How do you care for a magnolia little gem

Care: ‘Little Gem’ needs a well-drained soil and a position in full sun or part shade. Mulch to keep the roots cool and moist, and give an occasional deep soaking in prolonged dry periods. Remove seed heads after flowering to encourage new growth and more flowers.

Soil Nutrition

Soils rich in humus or widely amended with compost or well-rotted manure usually provide ample nutrients for a healthy Little Gem tree.

Place the container where it will get full sun to partial shade. The best flowering occurs with ample sunlight. However, if you find your tree is withering in a hot, sunny location, move it to a slightly shadier spot. Water several times a week for the first few months to keep the soil moist but not soggy.

The tree thrives in a variety of light conditions, from partial shade to full sun, although too much shade may decreases flowering. If your soil is a moist peat, “Little Gem” magnolias will do well in full sun and hot conditions, while trees planted in dry soil will fare better in partial shade.

Coffee grounds are high in nitrogen, and as you may already know, magnolia trees love nitrogen. You can apply coffee grounds to your magnolia tree by mixing them in with the mulch, compost, or by mixing them with a liquid fertilizer.

An appropriate fertilizer for a magnolia tree would be 12-4-8 or 20-5-10. The amount of fertilizer given is based on the amount of nitrogen required. A general guideline to use for a magnolia tree would be 1/10 pound of nitrogen for every inch of trunk diameter.

Water in well. Water deeply, twice to three times a week, depending on soil and weather conditions. During the flowering period, feed every 1 to 2 weeks with Yates Thrive Natural Roses and Flowers Liquid Plant Food.

Growth Rate

This tree grows at a slow rate, with height increases of less than 12″ per year.

Foliage of ‘Little Gem’ Southern Magnolia. The five to 8-inch-long, leathery, oblong, shiny leaves are shed as new foliage emerges in the spring. The large, slowly-decomposing leaves drop on the sidewalk or patio and are considered by some people to be messy or a nuisance to clean up.

Do not be afraid to overwater at planting, as this will help the roots establish. But avoid keeping the tree in saturated soil. While magnolias do well in areas where moisture applications range in extremes from too dry to too wet, any plant’s roots can drown if it’s constantly kept in water.

Magnolias are susceptible to a few pests and diseases such as baterical leaf spot, magnolia boreres, spot anthracnose, canker, dieback, butt rot, powdery mildew, anthracnose, fungal spots, snails, weevils, scale insects, planthoppers, and thrips. I believe in your case dieback is probably the culprit.

Most magnolias prefer acidic to neutral soil. If you don’t have the right soil in your garden, or don’t have room for a large tree, the smaller magnolias grow very well in pots. Magnolias need a sheltered spot, away from strong winds. Avoid frost pockets, as frost can damage the flowers in spring.

Watering Magnolias

In general, you should water magnolia trees once a week during the first two growing seasons and twice a month in subsequent years. Magnolias planted in sandy soils need regular watering in smaller amounts, while magnolias in clay soils require deep, infrequent waterings.

Magnolias can grow in shade but they bloom best and most generously in full sun. Soil quality might also have a role in the problem. It is best to use rich, acidic, well-drained soil with a pH of 5.5 to 6.5, amended with organic material. A soil test can help explain why a magnolia tree doesn’t flower.

Unless your tree is meant to be a showpiece, there’s no reason to treat this infection. Instead, support your tree with proper watering and feeding. If you must treat it, use a fungicide and be careful to get all the algal spots at once.

Leaf spots, bacterial blight and verticillium wilt are a few of the diseases that can infect magnolias, reports University of California Statewide Integrated Pest Management. … Ensure the tree has proper airflow through the branches by pruning deceased, crossed and overcrowded limbs from the magnolia.

Feeding magnolias

Magnolia trees need lots of mulch – ideally every autumn they should get a good helping of compost, leaf mould or well-rotted manure. This feeds them up and keeps weeds down. Magnolias have big leaves, which means that they need lots of water, especially when young.

Magnolia trees appreciate mulch, which helps the soil retain moisture and feeds the roots as it decomposes. Mulch also prevents weeds from growing where they can ruin the look of the garden and steal nutrients from hungry magnolias.

Magnolias do best when the soil is neutral to slightly acidic. … Poor irrigation is another reason you might have magnolia leaves turning yellow and brown. Too little water can cause drought stress, which results in yellowing leaves on magnolias. Too much water, or soil that doesn’t drain well, can drown the tree roots.

Fertilize the dwarf magnolia beginning in its third growing season. Use 1 cup of a 10-10-10 fertilizer around the trunk in March, May and July. Increase the amount of fertilizer by 1 cup each year for four years, and apply it from the edge of the canopy to six feet beyond the canopy.

WHEN AND HOW TO RE-POT A MAGNOLIA

When you buy your Magnolia it may require immediate re-planting or after several years it may outgrow the existing container. The best time of year to re-plant a Magnolia tree is in late winter to early spring.

To see if your tree is still alive take your finger and scrape the branches. If the tissue underneath is green or has a green cast to it, the tree is still alive. You will need to prune off any deceased till you reach the green tissue. When you planted the magnolia trees, did make sure not to plant them too deep.

You can examine the buds more closely to determine when they died. If they are brown all through, they have been deceased for a while. Also, you can examine the cambium layer (just below the outer layer of bark) on several branches to see if it is still green, or brown and deceased.