FATSIA JAPONICA DYING

newgreenscape

Hi there 

I hope someone can help.

I have a large fatsia japonica in my garden that does a great screening job.
I noticed earlier this year some new growth which started fine with strong green leaves quicklywilted and the leaves turned yellow and brown. I thought this was an isolated incident and removed the infected branches.
However as you can see from the photos it seems to have spread. I have removed any debris underneath however a couple of years ago I did kill a stump nearby with stump killer but only in a grove cut in the trunk.
Is this the cause ? Or is it something else ? I really don't want to loose the plant.
Any help would be greatfully received.

Dovefromabove

Have you tried giving the soil at the base a really good soaking?  I mean 5 gallons every other day for a week. 

Despite recent rains many shrubs and trees are suffering because the soil further down beneath the surface became very dry due to last years drought and the relatively dry winter and spring.  

The large foliage on your fatsia will have acted like an umbrella and even in the rain my guess is that the ground beneath it will have had much less water than more open ground. 

I would remove move all the dying foliage, which all looks to be young growth, and soak the root area.

It might just be the effect of the sunlight in the photo but I think the foliage looks a little pale too ... I’d add some soluble seaweed feed to one of those buckets of water. 

Hope that helps. 😊 

newgreenscape

Thank you very much for your response. That would make absolute sense as I had a hydrangea in another part of the garden whose leaves started to blacken at the tips and I left a hose on it for a couple of days to water it as my soil is quite thin. It has improved immensely.  As this was in what I thought a wetter part of the garden I've left it.

Thanks again and I'll begin watering tonight. 

Best wishes