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In the past, I’ve dropped a lot of useful tips in this feature. Here are a few you might recall:
But today I’m doing a twist on the IQ-tip and turning it around. You see, my wife and I bought a house back in April and there were 3 cute little tree ferns on the property. They looked as if they’d been there for decades. (The house was built in 1926.)
But over the past months, one has died and the other two have been slowly following suit. The worst part is, we can’t figure out why. Not especially knowledgeable about trees and shrubs, we put our heads together and came up with an exhaustive list of ideas to help save the ferns:
- Watering
You see the problem. So… anyone have any ideas? We think it’s in the cyathea atrox family, if that means anything to anyone. Or maybe it’s an Ostrich fern. I remember eating fiddleheads once as a kid, which I believe are the curled-up, immature fronds of Ostrich ferns. They were pretty tasty but I don’t recall what the trunk of the Ostrich fern looks like. As you can see from my photos, these ferns have short-ish, stumpy trunks.
Any green-thumbs out there have a real idea about how to save our ferns?
Comments (15)
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w/out knowing much about the sunlight or watering you’re providing, you could jump start it with some seaweed emulsion…Here’s a website that might help with some ideas – journeytoforever.org
and from their site – “Liquid seaweed emulsion is one of the best sources of micronutrients and a real soil and plant health booster. Use some in the watering can every two weeks.”
posted by donner on 9-27-2007 at 8:51 am
Have you looked at the undersides of the leaves? Can you see any tiny insects, or a sticky substance on the plant?
Have you fertilized recently?
My first impression from the photos is either some sort of insect infestation, or leaf tip burn, which can be caused by over-fertilizing.
If it has insects, a lot of pesticides will kill the fern along with the pests. One safe possibility is watered-down Dawn dishwashing liquid sprayed all over the plant, including the undersides of the leaves. It won’t kill every potential pest, but it shouldn’t kill the fern. Just don’t do it in the middle of the day when it’s warm and sunny. Wait until evening, or the leaves could burn.
My two cents.
posted by Bre on 9-27-2007 at 8:57 am
A friend at work says she had this same thing happen and it was bugs. She called out an arborist who cleaned out all the dead parts, applied plant friendly insecticides and she has to have the tree treated 2x a year to keep it alive.
posted by Scott on 9-27-2007 at 9:21 am
Some questions that might be helpful to answer:
What makes you think they’ve been there for long?
What temperate zone do you live in?
How are you treating them (i.e. water, soil type & quality, fertilizer, etc)?
How do the other leaves look? Is there a visible bug/worm/snail/pest/mold problem?
Is the “bark” on the “trunk” moist and squishy or hard and dry?
How does the soil around the fern feel? Dry? Moist? Rich? Sticky? Sandy?
How is the sunlight where they are? Shady? Sunny? Intermediate? Intermittent?
Have they progressively and consistently been losing leaves all summer, or is this the first you’ve seen? How much have they lost?
My initial reaction is that ferns will always brown somewhat at the tips, and this summer has been especially hot and dry (in the Northeast), so they may brown even more than usual. It could be that the ferns are actually new and not suited to their location or your patterns of plant care. The internets have tons and tons of resources for plant care. You can consult a local plant person or check a plant guide to determine what species the fern is and decide if it is in a good location and being treated appropriately.
posted by astrid on 9-27-2007 at 9:21 am
Stop watering your ferns.
Seriously… ferns start to die if you overwater them. Stick your finger in the soil… if you feel moisture, don’t water.
posted by Jason! on 9-27-2007 at 9:25 am
My ferns didn’t start growing well until I used an acidic fertilizer (like one you would use for azaleas, etc.)
posted by Gina on 9-27-2007 at 9:59 am
Well, I’m not so knowledgeable about plants….but I am an avid coffee drinker so I can tell you this: Coffee grinds work great as fertilizer and you can go into any Starbucks coffee and they usually give you used grinds for free. You should check it out, try adding some to the soil.
Good luck
posted by Pam on 9-27-2007 at 10:19 am
If it is bugs, a plant friendly approach is to spray a biodegradable soap and water mixture onto the leaves. It doesn’t hurt the plant, but the soap particles break the hydrogen bonds in the water, allowing it to go into the bugs’ breathing openings. This works nicely for ants if you don’t want Raid fumes (I use Windex on ant trails in my house).
Good luck! I hate it when plants die.
posted by PeteRepeat42 on 9-27-2007 at 10:25 am
I think they are suffering from Autumn. They’ll likely grow back next spring. Mine do.
posted by Miss Cellania on 9-27-2007 at 10:26 am
I googled this. Hope it helps…
http://www.gardenadvice.co.uk/howto/trees/ferns/index.html
posted by Jason! on 9-27-2007 at 12:48 pm
I agree with Miss Cellania…I worked as a caregiver for a woman with lots of plants. Around this time of year her ferns would start to “die” I freaked out the first year, but then they grew back in the spring. They’re very resilient, like the sharks of plants-little has changed in them since the dinosaur days
posted by ASHLEY on 9-27-2007 at 1:12 pm
Most ferns shed their leaves (they are deciduous, not evergreen) in the winter, so, if you live in a temperate climate and the deciduous trees in your area are beginning to turn, it may be very natural.
posted by Ron on 9-27-2007 at 5:22 pm
wow! thanks y’all. i’m going to check for bugs, and look at these links, and try to figure out what’s what. we live in LA, so i don’t think it’s a seasonal thing, but our birch is shedding some leaves, so maybe!
stay tuned!
posted by David on 9-27-2007 at 9:39 pm
Could it be that it senses your cannibalistic instincts to eat its young and si it shies away from you? ;)
posted by medea on 9-27-2007 at 9:54 pm
your fern is spearopteris genus and probably not atrox wich has very orange tomentos scales. judging by the fronds your plant is not getting enough water simple as that. if the new fronds twist slightly and are deformd then it is a desease called rizoctonia and the plant will die
posted by RORY on 1-11-2008 at 6:59 am