Apologies if I'm not supposed to post follow ups with additional pictures...

This pic shows a plant that I've rescued from near death but it might have been kinder to let it die ungracefully. It developed rot and survived (ish) amputation but the new growth is stunted & yellow and hates the intense sun (it's looking a bit better this year!). A few years growth has only delivered an inch or so of stem. The plant seemed perfectly healthy before.

It seems you have some sucking insect problem, and the white spots look like beads of latex where the sap oozed from insect damage.

You might try neem oil late in the day when the sun is setting to avoid burn, and that should help. Hopefully someone else will have more answers for you. Good luck and keep us posted!

Thanks Jandey,

The neem oil is on its way to me at the moment...I'll try to administer it in the evening when the forecast for the next day isn't too hot. I'm still a bit scared given my last attempt and subsequent rapid leaf drop!

Here's another shot of a deformed leaf...

Hi !!!

I just wanted to add to Jen's great advise( I think the other pictures show some damage from insects) but , when I see a leaf deformed like that.. My thoughts go to checking the roots for problems. Just my opinion!!!

Hope everything turns around for you!!

Good luck..

Laura

This post was edited by loveplants2 on Thu, Nov 28, 13 at 2:45

Hi there! I agree that the leaves appear to have sucking insect damage. Left untreated it can defoliate and stress the plant to the point of dying. In addition to neem oil some effective organic treatments can be insecticidal soap and spinosad products. Sometimes it takes a couple of treatments to get the life cycle and make sure you apply to the underside of the leaves.

Always spray in the evening so as not to burn them, but also to avoid killing beneficial insects (and bees) and lizards which are usually active during the day. They help eat the bad insects and spraying them will set you back.

If you see your plant is still declining then I agree, no harm in checking the
roots.

Good luck and I sure hope this helps!

35 c is 95 f so just a pleasant summer day. I think there may be two separate issues. Definitely sucking insects. I use neem like jandy too for insect treatment. It looks quite stressed in your third pic. What size container is it in or is in the ground?

Thanks again everyone.

I'm still awaiting the neem oil to arrive and to answer kms29, the third pic is one of a plant that I suspect was stuck in damp ground (a leaking reticulation pipe) and became really sick. I suspect it suffered from the suckers too. I had a few plants in that area. One succumbed to its injuries instantly, one died a year or so later having never really recovered. Of the other two...one seems to have made a good recovery after selective amputation but the plant in the third pic has never really recovered but crucially seems never to have given up on life entirely either. i'm hoping that one year I'll be able to persuade it to sprout (and maintain) green leaves.

Having killed off a number of nice (and relatively expensive) plumeria I paid a visit to a local garden centre and bought lots of cheap ones to see if I could keep them alive. I'm hopeful that treating them for suckers might be the answer I'm seeking.

I've got three plants that I've propagated from seed and I'd love to see them live. I've also a 10 (ish) year old that had been doing well but suffered a bit from stunted growth and yellowish leaves/some deformities over the last couple of years.

Sometimes they get scorched with the dry heat but they do seem to recover from that. We are likely to have a number of days in a row each year between 100 and 105+.

In my experience, "expensive plumeria" usually equals "fussy plumeria", LOL! I think they cost more because they're often less hardy and harder to propagate in big numbers.

Many of the cheap ones that nurseries stock will be easy to keep alive. Since your weather is very like our Texas weather I'd recommend pinks--they give a lot of color and scent for little trouble.

Reds often need lots more water and don't like too much sun. If you have to have a red, though, go with Jeannie Moragne (aka Jean Moragne, Jr.). She's big, hardy and gorgeous. Definitely worth the price!

What kind of soil are you using? Do they have adequate drainage? Really, plumeria should thrive in your climate. As the others mentioned, in addition to the sucking insects maybe take a look at some other aspects that might be causing the issues, they are usually an easy fix unless the plant is just sickly.

Thanks for the hints jandey. Funnily enough one of my best performing plants is a deep red but yes, I tried to get plants that I couldn't destroy too easily but did so anyway!

elucas, I think the soil was one of my early downfalls. We're about a mile from the coast and are elevated. The natural soil isn't soil at all, it's just sand. We pretty much appear to be living on a sand dune!

To counteract this the first plants went into a mixture of potting mix and sand with a generous helping of water retaining crystals.

The newer plants (and most of the originals that survived) are now in a mixture of about 25% potting mix, 25% sand and 50% pearlite. I have one larger plant that's in the original mix and all of it's roots are probably in the sand by now.

All the plants are planted directly into the ground without pots.

The neem oil has arrived and my plants got a good soaking tonight. The suckers have really upped their game over the last week and have really been having a feast on some plants!

On a side note, over the last couple of years my bigger plant hasn't been as healthy as it used to be. This year the leaves have started nice and green, there's been some sign of suckers but it doesn't seem too bad yet but while I was spraying it I noticed a few leaves with pronounced yellowing...I've attached a photo.

I had the same thing last year. I have just started giving the plant some fertaliser with a high P (I think) to encourage flowering but this yellowing makes me think I should stop. I tried giving it a high N fertaliser last year when the same thing happened but it didn't really seem to make any difference.

Any ideas?

That looks like leaf burn to me. The current batch of yellowing leaves may be related to the insect treatments you are doing or it could just be mid summer leaf drop (if its the lowest leaves on the branch).

A sandy soil mix as you described as your most recent mix should be just fine for these plants. Since these are already in the ground and its not like you should dig them up...you go with what you have got. Can you describe the soil conditions as to how much moisture it retains or does it compact? Based on your statement about water retaining crystals it would seem to be dry conditions most of the year. How much supplemental watering to you have to provide?

I would keep fertilizing using half the recommended dosage but twice as often. Hopefully that will make the nutrient uptake into a more steady stream versus spikes. There is a large amount of discussion and theory on fertilizer ratios in this forum. Search for it of so inclined or just use what you already have and see what happens. If you don't like the results then try something else. Good luck with it.