I’m Anna. I live in England . I have big monkey puzzle tree in my garden and it looks like it’s dying. We moved to the house a year ago . Last year we had very dry summer and since then we noticed that more and more branches are turning brown. We tried all sorts of fertilisers and it doesn’t help . It’s beautiful tree and I don’t want to loose it. If you could give any advice what to do I would be very grateful. Thank you.
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1Can you add a photo please? and which part of the UK are you in?– BambooSep 7, 2019 at 10:57
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1You understand that if the root system is not large enough (i.e. the tree is still young) it will need to be watered by hand any time the leaves get droopy. Have you watered it? Do not over water. You also might have over fertilized it and now it's dying. Use extra water to wash off and dilute the fertilizer.– BulrushSep 7, 2019 at 12:32
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Check if individual branches are dying independently (called flagging) - if so there may be a pathogen such as nematodes, or the effects of nasty longicorn beetles. Also check if there are wounds with sap bleeding.– Polypipe WranglerJan 20 at 10:46
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1 Answer
According to Wikipedia Araucaria araucana, aka the monkey puzzle tree, "prefers temperate climates with abundant rainfall". So you could try giving it an occasional soak drying dry spells. I wouldn't bother feeding it as any but the most meagre soil should contain sufficient nutrients for an established tree. Try to ensure that any rain that does fall in the vicinity of the tree is able to freely percolate down to its roots. So there shouldn't be a load of other plants too near the tree that might compete with it for water. And, ideally, there shouldn't be hard surfaces near the tree that would act as a barrier to water reaching the soil. I work in a sheltered housing scheme garden in north London that had a lovely mature mpt. It was surrounded by tarmac and, like yours, had quite a bit of dead wood, but overall didn't seem in too bad health (until the residents, in an act of mindless vandalism, had the thing felled).
