Phoenix Tropicals Gardening

[wwoody]

We planted a Honk Kong orchid tree last year. It froze to the ground in January but new stems are growing rapidly. However:

1. About 5% of the leaves look mottled brown.

2. Many of the leaves are yellow on tips and edges with green veins.

I have fed it chelated iron twice in the last 3 months. I give it about 8 gallons of water every 12 to 14 days.

Do you have any suggestions to make the leaves look healthier?

[phoenixtropicals]

-- Response

Orchid trees tend to drop a bunch of leaves a couple of times a year and they turn brown like that before dropping. I don't use any fertilizers on mine these days and they are doing well. The important thing is just to make sure the tree is sufficiently watered.

--- Here is a follow up question sent from Bill by email -----

I'm not sure how to evaluate if watering is sufficient. The tree is about 8 ft tall, froze to the ground in January. Gets around 8 gallons of water near the dripline every 12-14 days. I think the Master Gardeners say a soil probe should go down about 2 ft, but there are sizeable rocks (fist size?) at about 10-12 inches depth which stop my probe. If it's a natural leaf drop I won't worry, but I would like to see the leaves more uniformly green instead of looking chlorotic.

--- Response ----

12-14 days in the summer is relatively infrequent. I water mine every other day. You might want to check out the article on watering on the site. I keep my Hong Kong on a grass schedule.

On a canal irrigated lot, maybe a very well established tree could handle that type of low frequency due to having big roots and the depth at which totally flooding the yard soaks things. In any other situation I think the tree will be very thirsty on a 12 day frequency in summer.