Hello all, I have a major problem of 4 - 1meter plus sick dying Sabara Jaboticaba's (Image attached) 6 - 300mm Grimal Jaboticaba's as well as 1 Purple Mangosteen and 1 Bakupari.
All are kept for the past 6-12 months under a large olive tree. Referring to the Jaboticaba's I had 4 of them started losing leaves 3months ago. New growth was pushing through so I didn't think much of it. But now the trees are 90% bare as all the new growth is dying off before the buds open.
Problem solving things I have tried to no avail.
- Increasing watering, Seaweed solution, Fertiliser, Molasses
After a month of no improvements I figure it was the soil. I repotted some and noticed healthy black rich organic soil, plenty earth worms and swarm of pill bugs. I then flushed them all with neem oil to get rid of the pill bugs... Not sure it that was a good idea?
- In 2 of the Jaboticaba's repotting i noticed lots of the roots were black and breaking easily. 2 looked all white and healthy. I then used some Anti Rot Fungicide to help prevent more root loss.
Still no change in any of them for about 1 week, so I have decided to move them out from under the olive tree. I put some in full shade as some younger leaves were getting tip burn, and the other's I put in part sun/shade. I have a sneaky suspicion the Olive tree is killing them - perhaps poisonous sap leaking out? Possum urine? Most of my fruit trees are in pots currently have over 100pots 70+ tropical fruit varieties. Most of them are in the out skirts of the olive branches. A few plants closer to the trunk seem to struggle more.
As for the Purple Mangosteen, I live in the subtropics, but where I live you are not supposed to be able to grow it. I had it surrounded by plenty other plants over winter and it survived with only slight tip burn from the cold. It is now well into summer and some new shoots and poking through. However as soon as I was excited to see it growing, I noticed more burn on the leaves, and now the stem which was thick and full is now looking wrinkly and it's just not as strong as it was 2 months ago. Also had a lot of pill bugs in the soil, and so many earth worms... I'm thinking perhaps too many earthworms? I have a larger yellow mangosteen which just put on a flurry of new growth, but now also looks a bit weak. Is it normal for garcinia's to look ill while they push out new growth? Very strange.
If anyone has any advice PLEASE help me out! I have collected over 70 varieties of fruit trees, my favorite of them all is the Jaboticaba's followed by my Garcinia range, and out of all my plants my 2 fav's are now dying
Any help appreciated