Hey everyone!  I need your help!!

As you know, I'm at my wit's end with the move and the gross invasion of contractors and their subs, but when they sprayed the wrought iron fence black, overspray got onto my 1 1/2' healthy in-ground Panachee.

I noticed all this black spotting and dying edges on the leaves, and then I decided to remove a few of the worst ones when I realized that it had been sprayed with harsh chemicals while we were at the other house and didn't know.

It now has no leaves, but the trunk is green when you scratch the bark.  It's a leafless trunk.  It's been two weeks and no sign of recovery.

It's in partial shade, but hot mid-day sun.  As it grows (if it does) higher, it will have sun all day.

What should I do?  Should I put shade cloth over it and mist it?  If so how much mist?

This makes me sick because it's FMV free!  I do have an alternate Panachee with FMV at the other house, but I would like to rescue this one!

Thanks in advance for your advice.

Suzi

Just let it bee, and keep it well watered.

Remove all leaves and any stems that may be contaminated. I don't know what chemical it was, but most likely it can get taken in through the plants surface. If it was in a pot I would remove the soil just in case any got in there.

Pictures would help as we don't know how big your tree is. But I'm guess that it is a single trunk tree. 

You can take a soil sample and smell it to see if it has a paint or solvent smell. If it does it needs to be replaced. When I first moved into my house, painters dumped their waste on my hillside. I wasn't able to grow anything in that spot for years.

Thanks for the answers! 

I'm attaching a photo of how it looked in April, when it was planted.



And how it looks now!  I removed most of the leaves.   It is a one trunk tree, but I have a feeling it is going to be multi-trunked after this, if it makes it!   The paint was something like rustoleum spray paint for metal.  They left a few cans lying around, but they are gone now.



The wire is for protection against voles and rabbits.  The entire rooting system is in a gopher basket.  I did what I could to protect it, but that spray paint was unexpected.

I will sniff some soil, but since it's just spray, I'm sure it's dried on pebbles.  The tree gets watered daily on the drip system.

Thanks so much for all the great advice!  Keep it coming!

Suzi

Well I thought the tree was bigger actually. With a tree that size I would dig it up and move to a different spot to be safe. If the soil is contaminated it can take a long time for it to clear up. Also when you move it I would add some organic soil in the next hole you dig. You soil looks robbed of nutrients and mostly clay or sand. Doing so might help your tree grow back faster and healthy. If you can't move it just give it time. 

It might help if you shade it from the mid day sun until it recovers and regrows leaves.

I am no expert but if it were me I would have dug it up, put it in a pot with rich new soil and brought it into an area with a bit of shade till it starts to bounce back. As for where the tree was I would dig up as much of the soil you feel is contaminated and get rid of it. Not sure if its the paint or the actual propellant that they used to spray the paint. I also agree that the soil looks very poor in nutrients.

Hey Jarrett!

When we planted the tree in April, we dug in plenty of soil amendments.  Our soil is alkaline, decomposed granite, and it drains very well.  Our other figs are growing like crazy in-ground, but they didn't get hit with over-spray!

Jon saved this very tree one time a couple years ago when I fried it's roots in it's pot in the heat of the Southern California Desert.  It's in the cool ground now with day time temps in the late 90's and evenings pleasantly cool.  Jon told me to douse it with a lot of water, give it a couple hours and then water it with Miracle Grow, and the tree bounced back very fast.  I intend to try that tonight.

The Panachee can grow very tall, but I'm not sure my other 2 gal (waiting to be planted) varieties will do that.  It's planted in a spot that will shade the house on the West side in the hot summers, and a view deck in the hot mornings.  I've got Bourgosotte (sp) Gris, Verde, and Marseilles Vs Black that can take Panachee's place, but I don't know if they have what it takes to grow really tall.  We just planted VdB in a place where we don't need a lot of height.  Vdb is known not to grow really large, but it's all relative.  Our home is 2 story, and the upstairs could use nice shade, plus I will be able to pick lots of Panachee figs from the deck, so I hope this tree makes it. 

I am listening to all this great advice!  Keep it coming!

Thanks!

Suzi

Joe and Paul, I'll drape shade cloth over it until I see it coming back. 

That should help!

Suzi

Suzi,

  When they were spraying the iron were they using cans of paint or were they using spray guns? The reason I ask is that if it were cans the propellant in the cans will travel deep into the soil and that will need to be removed with the soil. No amending of the soil will correct that if its propellant. Had my central AC serviced once and the propellant which is very much like what is in canned paint spilled out of the system on to the surrounding grass. This happened 7 years ago and to this day the patch is still barren. Nothing grows there.

  Now if they used a spray gun then that was hooked up to a compressor. The compressor is just compressed air and at that point you should only need to remove maybe the first few inches of soil from around your plant. The good thing about paint unlike the propellant is that it dries and once dry only the area with the actual paint in it will be contaminated. It of course over time would break down but for right now simply removing soil with paint and a few inches below for possible leeching and your soil should be fine.

Paul,

They used spray cans.  I know because we found a couple they discarded.  Things do grow in the soil because every morning, I pull baby palm trees and weeds from around the Panachee.  They grow well because the soil is wet.  This morning I discarded 5 baby Queen Palms, roots and all, so I think the soil is OK.  The tree was planted deep, and the roots are deep.

Here is a photo to give you perspective.  You can kind of see the cage around the poor trunk (hard to see without leaves on the tree), but I wanted you to see what they were spraying.  They got nothing on the deck, so they covered it, but not my precious tree.  The palm seems to have suffered no damage.  Wish I would have been here when they did it!!



I will replace the top 2 inches of soil, and am hitting it with a long drink of water followed by miracle grow this evening. 

Thanks again for the great advice.  I will post photos when leaves start to show again... Fingers crossed :-))

Suzi

Next year, after we finish the move, I'll have tons of baby Queen Palms to gift!  To me, they are weeds!

Dig it up, wash off all the soil, replant in the shade and hope for the best. I bet it will bounce back.

It is clearly stressed. So remove the stresses. Shade is a good idea. Patience is a good idea. Digging it up, removing all the soil, etc. only adds more and new stresses.

Good luck Suzi! Hope the best for your little panache fig tree. I lost mine at the beginning of the season. We have had crazy amounts of rain this year. I think it got over watered.

You are a wise man, Jon, and I will take your advice.  We do not want to add more stress to this tree.  I will do the tacky thing and clip shade cloth over the entire thing with clothespins!!  I will also soak it well, wait 2 hours, then let it absorb miracle grow.  You saved it for me with that method before, and I will do that, but I will not dig it up and cause it more stress.

TY Jon!

Suzi

I am sure that someone will be able to get you a few cuttings of the Panachee just in case you need them, for instance I would most likley have 2-3 dozen cuttings this fall from a tree in pot that I am not watering but it's growing really vigorously after being cut to a stump last year.

Good luck with it!

Sorry if I confused you when I told you about my AC propellant. That was an extreme of pure propellant in a small area. Yours obviously was not that extreme and I think things will still grow there just that anything that does has to be very hardy like your palms. The plant is absorbing either the paint or propellant through its root system since you said that the tree itself is not painted. So to me the only stress that's on the tree at this moment is the soil. Remove the soil, remove the stress on the tree. Otherwise in my opinion every time the tree gets watered you will push that propellant right into the roots of the plant.

suzi,

i know little about figs, but my rule for ailing plants is shade. i think partial shade will help any sick plant. do go ahead and shade it.

susie

Hi Suzi

I'm not sure if anyone else mentioned this, but in addition to removing some soil, protecting from sun, etc. I think i would put down a nice layer of mulch all around the base of that tree for as far as you can. This will help cool the top layers of soil, keep it from parching and keep your drip water irrigation system from just evaporating. It might even look nice! :-)

Good luck and I'm sure it will survive.

Mulch is a great idea!  We have tons of it below the pine trees, and the silk oak.  I will remove some soil, and cross my fingers it chokes out weeds wherever that bad soil lands!!

Thanks!

Suzi

Hi Again

not the best picture to really capture my initial stages of a fig hedge, BUT you can see the nice thick layer of pine bark mulch that i have around three Hardy Chicago and a Celeste that comprise my first year at a fig hedge. Mulch is good: keeps weeds out, moderates soil temperature, keeps water from evaporating.

Best of luck!

I agree with Jon about stress but if the soil is contaminated and the plant remains in that soil the stress remains with perhaps long term terminal damage. I still would remove it and wash as much stuff  from the roots and stem, soak it in a weak solution of M.G.for a few hours (kinda flushing the system). Re pot in good soil in the shade, see if it recovers then plant in ground in clean mix. It's not too active without its leaves so IMHO the methods of salvation described above shouldn't cause any more stress and ,in fact, relieve some. These plants are pretty resilient.

We removed about 6" of soil, put new clean soil in it's place, watered deeply and added diluted Miracle Grow, covered it all with mulch, and I then covered the entire vole protection cage with shade cloth.  I left a couple peep holes on the side protected by the house so I can see if and when something green appears.

I'll keep you posted, but I feel good that I at least tried. 

Thanks!

Suzi