Repotting New Serissa?

Hdaemon

I've just recently started in with bonsai, and have a question regarding initial repotting.

A couple of days ago, I bought a Serissa Foetida from a local bonsai nursery. It's technically a pre-bonsai, and is still in its nursery pot. It's not too heavily root bound, but the soil in the pot leaves a bit to be desired.

I had planned on waiting a couple of weeks before repotting it with proper bonsai soil into a bonsai pot. Its leaves, however, have started to yellow, and I'm wondering whether it would be best for the tree to simply get it into good soil ASAP.

From what I've read, the yellowing leaves is likely a sign of overwatering, yes? I'm just thinking that perhaps the nursery soil is holding too much water and not allowing the serissa's roots to properly dry out between waterings.

Thoughts? Suggestions? I should hopefully be able to get pictures of the tree soon if that would help.

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BonsaiMon

Serissa will shock just turning it 180 where it sits. When moved from one environment to another it will pout and drop leaves. Ussually these are the inner leaves.. it will flush with new growth this time of the year within a week..
they like to be moist but do not like wet feet. Water it and wait a half hour.. then tip it over to allow any excess water run out . If much water is sitting in the pot then a repot is advisable.
A picture will help..

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tom stoute

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WildChild

I actually turned mine around about a week ago and she went crazy on me, threw a right tantrum... Best advice is to sit the tree in it's pot where you want to display it. Leave it be for a week or two, let it have it's tantrum, then pot it up into reasonably well draining soil. And remember, these tree's can survive for some time with sparse watering.

Drew.

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gregb

The yellow leaves are due to the transition from the nursery to your place, not poor soil. The tree was doing fine @ the nursery until you came along and bought it and changed its address I would leave it be to acclimate to its new surroundings before hurling another insult at it like re-potting right away. I hope you are keeping it outdoors, since it is June. They love warm sunny days and like to be watered with rainwater, if you can collect it.

Once you get it happy again, then you can consider re-potting and you should wait until the hottest part of the summer to do it. That's the beauty of serissas--you can work on them when it's taboo to work on anything else. They have very fine delicate roots that should be handled carefully when removing the old soil.

Serissa gets a bad rap because so many beginners do the same thing over and over again--panic re-pot when the leaves turn yellow after they get it from the nursery. Another big mistake is keeping them indoors the year round. And not fertilizing them. And not watering them enough. Should I continue

Hdaemon

Here are several images of the tree and soil.

Unfortunately, I don't have a place to put the tree outside (the joys of apartment living), so it is currently residing in a south facing bay window with all the windows open.

Giving it some time to acclimate before repotting had been my original plan. The sudden yellowing of leaves and the soil made me wonder if some other course of action was better. As far as the soil goes, it actually looks like it's just the top half inch or so that's poor (dense material with a putty-like consistency) Below that it becomes more of a standard potting mix (although I still prefer actual bonsai soil).

Any suggestions on how long I should wait to repot? I was thinking of leaving it for at least a couple of weeks, probably closer to a month, and repotting mid-July.

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soonami

If it were me, I would repot almost immediately in a well draining bonsai soil. That tree is not going to get any better if you let it sit, it can only get worse.

Since you can't place the tree outside, it would be a good idea to supplement natural light with artificial. A compact fluorescent in a cool white spectrum over the tree would go a long ways in bringing the tree to good health

gregb

As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words Quite honestly, I find it difficult to find a single yellow leaf...did you pick them all off? Your tree looks quite healthy to me and there's no need to "re-pot" right away. You'd do well to wait until it gets a little hotter. If you absolutely have to, you could slip pot the tree to a slightly larger pot without disturbing the roots. That's the gentle way to introduce your tree to a soil that you prefer. The soil you prefer may not be the best for the tree, because it looks as though the nursery you bought it from knew what it was doing to get the tree to the point it was healthy, vigorous and salable.

My experience has been mostly with trees collected from the wild, although occasionally someone will give me a nursery tree as a gift or I'll see something I like when I'm at a nursery buying supplies. I always bring the tree home and wait for it to acclimate before doing any kind of work on it--especially the roots. I want to learn how much water it needs, how much to fertilize and when. Where is the best place to site the tree? There are all sorts of micro-climates in every yard (or house) I started bonsai in an area where there were no clubs and when I finally got to a place that had a club to join, I was surprised at the prevailing wisdom to always re-pot nursery material to bonsai soil as soon as possible. Why?? You don't know if the tree you bought wasn't just potted up a month prior to when you bought it. The reason I bring this point up is that I've seen so many people take a perfectly healthy piece of nursery stock and re-pot it straight away, mess with the roots and bring the tree back to a meeting sick and dying. I'm not talking about taking a year or two to acclimate the new tree, just a month or two. Learn more about the tree during that time; you may even want to style the tree if it seems heathy enough to do so.

I know the urge is strong to get going on a new tree, but one of the lessons our trees teach us is patience.

Happy Gilmore

I'd remove the yellow leaves, water lightly daily and if no new signs of distress within 7 days then repot if you like. I find they change temperments quickly unless they're very close to death.

My Kyoto serissa's do NOT like being dry. One just dropped a dozen yellow leaves from skipping a day (perhaps two) of watering and I have a full humidity tray underneath. My cuttings from last fall are still in a full 2.5" water 8 months later and alive and happy/growing.

My main plant isn't fussy to orientation/relocation, it's growing fast (for a kyoto!). It just needs lotsa water in warmer/sunnier weeks. I'm going to pot up my dozen cuttings shortly here and trying to figure out best mix that will hold lots of water so I can get away with watering every 2nd or 3rd day. Was planning on using crushed akadama sieved. Ie. not as bought size/but broken to smaller sizes for lesser drainage and greater water retention. Thoughts?

About time to take another 12-20 cuttings off the main plant shortly.

Been thinking of literally planting all of these young serissa's in a 4x4x18 inch 'parts bin' as it'll easily sit on my window ledge where they've been so happy for the past year. Parts bin box won't be showy but they'll all plants I just want to happily push out growth right now and not require daily watering. I can set the pot /bin in a 2nd bin to act as a tray, it leaves a 1" depth for nice tray/humdity source volume. I figure manyholes in bottom of upper bin for drainage and humidity 'uptake' should work well?

Any thoughts?

Hdaemon

gregb - Yeah, I wondered if they might be a bit hard to see in those pictures. I've attached a couple more where the yellow is more plainly visible. There are probably a couple dozen very yellow leaves: primarily larger interior ones. I'd guess there are more than there were yesterday, but I'm not completely sure.

Is active flowering any sign of a plant's health? It started to bloom overnight, with a number of additional blossoms getting ready to open.

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