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Browning shedding Cotoneaster HELP!!!

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Browning shedding Cotoneaster HELP!!!

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12-Feb-2007	#1
jungle_pixie Grown from seed... Join Date: Feb-2007 Location: Quebec City Country: Canada USDA Zone: Hardy 4 AHS Heat Zone: 2-3 Posts: 9	Browning shedding Cotoneaster HELP!!! Help!!! So we brought home a little cotoneaster microphyllus about 10 days ago... yesterday we noticed that some of his leaves are browning and he has started loosing them. We know it is an outdoor species so we have been keeping it in our cold room at similar temperatures that the nursery was keeping him. We repotted him when we took him home, he is in a mix we have of bark chips, pearlite and weathered rocks so very free draining... He has a good deal of light most of the day and I have been barely drizzling him every 2-3 days when my finger still feels dry an inch down in his pot since everyone says he is dormant so I figure he doesn't need as much water... What am I not doing right ??

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12-Feb-2007	#2
malik Bonsai Master in Training Join Date: Jul-2006 Location: Nashville USDA Zone: 6b AHS Heat Zone: ? Posts: 513	Well, hard to tell sometimes why a tre starts to show signs of being stressed. The first thing that pops out at me is the repotting. It is winter where you are? If so and you are keeping it in a room with similar temps, then this might not have been the best time to repot it. After repotting, the roots lose the ability to take up as much water as they did when they were situated. So what i would advice is to mist the tree and leaves once every other day or so and water only when it is drying out. Plus I noticed you said the tree was dormant. If the tree was dormant it usually wouldn't have any leaves on it. Well, I take that back. Some cotoneasters are deciduous and some are evergreen. It would help to know what kind you have. Just watch it for a few more days. Let it get used to it's new potting mix and whatever you do...DO NOT FEED IT! Just mist and water lightly until it shows signs of recovery. __________________ "History will be kind to me for I intend to write it" -Winston Churchill

12-Feb-2007	#3
jungle_pixie Grown from seed... Join Date: Feb-2007 Location: Quebec City Country: Canada USDA Zone: Hardy 4 AHS Heat Zone: 2-3 Posts: 9	Thank you for the quick response... It is a Microphyllus... I'm not sure it's dormant... I was advised by members in an other forum that he would be since he is a hardy 6. I thought it was an evergreen, but a friend said it may be semi-evergreen so lose some leaves. What do you think? Also, we have standing lamps with UV bulbs, would that help a bit? Some books say they need a lot of light?

12-Feb-2007	#4
malik Bonsai Master in Training Join Date: Jul-2006 Location: Nashville USDA Zone: 6b AHS Heat Zone: ? Posts: 513	If it is a Cotoneaster microphyllus then it can be an evergeen and a semi-evergreen depending on the enviroment it is growing in. It has tiny leaves so when dormant it only takes a few leaves to start falling to make it look baren. Florecent bulbs are great for trees grown indoors. Just type in this specie into Google and i'm sure it will give you a wealth of info. The gright window might be all it needs, but then again i don't have a cotoneaster at this time so you might want to gather a bit more info from Google. __________________ "History will be kind to me for I intend to write it" -Winston Churchill

12-Feb-2007	#5
Joanie Enthusiast *MODERATOR GROUP* Join Date: Feb-2005 Location: Carlsbad, California..coastal desert Country: United States USDA Zone: 11 AHS Heat Zone: 2 Posts: 5,461	If he had leaves when you bought him, he wasn't really dormant, doesn't seem like. Don't let him get too dry, if you have switched him to a free draining mix and he still has leaves. Did you trim the roots at all? I would personally water him freely, then wait until you feel the first inch or so of soil to be dry, and then water freely again. Otherwise, you risk letting the lower soil dry out while you keep just the top soil damp with sprinkling. It's better to run the water through until it drains out the holes, and then wait for it to dry slightly. Don't warm him up too quickly. Was he outdoors at the nursery, or in a cold house of some sort? Joanie __________________ Dogs are just children who eat off the floor

13-Feb-2007	#6
jungle_pixie Grown from seed... Join Date: Feb-2007 Location: Quebec City Country: Canada USDA Zone: Hardy 4 AHS Heat Zone: 2-3 Posts: 9	Thank you... Yep... you actually thought the exact same thing as someone I know from another forum. He has a thriving, beautiful 7 year old cotoneatser he practically grew from a cutting and the first thing he told me was that he would do a submersion and then, solid waterings when the soil gets dry! So I did that this morning. We are counting 4 buds on it... it definitely isn't dying, just waking up!The tree was in a cold greenhouse at the nursery. With the winters being what they are here, you can't leave trees out! The guy from the nursery told us he has been dormant since about mid/end november so that gives him to this date at least 2000 hours of solid dormancy which means he will be a bit confused come spring, but if we keep him at spring like temperatures near the open window until we can put him out, he should do fine. We'll just hold off on pruning too much and be gentle with the little one. This guy teachs us so much, he grows all his trees from his own seeds and cuttings (we actually have seen the parents to everyone of our trees!) so we trust him, he wouldn't lie to us. This cotoneaster is semi-evergreen so keeping some leaves while dormant his possible.

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