Super tangled Bradford pear clump

[Firstflush]

A low or half strength fish or kelp emulsion. Popped new growth. Feed it.

 

[Titratethis]

This is an awesome thread. How you get it to come back after it seemed to be on its deathbed? Surely you did something. Could be useful the next time i notice one of my specimens start to decline

 

[Titratethis]

It's still alive and has pushed these tiny leaves within the last 2-3 weeks.
View attachment 381872
This got a good spray of Bayer 3-in-1 after the photo was taken to take care of the mealybug(s). Last year the tiny leaves turned black pretty quickly due to fire (or some other) blight, so I'm taking care to keep leaves dry and spraying with copper sulfate occasionally. Other than the morning sun, bright shade, and careful watering, is there much else I can do to get this in a more energy-positive state? This had almost zero roots when collected, so I suppose it's fighting the chicken-and-egg problem of too few roots and too little leaf surface area to gain energy to produce more.

Low energy states are interesting because most people assume the energy is decreasing but it is just increasing slower than you are used to. It has little vigor basically. That's all. It could stay like this all year if you don't give it intensive care. Treat it like a cutting or the equivalent for a while. Cuttings are low energy states. Seedlings would be high energy states alongside air layers and succesful grafts. The perfect state is obviously your vigorous tree in summer that is long overdue for a pruning.

 

[canoeguide]

This is an awesome thread. How you get it to come back after it seemed to be on its deathbed? Surely you did something. Could be useful the next time i notice one of my specimens start to decline

Honestly, I didn't do much, and maybe that is, in fact, doing something. I didn't mess with it, and I didn't throw it out.

I kept the soil moist and kept it on a covered porch where it gets a few hours of morning sunlight then bright shade. Over winter, it was placed in a ditch with mulch on the north wall of a garage with my other hardy trees. It spent a significant portion of the winter buried under snow. If I did anything right, and if it makes it, I'd say it was keeping the soil moist but not wet, and keeping it out of direct afternoon sunlight or strong winds.

A low or half strength fish or kelp emulsion. Popped new growth. Feed it.

I'll try some weak fert, thanks!

 

[SniffingKrylon]

Happy there’s some green on there, pulling for you!