help fukien tea leaves turning black? drying up too

chad02

hello

please someone help I am fairly new at this so any help would be much appericated
ok this is about my third week in bonsai and I Bought a starter fukien about 5-6 inch tall and a mid size one to . for the first week they where fine second week the starter fukien was flowering in the midst of flowering most of the flowers began to shrivel up and with this white fuzz covering them! dry to. The leaves dont turn yellow they stay green but shrivel up and fall off now I did spray the plant with insectisdle soap because i did find a few mites in the soil not the leaves and a few fruit fly types of insects possibly aphides ? i wonder is this because of to much water, not enough water, to much insecisidle soap not enough light I might need a repotting soon and a good checking on the root ball for pests. And for my mid size fukien some leaves turn black and the buds for the flowers ! the whole bud and the stem its on will turn black and fall off! but then there are some buds that flower fine and in a few days the flowers turn a orangish color and can be eaisly picked off what did i do or not do right

please please help thank you to the ones that respond

chad

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MelloBonsai

Is the white fuzz more of like a webbing? If so, it may be spider mites. If it is you would need a miticide.

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susieq

Chad,
where and under what conditions are you keeping this tree? You don't mention whether it is outside or inside, does it get any sunlight at all?
Fukien teas prefer to be outside even though they are often sold as "inside" the home friendly. It has to be a very special location in a home for it to do well. Many problems originate from the tree just being really unhappy with it's living conditions. Mine are outside under a canapy that allows filtered sunlight but my old bonsai teacher used to have his out in the full sun here in Florida and they did very well...

I have seen Fukies that were kept inside get a black sooty residue all over them that completely goes away after a week outside in the sunlight. The other stuff you mention maybe due to the overall run down condition of the tree making it suseptible to these things. A healthy tree might not be bothered by much more than the odd scale infection or aphids...which can easily be treated. If your tree is in the house, get it outside into an area that gets only filtered sun to start. You don't want to shock a weakened tree with full sun. Water it moderately...if you are in a location that is brutally hot right now, water every day. If it's not that hot, water every other day or so. It will not hurt the tree to dry out....you just can't let it stay that way for very long.

Oh and if the tree is one of those commercially sold at mall kiosks, etc.....check to make sure the dressing on the soil (pebbles, etc) are not GLUED On. If they are, get that stuff off of the soil surface right away. That is extremely bad for any bonsai.
good luck.
susieq