Willow tree

Any ideas?
The leaves are turning yellow, at the end of the shoots, and theirs a yellow / orange hinge building up on branches!!
The bottom of the pot is cut so the roots go into ground, so getting Plenty of water

looksee

Leaving a tree to grow out of the bottom of a pot isn't an ideal arrangement. Could you take the pot off, dig a decent hole and put it in properly? Willow is fairly easygoing but it might be stressed. Have you a pic?

lottpaul

A few things strike me: the soil in the pot seems quite high up along the trunk. It may be planted too deep. Scrape back the soil until you see some root hairs and then just barely leave those covered. Planting too deep - in pots or the ground - is one of the biggest problems with shrubs and trees.
The soil in the pot seems very dry and cracked. Willow would like some moisture.
The bottom is cut out of the pot but the pot is sitting on rough chippings? Theres not a lot there for a plant to feed on. As Looksee says you'd be far far better off planting it into the ground.

Thanks for the reply... will give it a water, and shave back some of the soil.

BTW: The pot is actually sitting in a hole in the soil so the root are going directly into the soil... Twas grand like this last year..

Oldtree

Looks like a kilmarnock willow, a fairly small domed tree. Its time to put the plant into the ground.

Dirk Gently

Slightly off topic, but how far would roots spread on a small willow.

For example if I was to build a pond, would it be possible to leave an island for a willow or small acer as a feature. What kind of diameter would you be looking at for the root system?

looksee

If the soil were open at the bottom (rather than planting the tree in some sort of sunken container) it would not matter too much. Generally think in terms of approaching the width of the branches, ideally, but you could get away with less than that if it were planted into the ground, rather than a container.