Hi! My name is Mario, I'm from Sicily (the island at the very South of Italy). Long time gardening amateur, I like to experiment with plants that are less common in my area.
I have two questions about a tree I bought around 6 months ago from an online seller and has been withering for the past 3 months or so.
It's a strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo. Despite the name, they don't have anything in common with strawberries, except the color of the fruit).
I decided to have a go at cultivating this because it takes the fruits a whole year to ripe, so in autumn it bears fruits and its beautiful white flowers at the same time, which is quite rare and gives a nice visual impact.
It thrived till around the end of June, then the leaves started to become brown and crunchy.
But it happened on the branches facing the sun: they withered and didn't sprout any new leaves; and it also happened to the leaves closest to the soil.
The rest of the tree isn't in great shape either, but it seems more or less ok, so far.
All seems to point to the sun and heat of Sicily being the cause of that: while I have seen this plant classified as "Mediterranean", so far I only have seen it in the wild in Sardinia, central Italy and northern Italy.
But I was wondering: is this the only possible explanation, and what could I do to help this small tree? Will it thrive again once the temperatures start to drop?
I have watered the plant regularly, around one time per week in the spring and 2-3 times in the summer; I have used a regular fertilizer (40-20-20); the ph of the soil is neutral.
Maybe some bacterium/fungus/virus could also be involved? Maybe it is lacking some mineral?
I have used once every month a very strong antiparasitic, imidacloprid, so I tend to consider unlikely that some insect is responsible for this.
By the way, I want to suspend it because (in theory) the tree should start flowering soon and I don't want to cause any harm to the bees.
Which leads to my second question: how can I protect the plant from the feared Otiorhynchus? I have set a strip made of "wholly" material (i can't recall the name), which should trap the little beast on its way to the plant.
Any suggestions? Thanks in advance. Here are some photos.
I have two questions about a tree I bought around 6 months ago from an online seller and has been withering for the past 3 months or so.
It's a strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo. Despite the name, they don't have anything in common with strawberries, except the color of the fruit).
I decided to have a go at cultivating this because it takes the fruits a whole year to ripe, so in autumn it bears fruits and its beautiful white flowers at the same time, which is quite rare and gives a nice visual impact.
It thrived till around the end of June, then the leaves started to become brown and crunchy.
But it happened on the branches facing the sun: they withered and didn't sprout any new leaves; and it also happened to the leaves closest to the soil.
The rest of the tree isn't in great shape either, but it seems more or less ok, so far.
All seems to point to the sun and heat of Sicily being the cause of that: while I have seen this plant classified as "Mediterranean", so far I only have seen it in the wild in Sardinia, central Italy and northern Italy.
But I was wondering: is this the only possible explanation, and what could I do to help this small tree? Will it thrive again once the temperatures start to drop?
I have watered the plant regularly, around one time per week in the spring and 2-3 times in the summer; I have used a regular fertilizer (40-20-20); the ph of the soil is neutral.
Maybe some bacterium/fungus/virus could also be involved? Maybe it is lacking some mineral?
I have used once every month a very strong antiparasitic, imidacloprid, so I tend to consider unlikely that some insect is responsible for this.
By the way, I want to suspend it because (in theory) the tree should start flowering soon and I don't want to cause any harm to the bees.
Which leads to my second question: how can I protect the plant from the feared Otiorhynchus? I have set a strip made of "wholly" material (i can't recall the name), which should trap the little beast on its way to the plant.
Any suggestions? Thanks in advance. Here are some photos.