Hey everyone,

I have three A.Acuminata plants that I grew from seed and one of them recently lost ALL of its leaves. I am now worried that it is going to die which would be quite sad given the time and effort I have put in to growing this species.

It is in a 40lt pot and has not been replanted in about a year. It is about 1.2m tall and seemed healthy until all leaves dropped off. The other two seem fine. I went away for three weeks over summer and came back to a bare plant. It was sitting in direct sunlight but did not get much water.

Any idea of how I could bring this plant back to life?!?

Thanks!

I have watched this happen to other plants before after drought and sometimes if they remain well watered some leaves will pop out again. It all depends on how much of the cells got completely dehydrated, when they dehydrate the cells die. The internal layer might still be ok. Give it a month in the shade and water every day. If the bark/branches start to dry out and snap easily then throw it out.

Also keep all those dropped phyllodes for "research" purposes

Hmmm... a.acuminata do pretty well in a dry environment. I've grown around 50 from pots of a.acuminata now (both phyllode variants). I've grown a.cyclops and a few others as well, and the only thing I've found with the ones that died was to do with the roots becoming root-bound.