Bay leaf troubles

[peter bishop]

I have a bay leaf bush about 21/2 yrs old, up till now now problems, growing well, but this year the leaves for some reason are turning brown from the tip inwards, curling up as if from lack of water, then completely dying. Not all the bush is doing this and there is new shoots coming, a lot of the leaves are being eaten by something but i havent found the culprit yet....it gets water and a general feed so what could be wrong with it & how can i correct it?........email...[deleted by admin]
Cheers
pete

 

[alp]

Which area are you from please, if you don't mind my asking? Is it in pot or on a border please? With this weather, a lot of plants are crying for water and there is literally no moisture in the air in my area. I would submerge the whole pot in water, preferably rain water for a whole night and see if the leaves come back. I had salix leaves totally brown and after several days of dunking, it is OK. But with this heat, it might be let it have morning sun only and put plants in shade if it is exposed to sunshine for a long period of time. Could you upload a pic of where the tree is sited please? If it is near concrete walls, albeit dwarf walls, it can suffer from a lot of retained heat! You could block the strongest of heat and light with some other stuff. I had a conifer in front of my west facing border and the plants on the border don't dry up so readily. This heat and dryness can kill a lot of plants.

Can you show the damage to the leaves please, as you said it might be attacked by something?

 

[peter bishop]

as you can see its in a pot, generally in full sun all the time...watered well tho especially lately, given a liquid feed every 2 weeks or so.

 

[alp]

It might be a good idea to move it away from the sun in the afternoon or just place it somewhere it can get morning sun. The concrete ground itself releases a lot of heat even at night. Judging by the new leaves, it still has a bit of life. When was the last time you change the soil please? It might be a good idea to go easy on the feed.

Have your checked for bugs or scales all around the plants, including the underside of the leaves and the stems please?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/lancashire/content/articles/2008/01/08/bay_tree_feature.shtml

This might, just might, have something relevant to your case!

 

[peter bishop]

i have looked for bugs etc but cant see anything, have never changed the soil but will put it out of the strong sun. the dying leaves are very brittle & dry even when still a bit green. the new growth seems to be doing ok though. Thanks for replying.

 

[alp]

Please read that article as I am sure you can pick up something useful in there. It might be a good idea to cut off the dead leaves. and cut away any inward growing branches to improve the air circulation.