Re: two problems

Reid Family wrote:
Dear Collective Plant Wisdom:
I need info on two separate situations.
1. Our church has 2 60-year old Italian cypress planted in front that need some shaping. One is 8-10 feet taller than the other, and I meant to have it topped and shaped to match the other. A gentleman in the church has said that will make the tree sprout off in different directions from the top, and it shouldn't be done. Anyone have experience with this situation?
You have already had good advice about this to which I add my own voice
(after thirty years spent pruning professionally). At that venerable age
and with such a big height difference any action designed to try and
force a match on the two would amount to butchery and would most
probably result in badly distorted new growth or even death for the big
one. Please leave them alone and allow them to continue express their
individuality. I am not sure if feeding the smaller one at this mature
stage will make much difference, but it _could_ result in a spurt of
growth that would lessen the contrast between the two.

A light trim of both trees if necessary to bring back the odd
sticking-out branch into line and improve the contours is the most that I think can be safely attempted.
2. I brought home 3 lovely jade plants from my mother-in-law's patio, and have put them on my front porch which is shaded, but receives indirect light. I have only watered them once since I brought them home 2 months ago. I also put them out in the sun for a few hours one day because we had been having so much rain, I thought they might need a little more light. I confess I know precious little about their care, never having raised them before. Now the oldest, largest one is showing brown "scabs" on some of its leaves, and I am wondering if I sunburnt them back a few weeks ago, or if I shouldn't have watered them, or if I'm not watering them enough. Anyone grow these who can offer some advice on their culture to get them back looking happy again. In fact, the two smaller varieties still look fine.
There is a bit of problem here as there are two ite different plants
with that name. One (Portulacaria) will grow in sun or shade, while the
other (Crassula) likes full sun all the time. I suspect your plant is
most likely to be the latter (especially a Botanica mentions a dwarf
form, "Hobbit"), but you can tell by looking at how the leaves are
arranged, Crassula has its leaves in pairs up the stem while in
Portulacaria they are arranged altenately.. The Portulacaria, as well as the common green, comes in tricoloured and bicoloured (Yellow and green)forms also.

The most likely reason for the scabs I can think of _is_ sunburn. If plants have been in low light for some time they can get sunburnt just like people and will need to be re-acclimatised to the brighter light and more heat gradually in just the same way. You could for instance set your plants outside in the morning, but take them in before the day heats up a lot. Succulents are particualarly likely to burn if there are drops of water on the foliage which can act as a lens to focus the sun's rays, and this can sometimes lead to spotty damge.

Another possible cause could be a mite attack and it is probably worth looking at the scabs with a hand lens to see if there is anything alive and moving on them.

As to watering, now it is summer with you I don't think you should keep them on quite such a spartan regime. Provided they are in a free-draining mix I should think a generous drink about once in three weeks would be approprite for the hot months.

Moira
--
Tony & Moira Ryan,
Wainuiomata, North Island, NZ. Pictures of our garden at:-
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/cherie1/Garden/TonyandMoira/index.htm
NEW PICTURES AND DIAGRAMS ADDED 20/Feb/2005



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