Young Dying Dogwood - Ask Extension
An 8-foot dogwood was planted in April. During the drought we had in May-June we watered faithfully and it looked happy. Then in July we got a lot of...
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Young Dying Dogwood #840969
Asked July 16, 2023, 6:00 PM EDT
An 8-foot dogwood was planted in April. During the drought we had in May-June we watered faithfully and it looked happy. Then in July we got a lot of rain. It is July 16 as I write this and the tree's leaves are all turning brown. This started only 10 days ago. Is its roots getting too much water? What can I do?
''
Baltimore County Maryland
Expert Response
It has been a hot and stressful year for many of our landscape plants. Add to that the loss of roots, handling and stress of re-planting a large tree along with prolonged 'severe' drought conditions and you will see scorched leaves.
If no chemicals were applied anywhere nearby (inc. fertilizer) we think, even though there was rain, the tree is having difficulty establishing due to lack of water.
You don't mention how you were delivering the water before, but this page is a good guide on how to water well, and to manually check that the water is getting to the root areas where it is needed: https://extension.umd.edu/resource/watering-trees-and-shrubs
Monitoring carefully and watering deeply when we don't get at least an inch of rain a week is important for the entire period of root establishment, which is the first 2 years after planting.
This page discusses leaf scorch on dogwoods and the other issues that may arise:
https://extension.umd.edu/resource/key-common-problems-dogwoods
Christine
If no chemicals were applied anywhere nearby (inc. fertilizer) we think, even though there was rain, the tree is having difficulty establishing due to lack of water.
You don't mention how you were delivering the water before, but this page is a good guide on how to water well, and to manually check that the water is getting to the root areas where it is needed: https://extension.umd.edu/resource/watering-trees-and-shrubs
Monitoring carefully and watering deeply when we don't get at least an inch of rain a week is important for the entire period of root establishment, which is the first 2 years after planting.
This page discusses leaf scorch on dogwoods and the other issues that may arise:
https://extension.umd.edu/resource/key-common-problems-dogwoods
Christine
