Am I killing my plants with kindness?

[Guitar God]

I'm trying to grow a few papaya, mancoot and champoo trees, tomato, peppers, berries etc. in the yard and seriously, the regrowth of vegetation they clear-cut with a front loader next door is doing better after two weeks than my plants and garden after two months. I know champoo prefer shade so I'm trying to give them shade with an umbrella. Would the 85% green or blue plastic shading screen help them from dying off before things get established, or bring in some mature trees?

[Guitar God]

Too much water, too much direct sun?

No matter which orientation I post the photo, the forum rotates it sideways, the plant is growing vertically.

Edited June 2, 2015 by Guitar God

[samuijimmy]

From the image it's not getting much shade... why not do a better job of covering it for a few weeks...while it roots in.

Also remove the grass from around it... that is taking up water that the roots need....

[cooked]

The hottest time of the year isn't necessarily the best time to plant stuff.

How long do you plan on keeping an umbrella as shading? Plant some quick growing vegetation to replace it sooner or later, with a long term plan of removing that when slower growing stuu has matured. Plastic netting in a garden? Yuck.

[Guitar God]

Thanks for both tips. They were planted a couple months ago when it wasn't quite as hot and I thought they'd have taken hold by now. I water them deeply and less frequently than the garden but cutting away more grass should help. Not that many weeds to pull.

The umbrella, aside from looking ting tong, gives them shade from about 10 to 4. Photo was from around 5pm.

Does it look more like too much sun, or not enough water though?

[frank0424]

Too much water, too much direct sun?

No matter which orientation I post the photo, the forum rotates it sideways, the plant is growing vertically. image.jpg

The roots of the grass growing around it are sucking up all the nutrients from the soil so clear it away from the plant as Samuijimmy said. Also it appears youve been watering it when its hot..Dont. Do it in the cool of the evening or morning.

Edited June 3, 2015 by frank0424

[FangFerang]

The leaves seem to indicate either under-watering or root grubs...maybe try some prescribed insecticide.

[Remi080]

I made a tripod once with the green plastic net to cover the tree, that works fine untill the roots are stong enaugh. In my experience, trees who are full in the sun cover them with the green plastic net and keep the soil wet. Some soil in thai gets to compact after you give a lot of water, the water will stay on top of the soil after that, and not run down the roots. Make sure the soil is loose and open, so the water will run deep to the roots. For farming on big scale, a hose with sprankler system to keep the soil wet all the time works very well to. Some new houses in thai are the gardens filled up with earth from a old pool or river, black klay, this stuff keeps out water running into the ground when its dryed out. Its like a waterproof layer. Underneath that clay layer is your exually ground layer, and that will be hard and dry as @฿%. Dig deep and wilde for new trees, use a lot fertilizer, or (poei) the stuff they sell everywhere in the white bags to give a new tree enaugh food and water for its roots to expand, and your tree will be thankfull to you.

[xen]

The leaves seem to indicate either under-watering or root grubs...maybe try some prescribed insecticide.

Could very well be but it also could be overwatering too and the ground is getting anaerobic. Although both signs of either overwatering or underwatering is indicated by a bit more splotchy marks all over the leaf. I personally think it is good ole sunburn especially if the plant is being watered and the leaves are wet when the sun strikes it. That is one of the reasons for early morning or evening watering especially if you are washing down the leaves with water .

Edited June 3, 2015 by xen

[xen]

I am not sure about the effect from keeping grass short around plants you try to grow.

For sure nothing growing around is the best. But short grass grows fast, and needs, uses more nutrients. While long grass doesn't grow anymore, and use less nutrients. I just think I noticed something like this at my pineapple plantation.

Arjen.

I would be removing all grass from around the base of the plant for about 500 mm diameter and then using mulch instead (but not right up to the trunk ) though. The benefits of mulch are that it will suppress weeds, reduce ground water evaporation , help with avoiding some soil compaction , and it will also keep soil temperatures lower and more even and if it is organic like wood bark , sawdust or even compost it will decompose and add organic mater to the soil . You just need to be careful however with nitrogen draw-down as the mulch decomposes ( look for yellowing leaves on the plant) so a bit of nitrogen fertiliser after the tree has established it self is always a good idea. I would not give any tree under stress like this one any strong fertilizer until after it has established itself apart from maybe some very weak seaweed fertiliser formulations , perhaps in a foliar spray at evening . If the mulch is pebble or stone or broken tile then it permanent but does not add the organic matter.

[bassman]

With the tips of the leaves "burning" especially the top new leaf, you might take a look at fertilization also. Too much anytime or at the wrong time could be a problem. However as others have noted many conditions could also cause similar damage.

[samuijimmy]

Some good responses here

As for some kind of shade netting to cover the plant in the initial stages first month or two, I know does not look attractive, but it does help...

With the grass to the stem, the first thing that will likely happen when it is cut is the bark will get whacked off... definately not good!

Remi80 advice on digging a hole twice as wide and deep is good for any new planting, mix some of the bagged soil with existing soil would help!

By now I would expect to see new foliage starting to develop... the lower leaves maybe just ready to drop off anyway....

With larger plants when I move them, I generally strip off most of the foliage ... as roots cannot pull up enough water to feed the leaves... until new roots have re-established...

Good luck!

[mogoso]

You can find a cheap 3 in 1 meter (on Amazon) giving you ph, moisture and light for less than $5 US with free shipping from Hong Kong. It'll answer a lot of your questions as different trees require different PH and different soil types. Some like Mangosteen need shade. They have more expensive ones, up to you

[pigeonjake]

my 2 peneth worth,

when we plant new trees as we have been doing with the lamutine,

i dig the hole, put plenty of well rotted pig poo in the bottom,( this will give the tree a good kick start)

mix a little bit more with the soil to go back into the hole,

we knock 4 bamboo poles in about a mtr long and wrap 50% shade green net round the tree, this stays there for about 6 month,

we have the plastic pipe running to all our trees with the small yellow nipple you put in the pipe, its just a metter of drilling a small hole in the pipe and pop in the nipple, then it only waters were you want to water, unlike the sprinklers,

and if possible only water at night, 5,to 6pm then the trees will have a full at least 12 hours to take the water, were as if you water in the morning maybe a couple of hours before the sun is taking water away,

and we also mulch but with our black gold,,,lol yes again well rotted pig poo,

saying all this im no expert, this is just waht works for us, and i will add we water every day, some trees want more water then others and lamutine take a lot of water,

as around the thais, what knind of trees you hve and how much water they need,

jake