potted bay tree poisioned?

went to one of my client's homes yesterday ... I recently planted 4 bay trees in large pots ... 2 are pyrymid shaped and 2 are lollipop shaped

the lady owner never ever does any gardening, not even watering

anyway, during the week, she decided to water the baytrees .... there are 2 watering buckets .... one red one for when I use glyphosate on the paving, and a green one for watering the pot plants

she used the red one, and one of the bay trees looks like it's been poisioned .... all the others look fine and the one that I think was poisioned was the 1st one that she watered

I have added 3 watering cans of fresh water to try and flush out the glyphosate (the red bucket was empty when she used it, so I am assuming that there was still a tiny bit of glyphosate residue left in the bucket when she watered)

I am guessing this is the problem, or could it be something else? a week ago it was perfectly healthy ... is there something I can do to save this?

the last pic shows what the healthy one looks like

 

Glyphosate is a systemic herbicide absorbed by the leaves of plants and is neutralised on contact with soil. Could your client have possibly watered with something else? perhaps a household chemical or similar by mistake.

 

Hi Dim

The bay tree in the photo is very close to the barbeque, could it of been that ??? all the heat ??

Spruce

 

Gonging along the lines of what a-a said I agree, I dont think glyphosate works by watering the roots.

If only recently planted I'm wondering how large the original pots were, and if maybe the rootball dried right out before any new roots were formed in the new compost.

 

There appear to be some weeds in the pot - if it was glyphosate would it not have killed those as well?

 

Well spoted

Spruce

 

thought the same, however from my experience, it takes more than a week for glyphosate to kill weeds? .... I have recently used the glyphosate and a week later the weeds still look lush and green

 

Hmmmm .... never thought of that .... the BBQ has been there for a while and will ask them if they used the BBQ this week

 

Glyphosate would kill the weeds in the pot first anyway. So it`s not that. The lesson to be learnt here though, is to ALWAYS thoroughly wash out the equipment after use.

 

thanks .... received a txt from the lady .... they have not fired the BBQ since last summer

sadly, as I mentioned, there are 2 watering buckets .... the red one is for weedkiller .... she never knew

I feel so cr*p now ... will replace the bay leaf with a new one and will empty the planting pot, wash it out and add new compost etc all at my own expense
:(

 

WOW up Dim. You are not at fault for the Bay. The only way you could have killed it is if the " bucket ", why aren`t you using a proper watering can or sprayer, was full of weedkiller. The weeds in the pot would die first. Leave the Bay alone, it may only be the result of drying out.

 

daitheplant ... not as simple as that .... the lady I work for (3 yrs) has never done any gardening .... this was a garden from scratch, all to my own recomendations

I never told here there were 2 watering cans .... a red for weedkiller, and a green for water

she never knew, and was never told .... she decided to water the potplants and chose the red bucket .... perhaps I should have mentioned it , even if she never took an interest to gardening

lesson learned ... will mark the buckets in future with a marking pen ... will not cost me much to replace, as the pot was the most expensive item ... big pot though ... takes 3 big bags of compost and I will use new

 

Dim, they are already marked, the standard is RED for weedkiller. It is NOT your fault, but get some training for goodness sake.

 

thanks .... that's why I post on this forum .... I learn from everyone here

 

May I ask, whereabouts do you live?