Ruby falls weeping redbud dying?

[Rottiemom]

Hi! I'm new here and really new to gardening. I finally saved up enough to do some work to the house and put in a little garden in front of my house. I bought some pretty bushes and a beautiful little tree . It's been a few weeks and I think the leaves are starting to die off. Im in buffalo NY. Zone 5 I think? Still in the high 70's here. I water it about 4 times a week at the roots , am I over watering? Under watering? Do I need to fertilize more? Is this normal for the tree at this time of year? Any help is appreciated! I really love this little tree and want to save it! Thanks so much!!!!

[rainbowgardener]

I hadn't heard of it, so I looked up your ruby falls weeping redbud:


http://i.parkseed.com/images/xxl/v1651.jpg

a beautiful little tree.

Yours clearly isn't doing well.

You are clearly watering wrong, but oddly enough it is hard for me to say if you are under or over watering (or a bit of both!), because you didn't say how/ how much you water when you do.

Four times a week sounds like way too much. But if you are only sprinkling or only watering the surface, it could also be too little. What you want is to water deeply to encourage deep root growth, and then no more often than you need to. A newly transplanted baby tree, you don't want to let dry out, but waterlogging and staying soggy is killer.

To start with, I recommend you water it how ever you usually do and then when you are finished, dig down and see how deep the soil is moist. You may be surprised to find out you have only been watering the surface. When you water, you want to do it as deeply as you can, making sure at least six inches, if not more, of the soil has been moistened. After you find out what it takes to do that, then you can borrow and upsize a technique from bonsai. Take a wooden stick and push it six inches down into the soil, out by your tree's drip line and leave it there. A few days after you have watered deeply, pull your stick out and check to see how far down the stick is damp. Don't water again, until a lot of the stick is dry.

Do NOT fertilize your tree. It is nearly October. Your tree will be going dormant soon. The last thing you want to do right now is encourage tender new growth that will just be killed by frost.

Welcome to the Forum. Sorry you didn't get a more prompt response.

[applestar]

Great advice from rainbowgardener.

I just wanted to add that the location it's planted looks too close to the side of the house. This is a common mistake.

If you still have the tag for the tree, see how wide it's supposed to get. I suspect you will need To plant it at least 6-8 feet away. Depending on which way the tree "weeps" you may need even more room. And you will want sufficient room to get between the tree and the house, too.

[rainbowgardener]

Oh YEAH! I meant to say that, and then forgot, while I was writing the other stuff. (Another reason why this Forum thing works so well; what one person doesn't get for whatever reason, usually someone else will.)

But WAY too close to the house. Applestar is giving you the safe version. If you really want it to look like it is next to the house, and since your tree is a dwarf that is only supposed to get 6-8 ft high and 4-6 ft wide, you could push it to 3-4' from the house. But absolutely 3 feet MINIMUM.

[LsLawn]

Awesome tree! But rainbowgardener hit the nail on the head, way to close to the house. The root system will have issues growing that close to concrete also. I'll have to try a few of these trees on my next landscape project.

[Rottiemom]

Thank you so much for your help! I took a few of the leaves to my local nursery and he said the leaves looked like they were scorched from the sun. I have a Weigela 'My Monet' planted next to it and it looks like those leaves were scorched as well. I was watering it at the roots, but I didnt know of the idea of putting a stick in there to see if I was getting down far enough. Thanks! I have cut back on watering to about twice a week now. Depending on the weather, it has rained a lot more since my original post. Temperature is now out of the 90's and in the 60-70's. Tree looks like its still holding on, havent lost any leaves yet. I posted a photo that I took today. I also went out and measured. The tree is exactly 3 feet away from the house and 3'4" from the fence.
Thanks again for the help, Im VERY new to all of this!
Oh, and one more question, on the other side I seem to be getting a ton of mushrooms that I never had before....how do I rid of those? They are near the end of my downspout....
Thanks!