Part VIII - Living Walls - Rhododendrons & Azaleas: Mary Stamper Hi Marge... The fact that we've had 14 days s

» MaryS_10 - Mary Stamper Hi Marge... The fact that we've had 14 days s

Hi Marge...

The fact that we've had 14 days straight of rain lent some credence to what you said. I had to wait a couple of days until after the rain stopped. Of course then the temp shot up to 90 degrees.

Then I noticed some powdery mildew forming on the leaves and stems of the new growth were drooping.

I decided to exhume the thing. I had planted about 1-2inches above grade. I found that the soil around the root ball was nice and moist. The burlap, which they told me to roll back but leave on was nice and moist, but the root ball was clearly too dry. I know there are near religious arguments about whether to leave the burlap on or off. I followed my instincts and took off the burlap, and followed your advice and set it about 4 inches above grade. Then I watered the root ball well. In about two hours, the drooping stopped. I sprayed some sulphur spray to hopefully get the mildew to cease. The yellowing may or may not be related to a dry root ball. With all of the rain we had, it could very well be that I had BOTH problems. I'm wondering if there would have been an advantage to planting balled and burlapped plants in the fall instead of spring so as not to have to contend with excess heat while the root ball is so small. Is it my imagination that balled and burlapped plants take more babying than container grown ones? It would make sense because of the dramatically reduced root surface. By the way, I found very little root growth sticking out of the ball when I removed the burlap. I'm still not certain how to tell when it needs watering...I hate to wait until leaves start to droop because that seems to me to indicate that stress is already taking place. Any tips on how to tell if water is needed? Sometimes soil FEELS cool, and it's damp enought that I wouldn't want to sleep on it myself, yet the plant droops after the hottest part of the day. I'm still a bit confused about this watering stuff.

-- posted by MaryS_10