Content
- Help! Trumpet tree loses leaves - What to do?
- Nutrient deficiencies and dryness often cause
- Avoid chlorosis
- Verticillium wilt usually deadly
- Tips
There can be various causes when the trumpet tree drops its leaves
Help! Trumpet tree loses leaves - What to do?
Actually, the trumpet tree (Catalpa bignonioides) - this is not to be confused with the similar sounding angel trumpet (Brugmansia)! - quite uncomplicated. However, the deciduous broadleaf tree may develop signs of discomfort due to inadequate care or in a wrong location, for example by turning its leaves yellow and / or simply discarding them. Unfortunately, the exotic is also quite susceptible to the dreaded Verticillium wilt.
Nutrient deficiencies and dryness often cause
In most cases, however, behind the leaf shedding is not equal to the wilting disease, but only a lack of nutrients and / or water. Especially in the hot and dry summer months it is recommended to water the trumpet tree in the morning as well as in the evening. However, you should - especially in cultivated in tub specimens - provide good drainage, because waterlogging tolerates Catalpa also not. A regular fertilization is essential, because the trumpet tree is one of the heavyweights.
Avoid chlorosis
Chloroses - ergo diseases due to nutrient deficiency - often show on yellowish discolored leaves, in which the leaf veins clearly stand out. As a rule, the plant in question lacks a specific mineral, often iron. A chlorosis can be treated very well and even better prevented, namely by a sufficient fertilization. Young trees in particular require good fertilizer, although mature compost has proved particularly successful in planted specimens. For trumpet trees cultivated in pots, on the other hand, good, not too nitrogen-rich, universal fertilizers are recommended.
Verticillium wilt usually deadly
If, on seemingly healthy trees, whole shoots suddenly die off and leaves dry and fall off, so-called wilting disease can be behind it. It is a fungal infection in which the Verticillium fungi living in the soil penetrate through the roots and pathways into the wood of the tree where they block the supply of water and nutrients. So far no herb has grown up against this disease, you can only take the following measures and hope to be able to save the tree with it:
Tips
Unfortunately, fungicides do not help against Verticillium wilting, as the fungus sits deep in the wood. You can only prevent infestation by paying close attention to the care and planting instructions and also not planting the trumpet tree in a location where the disease has already occurred.