Thickening up my Serissa

pnKroK

Hello out there!

I hope someone can help me...well, my Serissa.

I'm sure this has been asked a million times...but how does one help their Serissa thicken up?

Please have a look at the pics to get an idea of what I'm dealing with.

I've had this Serissa (not sure which "type" of Serissa it is) for about 3-4 years now. Its the type of Serissa that doesn't really have "bushy" or "thick" clumps of leaves.

Could it be the way I'm treating the poor little guy?

It sits in my window sill, and gets a little bit of a breeze...not too much though. Lots of sunlight. And a weekly dip to fully soak the roots.

I soak the tree's pot once a week, because it seems that no matter how much I wate, it never really gets enough.

I recently root pruned the tree in spring and I have it sitting in lava rock/bonsai soil mix. Its a fairly coarse mix, so the water really filters through quickly.

Anything else I left out?

Anyways, any hints/tips would be great.

Thanks,

-rob C

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Jut

i dont claim to be an expert but maybe what i have to say might be of some use to you.

"small bonsai donot become large bonsai"..... your tree tunk should be as thick as you want it before you transfer it into the bonsai pot because bonsai pots drastically retard growth and trunk growth for that matter. so its best you plant your tree in open ground or a bigger pot.......

if you tie a wire ( or sturdy string) around the base of the trunk it will swell from the place you tie the wire and up..... you should tie the wire firmly but be careful not to tie it too tightly or you could kill the supply system of the tree(killing the tree).
never soak a bonsai tree to water it.... you should always pour the water into the soil.(the salts in the soil tend to get disturbed)
other than that heres a link that will help you http://www.evergreengardenworks.com/trunks.htm


my advice is given hoping you will benifit from it and i hope if i have made any mistake the other guys on the forums will correct me.

pnKroK

OOPS!!

Thank you for the reply, but I guess I should have re-phrased my question a little better.

Its not really the "thickness" of the tree that I'm worried about. Its the "bushy-ness" of the tree that I'm worried about.

I want more leaves, and I want the leaf "clouds" to be thicker.

Does that make more sense?

I need more leaves.
The tree is too sparse and stringy looking. I'm happy with the trunk thickness, its just that the are not enough smaller brances and therefore not enough leaves i guess.

Oh...and would it be better to feed a liquid fertilizer with a free-flowing soil or a pellet type fertilizer?

Thanks,

-rob C

gustavomduarte

Hello,

In relation to what you've asked, i think it is possible to cause more number of leaves. In my opinion a lot will depend in the way You you prune and the way you feed. I don't know how're the conditions there in Canada, more precise in Vancouver, but here in Portugal it starts to be the period where i usually fertilize (depending on growth) my serissas with an equal NPK. I've been using pellet forms, with quite nice results, like biogold and Yamato. I noticed that my youngest Serissas appreciate the liquid form quite much, but the older ones, not at all. My advise by now, if i were You, it should be that Your plant needs to get strength again, so i would let it grow and next year repot it, cut quite back the old branches and thin out the clouds so that you stay with a nice branch structure and after a month, start using a fertilizer that has a higher N.

Best compliments,

Gustavo

johnbonsai

Hello there, I'd like to add a little, it is possible that when you could normally leaf prune deciduous trees, you can leaf prune many tropicals- sub tropicals. You could try, at the right time for your area, cutting back your Serrissa's branches. If you are a bit unsure of this, try leaving a bit of top growth in the apex. You will have to wait, as you would with deciduous, taking a little care of it's environment but you should get more leaves sprouting. After this to shorten the Serrissa's internoads it needs a lot of light and a good pruning regime to keep the branches short, this will help with it's sideways growth and promote it to "bush up". I think the tree is n't getting the daylight it needs. Try another possition, and if you can put it outdoors with the usual protection in the growing season. Good luck.

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soonami

I have a big serissa and I've been trying to work on the ramification and foliage pads too. The best piece of advice I can give you is to prune hard, fertilize and pinch new growth after a couple sets of leaves. It looks like you have a lot of fine twigs, but its's not back budding so you should cut back on some of those small branches to force dormant buds active.