redbud die back problems

Joey Meister

a couple years ago i bought a nice 6 foot tall potted forest pansy redbud, it was nicely branched and healthy i kept it watered and it looked nice all summer, then the following spring it didn't show signs of growth. i was about to rip it out when i noticed it branching out about two feet from the ground on the main trunk, i cut it back and am trying to train the new growth which is doing fine and had no die back this spring. but i bought a regular green leaf variety last summer, and this spring it did the same thing, sprouting growth out of the trunk and not any of the branches. do these trees not transplant well? and will it be ok to train the new side growth to make it a tree again?

Garry Brockley

this may all be caused by something your doing or not doing when planting them, have you checked the soil ph, added neat fertiliser to the hole(bad thing), dug a hole twice the depth needed for the root ball, is your soil clay have you drowned it by over watering or used tap not rain water, did you free up the fine roots on the root ball did you damage the roots when doing so, where are the prevailing winds coming from what low temps did you get over winter.
these are just a few of the things you need to think about, a tree will use all of it's stored energy to produce a good yeild before it dies in an attempt to continue it's line, this is why large trees give a big bloom before they die they can last for 5 years after being badly damaged, they use the stored available food scources and once depleted they can't make enough to sustain life and die.

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Eric Frei

Pictures would be good, make sure you load the pics to this server, resized to be under 300kb and less than 1000px wide.

They're not grafted stock etc are they?

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Joey Meister

our soil is really rocky and dry so when i planted the trees i added black dirt mixed with the rocky dirt into the hole i dug it according to the instructions,as deep as the root ball and twice as wide and took a garden fork and carefully loosened the roots. both were watered with water from the outside water faucet when rain was not enough. the forest pansy one said to plant in a partly shady protected area, but the normal one did not say that. the winds usually come from the north in the winter they are planted in the front and side yard facing west and north,the forest pansy had no die back this spring, but i am not sure how to get it to be a tree again, i have included some pictures. the forest pansy is flowering near the ground and is a grafted tree.

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Bowani Siam

Hi!

Redbuds in general are prone to a variety of problems like Verticillium Wilt and dieback. They can often fail to resprout after winter if it has been particularly cold, and are commonly late to leaf up in spring anyway.

The Cercis 'Forest Pansy' can be a very fussy cultivar. A lot of people seem to have trouble with this tree from accounts I have heard.
They flower on the trunk naturally. However, I think in your case, in a tree that young, it is stress-induced.

I think there is hope for the Forest Pansy, however you need to cut the main branch just above the new side-shoot, then train that side shoot upwards. Try to keep just one main 'leader'. If there is another lateral branch of the same diameter as the new 'leader' you should trim it off.

Just from the pictures, the straight species that's located in the lawn appears to be planted a little bit deep in the soil. Remove soil to expose the part where the trunk begins to flare out. Also, I can't tell if that new growth is wilted from lack of moisture or disease.? All the dead/diseased parts need to be removed. If the damage is extensive I would even consider ripping it out and replacing with a different species.

As another note, always try to transplant deciduous trees during dormancy, as this will limit transplant shock.

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Joey Meister

i pulled some of the soil back around the trunk by the one in the open and didnt find and spot where the trunk got larger i just found a lot of roots. is that a bad sign? also it seems to be coming along nicely though, here is a picture of how it is growing, i am training the new shoot by tying it up with stretch plant ties.

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