dried out fukien tea

my fukien tea tree seems to have dried out. the leaves are all still green and holding to the tree but they are dry. i have yet to try submerging it for a bit and will do so if recommended, should/can the treen be pruned of all it's leaves to allow for regrowth? any other suggestions, i don't wish to lose this tree?

Advertisement

danielmecseki

My fukien tea has also dried out and what is more interesting is that my friends tree has the same symptoms.
I have thought that this could be normal. Could this tree be a deciduous one? I think this is quite unusual of a TEA.
Anyway I find it really strange that our trees have the same problem at the same time.

that is very interesting. i made it a point to get a tropical tree so that i wouldn't have the problem of keeping a tree indoors most the year as i live in minnesota and it's too hard to keep an out door tree. my tree gets plenty of light, partially direct partially filtered, i keep a thermometer near it to keep track of the temperature, it does not sit in water, and i water when the soil has dried. the last couple waterings have not revived the plant however. i would also wonder if this is normal but the plant hasn't lost its leaves at all. hopefully someone else can shed some light ...

Earl

I don't know if this helps but Paul Lesniewicz (if you are going to do indoor bonsai BUY his book, Bonsai in Your Home, it's great) says "Always keep the plant uniformly moist, because it will shrivel easily and simply stop growing if the root ball has been allowed to dry out." For soil, he recommends loam, peat moss, and sand in a 2:2:1 ratio which would certainly keep the tree moist.

We, too, have cold winters but I have still found indoor bonsai much more difficult to keep alive than outdoor trees. Between bugs, dry air, gas heat, lack of humidity, it can be tough. At this point, I have several ficus (you might try those, they are much easier than fukien tea) and a recent fukien tea forest. Everything else I have tried indoors has died. The fukien tea forest is only 3 months old, so we'll see.

Earl

One other thing I forgot to mention. I have found that the indoor bonsai come out of dormancy and start needing alot of water. My Bougie (forgot to mention that...it's my prize bonsai!) is taking water every other day when it only needed it once every week or two in the middle of winter.

danielmecseki

I have repotted my fukien tea and I have seen that it still has healthy roots. Only a few strings have dried. I have removed them. Now that the temp is high enough I've put the tree outside in the garden and Im waiting for the new buds. I hope I wont have to wait so long.

did you remove the dried leaves from the plant or prune any branches at all?

danielmecseki

I have removed the dry leaves but I pruned some branches 3 month before the leaves dries