4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[chickencam]

Anyone else having problems after the winter?

 

I have quite a large bay tree that is about 10 years old and it has been growing strongly until this spring when it has loads of dead branches. i have removed a lot of them but I think that bits of it are still dying There is also new growth on the tips of the healthy branches though so I am confused.

[Milly]

I have one in a pot which has gone yellow and is not growing any more. I think it may have got a scale insect infestation, but it's certainly looking very sorry for itself. The cold winter probably didn't help.

 

Milly

[jackiepoppies]

RIP my bay in a pot

 

No idea why it expired. Perhaps I should have given it a bigger pot or put it in the ground

 

Jx

[Becka]

My bay trees are looking far from healthy. Their leaves are an olive colour and they're smothered with flowers. I was beginning to wonder wether they're flowering so profusely because they're about to die. In a last ditched attempt to revive them, I've top dressed the soil in their pots with compost and chicken pellets to see if lack of nutrients is the problem. I'm not sure there are very many chicken pellets left because the cat and dogs have enjoyed digging for food!

Becka

[Lesley]

I lost two well grown ones and a baby one over winter

[Valkyrie]

They aren't hardy plants really, so the cold spell with the snow and frost sounds the likely cause of it. My mum gave me her bay which is grown next to a yew tree - it protects the base very well. After one frosty snap I lost most of the plant which was about 4/5ft tall, but there was a little shoot at the bottom that looked very strong. I cut off all the dead or dying parts and several years later (and many flowering sessions) it is now about 7ft tall and hasn't been affected by this winter at all. My MIL also had a bay tree and several times it was knocked back by the cold, and she nearly lost the whole thing - she wondered about replacing it with another plant when she spotted a little green shoot growing through the soil - she still has the plant and that was about 20 years ago. Perhaps they need to go through a harsh winter for them to adapt for the future.

[KateG]

I have 2 in pots that are doing exactly the same. They really look unhappy.

 

Am I still able to use the bay leaves for seasoning, do you think? Or should I leave it to re-coup? (maybe the flavour wont' be all that if it is suffering anyway).

[Valkyrie]

Perhaps they need some new compost or a bigger pot. If it isn't pot bound you could dig a couple of inches out at the top and put some new fresh compost with a little seaweed feed. Or try with a little seaweed meal sprinkled around the top and water in - it might be a bit hungry in the pot.

[chickencam]

Mine now has quite a bit of new growth but even more brown bits, so I am going to remove all the dead parts and hope for the best. I have a smaller one which is in a more sheltered position and that is fine but it has nothing like the flavour of the larger one. This may be to do with it's size and age.

 

The big one is about 7ft away from a beech hedge which is the only protection that it has from a cold easterly wind, so I suspect it was the cold winter that damaged it.

[Cinnamon]

I have 2 standard Bays,both pretty young,& both have had brown leaves too, but both now have heaps of new bright green growth & are looking much perkier.

 

 

'Scuse the fairy lights