Saturday Of Last Week I Planted 2 Nellie R Stevens Around 5 Foot Tall And Healthy With Dark Green Leaves. But Now After A Week, On

Question

e of them is turning brown and dropping it leaves Saturday of last week I planted 2 Nellie R Stevens around 5 foot tall and healthy with dark green leaves. But now after a week, one of them is turning brown and dropping it leaves. While the other one has some of its leaves down. What could this be? I watered them the first day I plant them, then again around monaday or Tuesday and then again on Friday. I started noticing on Wednesday that the trees weren’t looking so good. Can someone please tell me what’s wrong with my trees?

Answer 1

When watering Nelly R.Stevens Hollies, you need to provide sufficient water to reach down to the level where the roots are. This is important when temperatures are inhospitable. You did not mention what kind of soil you have and how much water you used so, before watering, insert a finger into the soil to a depth of 12" in several spots around the holly to see if the soil feels dry, moist or soggy. The water accordingly. After allowing the water to percolate, repeat the finger test to see if you used enough water. Since the plant is new, most of the roots will be close to the dimensions in which the holly was planted so use the pot as a guide. Maintain a few inches of mulch at all times to reduce soil moisture loss. Water using the finger method instead of watering based on a schedule like "watering every x days. Watering deeply is usually best once established but with a limited root system when new, try to maintain the soil evenly moist in the top few inches, not soggy and not dry either. A soil type that drains too well may require that you water much more and more often than in other types of soils. In the summer and with 100°F temperatures, I would try watering at least 2 gallons per holly (depend on how wide the holly/pot is too). Browned out leaves will not recover and you may need to wait until the plant decides to leaf out again. Any dead branches can be identified using a scratch test (very carefully, scratch the branch to see if you see green). Note: very cold winter events (this does not apply to you since the two of us are in the summer months thru September in Texas) as well as fungal diseases (you did not mention any other symptoms so I assume they are not suffering from such problems) could also cause browning.