pot? Did you feed it in the spring? I ask as it may be pot-bound and/or not getting the nutrients it needs.
24 Jul, 2016
Sadly, your plant will die if you keep it in a pot - Eucalyptus gunnii wants to put down a very, very deep tap root into the ground, and if unable to do so, it will die, so that's likely what you're seeing the beginning of now. If you can find a place in the garden for it, plant it out, but be aware you need to prune it if you don't want it to get 55 feet very quickly - there are a couple of ways to do this, you can either chop it to the ground in March, when it will regrow and make a shrub up to about 6 feet by September, then repeat the process the following year and so on. Or keep it as a sort of lollipop tree, where you let the main stem get, say, 4 feet, then cut it off, let the foliage grow then keep it trimmed 3 or 4 times a year so it doesn't get taller than 7 feet. It's a bit of a task - this tree has strong apical domination, so there'll always be at least one shoot at the top reaching for the sky.
24 Jul, 2016
Not sure if this is how I say thank you for your comments, I will try a rpot or putting it in my garden which unfortunately is very small, hence it being in a pot. I really appreciate your responses and help. Thank you.
24 Jul, 2016
If you use the deepest pot you can find, it might last a bit longer...
24 Jul, 2016
Regular light feeding, and a hard prune every spring will help it to last longer in a pot, too.
24 Jul, 2016
Could be starvation - have you tried putting it in a bigger pot?
24 Jul, 2016