Arbutus unedo
By Alisonf
United Kingdom 
I have an Arbutus unedo which is growing as a small tree about 2.5m tall at the moment. It has a roughly rounded head growing about 1m in all directions. Last June when the tree was put in, as we went to lower the root ball into the hole all the soil around it dropped off. It obviously went into shock after planting and despite keeping the soil moist a lot of the leaves turned yellow and fell off although it did produce some nice red fruits in the autumn. This year the tree is putting on new leaf nicely but it is mainly at the ends of the branches where there are lot of new leaves coming out. I would like to encourage it to put on more leafy growth in the middle where there is bare stem so was wondering if I trim back the ends of the young branches will it start to produce more leaves from what is bare wood at the moment? Any advice gratefully received thank you.
Alison
16 Jun, 2011
Answers
I've given it a good drenching once a week in the dry spell so hopefully it should be getting enough water so will see if the Vitax Q helps - thanks very much for your prompt advice.
16 Jun, 2011
If the wood which is bare looks perfectly healthy, then I suggest you increase the watering and give it a feed with something like Vitax Q4 - you don't say where you are in the UK, but in the south, we've had a fair bit of drought, and new trees, even if there's not actually a drought, must be given up to 2 gallons a week during dry spells for their first 2 years. Unless the wood itself is damaged, there's no reason why it shouldn't produce new foliage all along the branches, and it might not be doing that because of a shortage of both water and nutrients, so try what I've suggested first.
16 Jun, 2011