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How to treat diseased Silver Princess?

Hello,

I planted a young silver princess (20cm pot) about 7 months ago. It has failed to thrive, and features red/brown and black spots on the leaves. Leaves don’t seem to drop, but just look deformed in shape and terribly damaged with spots. New leaf growth is stunted, deformed and spotted also.
Perhaps of further issue, I noticed a grub feasting on the new growth (branches were stripped bare). I removed the grub which allowed for new growth, but again, it’s failing to thrive due to the disease.
Images show leaf, trunk, and new growth. It seems that the plant is trying to grow but something’s very wrong 😮‍💨
May you help please?

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Comments

JacobZ

Hi @francescal,

Thank you for your question about your Silver Princess and welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community, it is brilliant to have you join us.

The cause of the stress on your plant could be down to a number of things including drainage, lack of nutrients, soil PH levels and of course pests such as grubs.

You might like to have a read of How to diagnose a sick plant for some guidance on diagnosing the specific issues.

You might also like to have a read of How to save Silver Princess dropping leaves and Silver Princess Eucalyptus marks on leaves as some examples of what can be done to fix issues with silver princess trees.

Allow me to tag some of helpful gardeners for their thoughts @Noelle, @mich1972, @HitOrMiss.

Jacob

gamefisherman

Get a systemic fungicide spray @francescal and give it a good spray. It may need two applications two weeks apart. Then give it two sprays of white oil over a fortnight. Pull any mulch back from the trunk so the ground around it can dry. Next sprinkle some anti fungal powder as well as spreading a slow release native fertiliser. Wash in with Seasol. Get the tree healthy again takes a bit of time but this will work. Keep branches from reaching the ground (ie cut them off before they hit the ground) and regularly rake around the canopy on the lawn to get rid of diseased or old leaves. If not resolved in a month after the above just repeat the above. You can also spray it with copper, or pyrethrum as an secondry response. Good luck, they are a stunning tree. Oh I forgot they don’t like wet feet so spray an anti rot tree root spray as well to protect the roots.

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