How to Effectively Treat Camellia Dieback Disease
Camellia is also known as mountain camellia. Camellias come in various shades of red, purple, white and yellow, and some even have variegated petals, while the flowering branches can reach up to 4 m in height. Today we will explain how to treat camellia dieback disease.
1. How to treat camellia dieback disease
After camellia dieback disease appears, promptly spray an 800-fold dilution of 50% thiophanate-methyl, or an 800-fold dilution of 50% thiram, and apply an appropriate amount of phosphorus and potassium fertilizer, with less nitrogen fertilizer. Spraying New High Lipid Film helps retain fertilizer and preserve soil moisture.
2. Camellia propagation methods
1. Cuttings
The most suitable time for cuttings is September, though spring also works. Choose well-grown, semi-lignified branches, remove the leaves at the base, keep the upper 3 leaves, cut a slanted opening with a sharp knife, immediately soak the cut end in 200-500 ppm indolebutyric acid for 5-15 minutes, dry it in the sun, then insert it into a sand pot or vermiculite pot.
2. Leaf cuttings
Leaf cuttings are best done in the rainy season. Take one-year-old leaves as leaf cutting material; leaves that are too old are not easy to root, while those too tender rot easily. Insert about 2 cm into the soil, press the soil firmly after inserting, water thoroughly, then place in a cool, ventilated spot. Generally they can root in 3 months, and in the spring of the following year they can sprout and grow shoots.
3. Air layering
On weak branches that need to be pruned off, make a ring cut at a suitable position, with a ring cut length of 5-8 mm, tie on plastic film of an appropriate size, add sterilized and disinfected peat soil or leaf mold inside the film, and after 7-10 days, make another ring cut of 5-8 mm on the lower part of the plastic film. This is called the double ring-cut air layering method.
There are extremely many camellia varieties. It is a traditional ornamental flower of China, ranking eighth among the “Ten Famous Flowers”, and is also one of the world’s precious flowering trees. It originated in eastern China, and is widely planted in the Yangtze River basin, the Pearl River basin and various parts of Yunnan, as well as in Korea, Japan, Taiwan, China and India.