Camellia Leaves Turning Yellow and Dropping? Causes and Solutions

Spring is also the season when camellias bloom. Amid layer upon layer of green leaves are hidden delicate, dewy camellia flowers, their petals overlapping and wrapping around yellow stamens, giving off a faint, delicate fragrance. The white ones are pure as angels in the woods, the red ones are charming and lovely like dancing girls, but you may also encounter the situation where camellia leaves turn yellow, so how should we deal with it?

What to Do When Camellia Leaves Turn Yellow

Although camellia is an evergreen plant, when it is being grown, its leaves generally do not fall off for 2 to 3 years, but it still undergoes leaf replacement. During April to May, some of the old leaves of the camellia will turn yellow and then fall off. This is a normal phenomenon of metabolism.

Camellia likes semi-shade and avoids scorching sun; it likes high air humidity and avoids dryness; it likes fertile, loose, slightly acidic soil (PH5.5 is relatively suitable). In alkaline soil or soil with poor drainage, it grows poorly, and the leaves easily turn yellow and fall off, or the plant may even die. Camellia likes a warm climate and is slightly cold-tolerant. The suitable growing temperature is between 18℃ and 24℃, and it cannot be lower than 0℃. Usually pay attention to increasing the surrounding air humidity and maintaining ventilation; camellia avoids hot, stuffy environments. Do not place it in a place with too strong light. The potting soil should be kept moist at all times. When watering, it is best to add 0.1% ferrous sulfate to regulate the pH of the soil.

Causes of Camellia Leaf Drop and Solutions

Camellia by nature likes a warm and humid climate environment, avoids scorching sun, likes semi-shaded scattered light, and is also shade-tolerant. It is slightly cold-tolerant; ordinary varieties can withstand low temperatures of -10℃ and are heat-tolerant, but growth is inhibited above 36℃. It likes high air humidity and avoids dryness. It likes fertile, loose, slightly acidic soil.

Among these, loose, fertile soil with strong water permeability; strong air movement and a well-ventilated environment are especially important conditions.

So, the balcony environment itself differs greatly from the growth habits of camellia and needs improvement.

1. Increase ventilation

This is one of the difficulties of growing flowers on a balcony. In an enclosed balcony, it is very difficult to grow camellias well. On an open balcony, camellias should be placed in a spot with air convection and higher placement. During continuous stuffy heat, a small fan can be used for artificial ventilation.

2. Loose, fertile soil

A relatively simple option is to use sandy loam or leaf mold. You can go under tree clusters or in flower beds, dig up the surface floating soil, and then add about one-third clean river sand (do not use sea sand, because it contains salt and alkali). For fertilizer, you can use organic granular compound fertilizer, fermented rice-washing water, or directly bury a little small fish and shrimp in the flower soil.

3. Watering

Camellia taboo water accumulation and waterlogging. After using loose soil, you still cannot water too much. You must grasp the principle of watering when dry and stopping when wet, preferring dry over wet. Especially when new leaves and new buds are emerging, and during flower bud formation and blooming, if there is long-term waterlogging, it is very easy for leaves to drop, branches to wither, and buds to fall.

At the same time, the potting soil cannot be allowed to become completely dehydrated. If it is dehydrated for several consecutive days and the leaves wilt and cannot recover in time, it can also lead to death.

4. Light

It absolutely must not receive full sun, especially during periods of high temperature and scorching sun.

Growth Habits of Camellia

Camellia fears wind and likes sunlight, high and refreshing terrain, air circulation, warmth and humidity, good drainage, and loose, fertile sandy loam, loess, or humus soil. pH5.5-6.5 is best. The suitable temperature is between 20-32℃, growth stops above 29℃, and at 35℃ the leaves will show scorching. It requires a certain temperature difference. Environmental humidity above 70%; most varieties can withstand low temperatures of -8℃ (natural overwintering; Yunnan camellia is slightly less cold-tolerant). South of the Huai River, it can generally overwinter naturally. It likes acidic soil and requires good air permeability.

To facilitate root hair development, peat, rotted sawdust, red soil, humus soil, or a mixed substrate of the above can usually be used for cultivation. Camellia can go without shading in spring, autumn, and winter, and in summer 50% shading treatment can be used.

Propagation Methods of Camellia

There are many propagation methods for camellia. Both sexual propagation and asexual propagation can be used, among which cutting and approach grafting are the most commonly used.

Cuttings

This method is the simplest. The most suitable time for cuttings is September, and spring is also acceptable. Choose a well-growing, semi-lignified branch, remove the leaves at the base, keep the upper 3 leaves, cut it diagonally with a sharp knife, immediately soak the cut end in 200-500ppm indolebutyric acid for 5-15 minutes, dry it in the sun, then insert it into a sand pot or vermiculite pot. After insertion, water it. After about 40 days the wound heals, and after about 60 days roots form. Cuttings treated with hormones root 2-3 months earlier than those not treated with hormones. Using vermiculite as the cutting bed also roots much faster than a sand bed.

Approach grafting

Choose a suitable variety such as teacup camellia or oil tea as the rootstock, and approach graft a valuable camellia onto it. The time for approach grafting is generally between Qingming Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival. First plant the rootstock in a flower pot, use a knife to shave off about half at the parts to be joined respectively, and the cuts must be smooth. Then fit the cut surfaces of both sides tightly together, wrap with plastic film, and water the rootstock twice a day. After 60 days it can heal. At that time, it can be cut off and planted, and placed under tree shade to avoid direct sunlight. In February of the following year, use a knife to cut off the tail part of the rootstock, then plant it in its final position.

Leaf cuttings

For camellia propagation by leaf cutting, branch cuttings are generally used, but some valuable varieties, due to restrictions on the source of branches, or because taking material would affect their tree shape, also use the leaf cutting method. Use mountain soil as the cutting substrate, and mix in 1/3 river sand to facilitate aeration and drainage. Put the substrate in a clay pot, then perform pot cutting. Leaf cuttings are best done during the rainy season. Take one-year-old leaves as leaf cutting material; if too old they are not easy to root, and if too tender they rot easily. Insert about 2 cm into the soil, press the soil firmly after insertion, water thoroughly, then place in a cool, ventilated place. Generally, roots can form in 3 months, and in the spring of the second year they can sprout and send out branches.

Air layering

The greatest feature of the air layering method is that it can give new life to all the weak, small branches on the camellia that would otherwise have to be pruned off. Moreover, this method has a high survival rate, quick rejuvenation, and early flowering. The method is: on the weak, thin branches that need to be pruned off, perform ring-barking at an appropriate position, (generally the upper part can be left as a 15-25 cm branch) and the ring-barking length can be between 5-8 mm. Tie on a suitably sized plastic film, add sterilized and disinfected peat soil or leaf mold inside the film, and after 7-10 days, perform another 5-8 mm ring-bark on the lower part of the plastic film. This is called the double ring-barking air layering method.

Tree grafting

Camellia is a plant that is relatively difficult to keep alive. There are many and varied propagation methods for camellia, among which grafting is the most commonly used. Grafting camellia has many advantages: it can maintain the excellent traits of the variety; it can accelerate plant growth, enable it to take shape quickly, and allow large-scale production; it saves scion wood, which is especially important for rare varieties with few sources of scion wood; oil tea tree grafting camellia technique: the grafting time is suitable from June to July, when the leaves of the new shoots of the camellia scion have already unfolded, and the temperature is relatively high, so the grafting wound heals quickly and the survival rate is high. The grafting method uses the cut grafting method among branch grafting methods. Because the grafting position is relatively high, it is often called "high grafting to change the head".

When camellias bloom, viewed from a distance, small camellias dot the dense leaves. Red camellias are like clusters of bright red fireballs, and white camellias are like white clouds. These camellias bloom in a race to be first, bringing us infinite spring feeling. I think after reading this article, you have a new understanding of camellia care. May your camellias bloom the most beautiful flowers every year.