any lawn and garden experts out there? what are the best tricks you know to making trees and plants to take off?

 

Trees are very site specific. pH, water availiblity, type of soil, slope of terrain, growing season, along with a list a mile long effect how trees grow. What species were you trying and where do you live?

 

the trees i seem to have the most problems with are my queen palms and my citrus tree. my oaks seem to be doing better. i live in florida. iam betting it the soil when you dig you hit alot of shell and rock and its pretty hard. i dont know how to correct that. surally there is a way. my palms were the same size as some other neighbors when i planted them now theres are huge and mine dont look like they grew at all. my citrus tree has been planted for over a year and i know it hasent done any thing acually the leaves seem to srivel up like it is half dead. well let me quit rambling. any advice whould be appriciated.

 

There is a fertilizer called "Super Thrive". I don't know if it is still produced, but the stuff works wonders. I usually give the tree a good dose of that stuff, and periodically follow it up with basic lawn fertilizer.

 

Yep, thats exactly what I was gonna say. Cant get a pine tree to grow in my area.
Your luck yif you can keep it alive. PH is way off for pine trees.

 

Queen palm requires a slightly acidic soil. You can easily get a pH tester from you local hardware store for less than $10. Test your soil. It should be between 4.5-6.5. If it is, then that is not your problem. However if it is not inthis range, you have to either add lime to your soil (which I highly doubt will be needed due to the fact that there are shells in the soil) to bring it up or a specialized fertilizer to bring it down. These palms can actually live through severe drought, so if it is getting any water then i am guessing that this would not be the problem. Possibly MORE water would help them grow faster. Your soil also has to be well drained, which means it doesn't retain alot of water. I don't know what you could do about this if it did. Maybe your nieghbors had the trees professionaly planted and accounted for this. Light is an issue. These trees need light most of the time the sun is out. Is your house of something else shading the trees? These trees need manganese and potassium and are prone to suffering due to a lack of it. A bag of fertilizer now and then would eliminate this problem. Hope this helps.-jon

 

http://mgonline.com/queen.html
I just found this website that has alot more info than I do. According to them, your problem is due to fertilization problems. check it out.

 

Yep, my nieghbor and I planted palm trees at the same time. Mine is about 15' tall, his is about 5' tall. The only difference is that mine is about 4' from a water spout, so it gets a lot of extra water.

 

Tony, if you were up north, I could help you out. If there's one thing I know more than trucks, it's trees. I grow them for a living; have been for 25 yrs on a big farm here. But palms, well, they're house plants here and not my cup of tea.

Ask me how to grow a metasequoia glyptostroboides or quercus palustris and I'll tell ya how to get the best lookin' one in yer neighborhood!
Norb

 

Just pee on the tree everyday. That will water it at least.

 

Effie - I am actually in the same boat as you. I am currently working on a bachleor's degree in Ecological Forest Management but over here we really only concentrate on the northern hardwoods and timber producing softwoods. What do you grow dawn redwood and pin oak for? Ornimental?

 

thank you all for the advice i guess i will look into a good fertilizer and check the ph of the soil. with any luck i will get these trees to take off. as far as my citrus trees i think it is done. maybe i can put it in a pot with some good potting soil and fertilizer and can get it back.

 

jonny- I grow them (and about 600 other varieties) for landscape use. Some of the pictures of my Fords in my gallery show the nursery in the background.

Cool you knew exactly what I was talking about when I shot out those botanical names !

Tony - glad you found your answer even though I wasn't much help .
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Tony, I did not read the whole thread so you may have already addressed it, but how close are the Queens to the foundation or any concrete for that matter? The only place where we have had any problem with them is close proximity to concrete slabs and foundations likely due to the calcium given off by it.