Privet Thin Canopy and What to Do

Q. What is wrong with this bush or tree? What can I do to make it look healthy?

Not the tree reader is talking about but it does have a "thin" canopy. It is not dense. How to thicken it? More water and applied to a wider area and add fertilizer once a year. If it is yellow like this, add chelated iron (I prefer iron EDDHA) to the fertilizer in very early spring. It may need compost added to the soil top as well.

A. What I am seeing is a thin canopy and some leaves that have brown tips (leaf scorch). I think this is a ligustrum or privet. When I see a thin canopy, it usually means the soil has “run out’ of organics. Rake the rock on top of the soil back about two feet in all directions and apply a thin layer of compost. This compost will “dissolve” into the soil with water and increase the “organics”. Japanese privet in particular has a difficult time holding leaves when grass is removed.

Leaf scorch or tip burn revealing the plant is not getting enough water, it is planted in a place that is too hot, or plant nutrition is bad. Increase the water to the plant, consider moving it to a new spot, or improve its nutrition with fertilizers or compost or both.

            This time of year (beginning of October) we are transitioning from watering three times a week to two times a week. Each application should be about 5 to ten gallons of water applied to this area via three to four emitters. This can be calculated with the number of minutes you are applying water combined with the size and number of drip emitters. To change the amount of water, do not alter the minutes but instead increase the size of the emitters, or increase number of drip emitters.

            The other option is to replace the surface rock with a layer of fine woodchips over this same area. For faster results apply a thin layer of compost to the soil surface and water it in. Then cover this area with woodchips.