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Wet Weather & Ailing Dogwood (cross-post)

Posted by jjtindc USDA7 (My Page) on
Thu, Jul 6, 06 at 9:46

I have a young native dogwood (Cornus florida I believe)just outside of Washington DC that has taken a turn for the worst.

For background, I planted it about three years ago. Took care to amend the soil, mulch to about 2 inches or so leaving the base clear, feeding with organic fertilizer a couple of times a year, etc. It's planted in full sun, but I've nursed it through droughts and our hot, humid weather. This spring it finally seemed to establish itself. Nice flowering, good growth, bright green leaves.

For those of you familiar with our weather lately, it's been just awful. About a week or so ago, we went from a rainfall deficit to record rainfall amounts for 24 hours, 48 hours and one week. We had a couple of days of hot, humid weather, and then several more days of pounding storms.

I noticed that the dogwood was looking a bit stressed with curled leaves which I assumed was caused by the heat. Almost overnight, though, I would say that about 1/4 to 1/2 of the leaves have taken a turn for the worse with about half of each of the affected leaves turning brown from the tip to the middle.

Now I'm assumming this is a classic case of too much water. The ground is just completely saturated! Luckily, we seem to have about a five day break of low-80's and low humidity. Anything else I should do? I was considering snipping off the affected leaves. Should I pull back the mulch as well for a few days? Would adding any organic fertilizer or bone meal help or just add to the problems?

Luckily my Hawthorn (Crataegus viridis 'Winter King')and native wildflowers which are all in the same garden area seem to be doing well. Would be a shame to loose the Dogwood after so much TLC!


Follow-Up Postings:

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RE: Wet Weather & Ailing Dogwood (cross-post)

I'm a bit north of you - in the area that has received over 16" of rain in the past 10 days (and 9 days of high humidity)! My kousa dogwood is okay, which is amazing [to me] since it is semi-shaded and in a low spot - but I did adjust the soil to make it very well-drained, as well as raising the overall site when I planted it there.

I'd hold off on leaf snipping unless they were actually dead. I don't think I'd add any fertilizers, especially since dogwoods are rather low-maintenance.

Link gives good info on the more common problems, but frankly, I don't find anything that really matches your description.

Here is a link that might be useful: Dogwood problems


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RE: Wet Weather & Ailing Dogwood (cross-post)

They need good drainage, and what you describe sounds like poor drainage. Amending the soil is probably not necessary for any tree, much less a native, and sometimes can have the effect of attracting water from the surrounding soil. The long term solution will require elevating the tree from the current grade. Once it goes dormant, this could be done by digging a large root ball, levering the tree up, and backfilling with soil until the tree is mounded up slightly. I had to do this with some of my dogwoods I planted too low in the ground and it really helped.


 
 

 

 


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