Hi again,
I don't remember what the name of this evergreen is that I have but I went out today to cut some dead spots off it and found what looked like a disease on its stems. It's winter time here so I'm not really sure what it is or what brought it about. Here's the picture. Any help is appreciated.
mystang89 wrote:Hmm, not sure if it's a holly or not as I don't remember ever seeing the red berries on it, but then again I'm really not that observant of a person.
As for the discoloration on the stem I'm not sure how long that has been there as mentioned above, not that observant.
Holly plants a asexual. males do not produce berries. They will tend to be more sparse than females.
Does it recieve a lot of water from the roof or drainiage issues
It doesn't receive a lot of water from the roof as the downspout is right next to it on opposite corner of the house. As far as the drainage issues - there "shouldn't" be any to speak of. The area it is planted on is slightly sloping allowing the water not to pool around it.
We received a lot of rain this past month but it wasn't any different than the amount of rain we received last year at this time. It is starting to be spring time so we expect this much rain right now.
I can't rule out a water drainage problem though since I've planted azaleas there for the past 2 years and each year they up and die and I'm pretty sure it's from watering either too much or too little. I didn't think this shrub was going to have those problems though because it's been there for about 2 1/2 - 3 years now.
So the discoloration of the stems looks like damage from either too much water or too little water?
It does look like holly. As bushman noted holly is dioecious, meaning has separate male and female plants and the males do not produce berries.
I don't know that the spots on the stems look like water damage. It could be fungal disease or it might be scale insects. Can they be rubbed off?
Do you know what the pH of your soil is (acidity level)? Hollies like somewhat acid soil and azaleas like very acid soil. If your soil is neutral to alkaline, that would be why hollies and azaleas aren't doing very well for you. Even so, if it is staying too wet that would be another stress. Plants that are stressed by conditions that aren't right for them are more vulnerable to diseases, insects, etc.
Hi rainbowgardener, Thanks for the tips. I went out and checked to see if the stuff rubbed off the stems but it didn't really seem to me that it did. I rubbed my thumb and pointer finger on it, squeezing together, and a very little amount came off, just enough for me to barely see some on my fingers. I took this as just being some of the "skin" that came off. Is there a way for me to test and see if it's fungal?
I do not have a tester for the acidity of my dirt. Only thing I have to test acidity are those strips you dip in water so I have no clue what the acidity of the soil is.
Lastly, how would I know if the plant is being stressed by too much water or not enough. I've read a good way to see if it needs more water is to stick your finger straight down in the dirt and if there isn't any moister then it needs to be watered. When I do water, I try to stick the nozzle of the hose down into the dirt to get the roots, but I honestly don't water that often. I also heard that azaleas don't like lots of water. Those seem like very finicky plants but the holly seems to be a bit sturdier. At least it survived 2 1/2 years anyway lol
I don't know enough to help from just looking at your picture but I had some friends who used these guys https://www.greenlawncare.net/locations/ ... eland.html when they had problems in a new house they'd just moved into. They went round and looked at the whole garden to assess risks of pests, disease etc, they check soil ph and drainage and give advice.
Like you say, luckily a lot of plants are pretty tough and survive despite our black thumbed attempts
