Hi all -- OK, I searched the group archives on
wisteria and can't find an answer to my question, so
here it is:

I have a purple wisteria that I planted next to a dead
tree in my front yard last Spring - I'm planning to
train it up the trunk. It gets full sun all day
(pruned all the big branches off the tree), and it did
spectacularly well last year. It even bloomed in
April! I pruned it in September and now it seems very
unhappy. The new leaves that have come in since
pruning are light green and now are starting to turn
brown. I gave it some ironite, thinking the light
green leaves were indicating an iron deficiency -- the
soil in our front yard is nice and organic down to
about 8-10 inches, when it turns to caliche, but I
didn't think this was a huge problem for Wisteria.
I'm wondering if it's just in the process of losing
it's leaves for the winter and I'm worrying for
nothing. Should I mulch it for the winter? Fertilize?
If so, with what? Help!!

Thanks -- M9

Xref: 127.0.0.1 austin.gardening:19689

Yikes. If you are lucky, it will die. Although it is pretty, it has a wild
root system and spreads underground. It'll be popping out of the ground all
over the place. If that's what you want, then go for it.

"minerva nine" wrote in message
...
Hi all -- OK, I searched the group archives on
wisteria and can't find an answer to my question, so
here it is:

I have a purple wisteria that I planted next to a dead
tree in my front yard last Spring - I'm planning to
train it up the trunk. It gets full sun all day
(pruned all the big branches off the tree), and it did
spectacularly well last year. It even bloomed in
April! I pruned it in September and now it seems very
unhappy. The new leaves that have come in since
pruning are light green and now are starting to turn
brown. I gave it some ironite, thinking the light
green leaves were indicating an iron deficiency -- the
soil in our front yard is nice and organic down to
about 8-10 inches, when it turns to caliche, but I
didn't think this was a huge problem for Wisteria.
I'm wondering if it's just in the process of losing
it's leaves for the winter and I'm worrying for
nothing. Should I mulch it for the winter? Fertilize?
If so, with what? Help!!

Thanks -- M9

Is there some sort of posting FAQ for this group? I
have posted only a couple of times, but everything
I've posted gets a non-informative answer like this
one, or there is no response at all. Am I posting the
questions incorrectly Is there another group I should
be posting to?

M9

"Gary Harper"
wrote in message
...
| Yikes. If you are lucky, it will die. Although it
is pretty, it has a wild
| root system and spreads underground. It'll be
popping out of the ground all
| over the place. If that's what you want, then go
for it.
|
| "minerva nine" wrote in message
| ...
| Hi all -- OK, I searched the group archives on
| wisteria and can't find an answer to my question,
so
| here it is:
|
| I have a purple wisteria that I planted next to a
dead
| tree in my front yard last Spring - I'm planning
to
| train it up the trunk. It gets full sun all day
| (pruned all the big branches off the tree), and it
did
| spectacularly well last year. It even bloomed in
| April! I pruned it in September and now it seems
very
| unhappy. The new leaves that have come in since
| pruning are light green and now are starting to
turn
| brown. I gave it some ironite, thinking the light
| green leaves were indicating an iron deficiency --
the
| soil in our front yard is nice and organic down to
| about 8-10 inches, when it turns to caliche, but I
| didn't think this was a huge problem for Wisteria.
| I'm wondering if it's just in the process of
losing
| it's leaves for the winter and I'm worrying for
| nothing. Should I mulch it for the winter?
Fertilize?
| If so, with what? Help!!
|
| Thanks -- M9
|
|
|
|
|
|

"minerva nine" wrote in
:
Is there some sort of posting FAQ for this group? I
have posted only a couple of times, but everything
I've posted gets a non-informative answer like this
one, or there is no response at all. Am I posting the
questions incorrectly Is there another group I should
be posting to?

This is a group of amateur gardeners, for the most part, and people
post with their opinions and experience, which is what Gary did.
Take it in the spirit it's intended.

As for wisteria, I don't know. Mine is growing at a snail's pace.

Karen

"Gary Harper"
wrote in message
...
| Yikes. If you are lucky, it will die. Although it
is pretty, it has a wild
| root system and spreads underground. It'll be
popping out of the ground all
| over the place. If that's what you want, then go
for it.
|
| "minerva nine" wrote in message
| ...
| Hi all -- OK, I searched the group archives on
| wisteria and can't find an answer to my question,
so
| here it is:
|
| I have a purple wisteria that I planted next to a
dead
| tree in my front yard last Spring - I'm planning
to
| train it up the trunk. It gets full sun all day
| (pruned all the big branches off the tree), and it
did
| spectacularly well last year. It even bloomed in
| April! I pruned it in September and now it seems
very
| unhappy. The new leaves that have come in since
| pruning are light green and now are starting to
turn
| brown. I gave it some ironite, thinking the light
| green leaves were indicating an iron deficiency --
the
| soil in our front yard is nice and organic down to
| about 8-10 inches, when it turns to caliche, but I
| didn't think this was a huge problem for Wisteria.
| I'm wondering if it's just in the process of
losing
| it's leaves for the winter and I'm worrying for
| nothing. Should I mulch it for the winter?
Fertilize?
| If so, with what? Help!!
|
| Thanks -- M9
|
|
|
|
|
|





--
Karen

On Sun, 10 Nov 2002 17:06:22 -0600, "minerva nine"
wrote:

Is there some sort of posting FAQ for this group?

Not really, but there is a sort of guide at:
http://www.austingardening.org/
I need to add a link to a search function at Google Groups for this
Newsgroup, or at least instructions on how to get to it and use it.
So I will do that.

(snipped)
everything
I've posted gets a non-informative answer like this
one, or there is no response at all.

Well, no response is better than a response with bad information. I
do not think that many people grow wisteria around here to start with
and so there is a limited number of people with experience in this. I
personally see nothing more you can do than ironite and mulch and see
what happens next spring. I think wisteria likes acid soils so things
like aluminum sulphate, soluble sulphur granules, etc. might help.
But you have some time to figure that out.

questions incorrectly Is there another group I should
be posting to?

You can also post to rec.gardening - someone correct me if that is the
wrong name for it. That has more of a national, even international
flavor. But please do not cross post a message to both groups.

Rusty Mase

Howdy,
In regards to this message
|
| I have a purple wisteria that I planted next to a
dead
| tree in my front yard last Spring - I'm planning
to
| train it up the trunk. It gets full sun all day
| (pruned all the big branches off the tree), and it
did
| spectacularly well last year. It even bloomed in
| April! I pruned it in September and now it seems
very
| unhappy. The new leaves that have come in since
| pruning are light green and now are starting to
turn
| brown. I gave it some ironite, thinking the light
| green leaves were indicating an iron deficiency --
the
| soil in our front yard is nice and organic down to
| about 8-10 inches, when it turns to caliche, but I
| didn't think this was a huge problem for Wisteria.
| I'm wondering if it's just in the process of
losing
| it's leaves for the winter and I'm worrying for
| nothing. Should I mulch it for the winter?
Fertilize?
| If so, with what? Help!!

The Wisterias are losing their leaves due to the cold, they are
deciduous, mine sheds it's leaves in November quickly, and is about
hald defoliated.
As far as the light green leaves, a couple of things may be at
work. Since it was pruned in September it was encouraged to put on
new growth at a time when it normally would not be doing so, and the
plant may not have the impetus to create more chlorophyl than it needs
heading into it's dormancy period.
In addition the rainy period we just finished up with may have
left more moisture in the soil than the plant could handle. The plant
discharges the excess water to the leaves and then sheds them as a way
of coping with the stress. In this situation the leaves turn yellow
uniformly.
Iron defieciency is very distinct in leaf coloration. Yellow
leaves but clearly defined dark green veins.
Since the plant is going dormant this is not a good time to
fertilize anyway ( Sort of like letting my teenager drink coke before
bedtime, one needs their rest )
If there was an iron defiecency I would not use Ironite. The '
secret formulation process', a proprietary secret that the producer
and the EPA believe you are better not knowing, puts it outside the
range of anything I would want in my landscape. The creator of this
product has a habit of sueing anyone who reveals what the complete
chemical analysis of this product is, which the EPA does not require
listed on the box ( Unlike food labels, fertilizers are not required
to have full disclosure )
You can find out all about this by reading Duff Wilson's book
"Fateful Harvest" ( Seattle times reporter, and Pulitzer runner-up )
What makes the Iron thing tricky is that very often in Austin
soils there is sufficient Iron but the PH of the soil is out of whack
making the plant unable to take up the Iron, giving symptoms of
chlorosis. ( Travis County Extension ) Adding more Iron may in fact
excaerbate the problem. In general it's worth getting a soil test
before the major addition of any soil additives aside from compost.
A good source of Iron is granite sand, which I was introduced to by
the head gardener at East Side Cafe who uses it extensively.
There is also a seaweed plus Iron mix that I have never used so can
not vouch for.

Hope this was of some help,
take care,
Steve Coyle
www.austingardencenter.com