How to revive a silver birch with dry branches?

[rosey55]

Hi one of the silver birches started growing new leaves and then nothing happened, I broke a branch off and it was dry. I had feed it with seasol and it got heaps of water and then nothing happened

[MitchellMc]

Hi @rosey55,

You might like to provide some details about the care you've been giving the plant. How many hours of sunlight does it get each day? How often and for how long do you water it? What is the soil drainage like in the area and does it stay wet for a long time after watering? What is the overall health of the plant like, and is it just this one branch that was suffering an issue?

If you can share some images of the plant and of the branch in question that would be rather helpful in trying to diagnose an issue. You might also like to read through these guides: How to diagnose a sick plant and How to plant and care for a silver birch tree.

I look forward to assisting further and please let me know fi you have any questions.

Mitchell

[rosey55]

When the trees were brought they weren’t planted in straight away , they were then planted in the ground without any food, the soil was mostly clay. They were planted in the first week of February. I dug a trench around the birch, fed it with blood and bone, and then every 2 week with season., mulch was put around the birch. The birch does not get much sun it’s more in a shady spot. In the hot days I was watering every 2 day, because of the clay I did not want to water log the roots.

[MitchellMc]

Hi @rosey55,

A couple of issues I can see there. Silver birch requires full sun but can tolerate light shade. They will always struggle in a shady spot as there's not enough light for them. The second issue is the mostly clay soil. Most plants struggle with clay-based soils, especially if planted on a solid clay layer. If you are planting into clay-based soil, you'd either need to add new soil on top and build up a mound to plant into or remove a significant amount of the clay-based soil and replace it with a potting mix. It's a very hard game to play if you have a solid clay layer, especially when applying enough water to keep the plant alive but not so much that the roots are constantly wet.

From your description, it sounds like the location it was planted in was not optimal and has likely caused these issues.

Mitchell

[rosey55]

Thank you so very much for your advice , I thought that might be the case. Regards