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romymart

what's happening to my ficus trees

romymart
12 years ago

I have two ficus trees in my back yard that have been damaged during the frost last winter.

I cut them back in spring and they came back very nicely, with a lot of new growth..

but now the leaves are becoming brown and falling down...I also noticed that there are brown stains on the trunks...

what could it be?

a while ago i was draining the pool and a the pipe broke, leaking salt water in the grass patch not too far from the trees...could that be a cause of it? but there are two shrubs near the ficus and they are just fine...

here some pictures:

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Comments (8)

  • ra
    12 years ago

    could be salt burn?

    what type of plant are the shrubs? because some plants can tolerate salts better than others

  • romymart
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    the shrubs are orange jubilee..

    if it is salt burn, what can I do?

  • neilaz
    12 years ago

    If it is salt burn you need to water the area a lot to flush the salts out of the root zone

  • xill
    12 years ago

    i have two ficus nitida still in their 5g nursery containers. i water them daily with the hose (until i can plant them this september). i noticed they have the same symptoms as yours. the stains on the trunks (though not as dark as yours) and the half-burned leaves. they've been like this since i brought them home i guess, i havent really paid it much attention. the leaves got sunburned (which is why i chose to not plant them in the summer heat this year) but i believe some leaves looked like that when i bought it from lowes. i dont much remember. in any case i dont think your pool water has anything to do with it if mine look the same and i dont have a pool. maybe something else? these trees are practically disease and pest proof in the southwest, so perhaps a nutrient deficiency?

  • xill
    12 years ago

    i think its also worth saying that i have another ficus in the ground which is deep watered from the same hose about every 5 days now and it shows no symptoms like these, just the opposite its actually exploding this year. but i have 3 other yet-to-be-identified ficus saplings in containers which all have one or two leaves like this as well. but their trunks arent really thick enough for me to notice any staining so that might be a coincidence or perhaps those few leaves were sunburned when watered one early morning. the damaged leaves on the saplings are all at the bottom where they could have caught some water by accident. just some more food for thought...

  • romymart
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    thanks for sharing your experience xill!
    my ficus trees are getting worse and worse and I don't know what to do....
    my two evergreen elms in the front yard seem to have the same problem!!
    they lost almost all the leaves in march due to lack of watering, but they were starting to grow a lot of new ones....now though the new leaves are getting brown edges :(

    could it be inadequate watering?

  • xill
    12 years ago

    honestly i'm not sure. hopefully someone else will chime in on your situation because i'd definately like to learn whats going on myself. for the ficus, i doubt it's a watering issue. they look very well established and are drought tolerant. some ficus-haters might not believe me, but there's alot of people around my neighborhood that underwater their ficus to keep from having to prune them too often. but ficus are quick to drop their leaves if they get too little water, or it gets too cold. so if you were seriously underwatering them the leaves would just drop, they wouldnt burn like that. thats what i've seen in my experience though but i'm not a master-gardener either. your leaves look to me like sunburn. do you ever spray your tree when you water it? does it get hit with a sprinkler, or your neighbor's sprinkler? even if it gets wet at night and is dry during the day the residue of whatever is in the water could damage the leaves in full summer sun. the trunk stains i can't explain and may or may not be related. do you fertilize your ficus? maybe it's fertilizer burn? i cant comment on the elm at all since i have zero experience with those trees. are there any other trees in your neighbors' yards or in your neighborhood with the same symptoms?

    if i were you i'd take your pictures to at least 2 or 3 nurseries and see what they say before it gets much worse.

  • chinandega81
    10 years ago

    I am having the same symptons on the west side of my 3 year old, 4 foot tall and 3 foot wide Ficus Nitida as well. It happened last summer too. I lost one completely as its declined worsened throughout the summer. The survivor came back strongly on the east side at the end of summer and of course stopped growing and went dormant in the Winter...and started growing again this spring and here we are again, the first hot days and the vicious cycle is starting all over again. I have seen other Ficus Nitida with western exposure suffer from this, but I wonder if they will grow out of it as they get older, and if so, at what age?? Also, how many years does it take for them to take off and grow a lot? From what I see, they are slow growers the first years. I just want them to get big enough to provide real shade....

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