Question

Black leaves  

Black leaves 2   Dr. Vann,

I planted some Brazilian Red Cloaks 2 weeks ago.  While they are growing and sprouting bright green new leaves, many of the leaves have black centers or edges and the leaves are curling up.  I've attached a couple of pictures.

Any help would be appreciated.  

Sherry Sippel

p.s. Last yaer you helped me out with an issue with my holly bushes.  Thanks again for that!

Answer
Sherry:

The dark area on the leaves does not resemble an infectious plant disease, but rather some sort of injury or environmental stress to the leaves, probably while they were in an earlier growth stage- maybe while they were unrolling or unfolding. I suspect that the damage/injury is temporary thus the plants should grow out of the problem.  Keep an eye on the new leaves that began to form from this point forward.

There could be several things that can cause this type of injury.  Often temperature extremes (sudden drop/increase)can account for this.  A sudden cold night or two can do this.  Contact with a chemical may do this, like spraying something around these plants could cause injury.  You may review anything that may have been sprayed in the vicinity previously.  This is probably a long shot though.  This does not look like an insect either.

P.S. Nice Photos!

Regards
Steve