First time here, looking for help with my Brazilian Rain Tree

jonjonbear

Hello group..
I hope someone can help me. I have a Brazilian Rain Tree which I bought from a local Bonsai garden called "Jade Gardens" in Wimberly Texas. It was a beautiful tree and was doing great until recently. First, I did as they suggested and clipped the wierd new growth off. It seemed to love to shoot out long new branches with new leaves, sometimes over night. Then I noticed it had some white furry stuff on some of the branches. I got down really close and pulled one off and it was moving. It looked like some sort of bug, specially when I squashed it. It was slightly diamond shaped and maybe a 8th of an inch long and appeared to be covered in webbing. I was afraid I had some sort of pest so not knowing what to use, I tried some insecticidal soap spray on a small area. It seemed to kill the furry things and didn't bother the tree. I then sprayed the rest of the tree and seemed to kill off the rest of them. it seemed fine for about a week to ten days (still popping out new growth every now and then) Then when Rita was supposed to come out this way I took it inside, sat it on a table in front of a window and in two days it started turning brown and dropping it's leaves. It is now back outside, and still dropping a high percentage of it's entire leaf population every day. I do have some new growth still which I have stopped cutting off, but at the rate this is going I will have nothing in a weeks time...I keep it fairly moist just as they suggested..Do these trees go through spells of leaf loss? All the new growth seems to be on new branch starts..
It lives on my covered screen porch where it gets good sun in the morning but is shaded the rest of the day but it is bright outside there.
I am hoping for some wisdom from someone as I will be heart broken if this tree dies..Not to mention it was fairly expensive.
Thanks for your time and listening to my story...
John

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Joanie

I have two raintrees now, and the first thought is that tropicals are said not to like insecticidal treatments, but they generally seem to recover (this is gleaned from reading other posts here, not from personal experience) The second thought is that they close their leaves when the light level is low, so two days of being inside the house probably did a lot of harm. I also wonder whether just morning sun is enough, even with reflected light under the patio. But if it is giving you new growth, then consider cutting down on the watering (less leaves means less need for water, leaves pull up and transpire the water) and keeping a good eye on it.

Again, just thoughts, not from personal experience. Can you take a picture?

Joanie

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jonjonbear

Hi Joanie,
While inside I kept the window near it open so it could get good afternoon light, it seemed to be happy (at first) Not knowing what sort of "but spray" could be used I figured the soap would be okay..Maybe that made it unhappy too..The folks who sold it to me said it should be happy with bright indirect light if full sun not available, maybe I need to revisit that too..I am afraid to put it out on the deck where it would get full sun, it has been SOOO hot here that even my full sun plants are burning up..The artifact we got from Rita was the highest temperatures we have ever seen this year. Monday was 107! Ugh.
Yes I can take a picture, is there a place to post pictures here or can they be attached to the post?
I sure hope it will be okay..I will cut back a bit on the watering..Oh I also mist it every day when I get home..Wonder if I should stop doing that?
I am at work now but can get the digicam when I get home..
Thanks for the quick reply!
John

Joanie

I sure wouldn't put it into the afternoon sun, I'm just wondering about maybe dappled sun in the afternoon...

As was explained to me, for a similar situation, light inside the house coming through a window looks good to us, but may be inadequate for a tree. The levels of light decrease drastically the farther the tree is from the window. Our eyes are more sensitive to light but it doesn't equate at all with what kind and level of light that the tree needs to live. And because the rain trees are so sensitive anyway, that's why it seemed like it could be a factor.

As to the pesticides, so far I have just used my fingers and picked, squashed, and poked at any little bugs on my trees, so I can't help you there. But having read about the reactions of tropicals to pesticides in the past on this forum, it just seems that they tend to be sensitive. But they also come back from their funk.

If you can post a picture, others with more experience can help you. Resize your photo (I think it's a max of 600 x 600) and after you type your post, scroll down to "manage attachments" below. You can browse to find your photo where ever you have it on your computer, then upload it. There's a good thread about doing photos, but I'm sorry, I don't have time right now to find and link it.

Don't you just love rain trees? They are sooo neat.

Joanie

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jonjonbear

Hi Joanie and thanks again..
Yes..I have to say this Bonsai place was really neat. I knew it had to be special when it had one of those brown colored "state park" road signs pointing and said "Central Texas Bonsai Exhibit" and an exhibit it was. They had trees over a hundred years old and a whole section which was only for show. The lady there and her husband run the place and are very helpful for "newbies" and she asked of the ones we liked which we liked best. She than asked "do you tend to over water or under water" and being the over waterer, she suggested the Rain Tree which was really my personal favorite to begin with..
Will get a picture this evening and attach it to a post. Given it's shooting up new growth maybe it's just mad at me for spraying it. Next time I will do the picking thing like you suggest..
Thanks!
John