fukien tea in trouble, need help

jamie111

ok guys heres the problem. i have a young fukien tea, it has recently been discovered on it that it has a minor white scale problem, i have used the methods of soapy water spray and a couple of other things that have seemed to minimise the problem alot, but the after it seemed the tree was picking up and growing new foliage, it has started to drop some of the more mature foliage frantically and it isnt looking good. any ideas on what the problem is and why? please help

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queensland australia, in hervey bay. 21 years old junior bonsai artist, willing to learn anything

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Joanie

Jamie, where do you keep the tree? How long have you had it? Do you let the soil dry out a bit between watering?

Aside from spraying it, try picking off the scale by hand too. Nothing survives squashing.

Joanie

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Edro_A2

Soil could be a problem too. I have a fukien that was freaking out in the loamy garbage it came in. Got it into some super coarse mix and gave it a small root prune and it perked up straight away. If its really in bad shape i cannot suggest a repot at this time. But if it's just a little angry, it may be something to look into. I assume you have it outside being in Oz and it is summer if I'm not mistaken. They hate to dry out, but they also despise drowning.... gotta find a happy medium. If its not totally defoliating itself, I wouldn't worry a whole lot. Mine will molt a little and get new leaves. Also, they can be a bit picky when it comes to chemicals. What else did you spray it with and how often? I use nothing but soapy water. I find with mine if I don't rinse it in a couple hours, reapply a couple days later, and rinse again, it gets a little angry with me. Also what kind of fertilizer are you using and how much how often? Could be getting burned. If so, you may want to look into rinsing the soil out really well to flush out the excess. Good luck.

Ed

vince

If you come from Oz try this link, they don't like a lot of sun. Cheers.

http://www.bonsai4me.com/SpeciesGuide/Carmona.html

redhawkbonsai

Jamie:



I have grown the 2 common types of Fukien tea used for bonsai (Carmona microphylla & Ehretia microphylla) for a few decades down in south Texas in all day direct sun light, without any ill-effect. These are tropical plants.


As you will see in the like below there are a few types of “Fukien tea”. With the 2 common types the 1st (Carmona) is a very slow grower, has very small leaves, it flowers and seeds. The 2nd type (Ehretia)is a faster grower, has larger leaves, flowers and usually doesn’t come to seed.

Picking them off with tweezers might be easiest. You've probably done this by now...lol


During the growing (here its 8-9 months) I try to do a preventive insecticide and fungicide treatment every month. When spraying for insects, be careful with the type of insecticide you use as “Fukien tea is very sensitive to insecticides, and Diazinon will kill the tree” (be careful about applying the wrong insecticide to some trees…i.e. NO Malathion on Buttonwoods, NO Kelthane or Neem oil on elms and No Diazinon on Fukien teas to name a few ). ALWAYS READ THE LABLES! Research this site for more on types of pest problems for most of your trees. http://www.bonsai-bci.com/species/fukien.html



Good luck, redhawk

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vince

Yep.
If you read that link you posted it does state *Likes a bright position (1000 Lux). Most sources recommend only about an hour of direct sunlight daily, although success has been reported growing it in a sunny position all day.*
They can be very touchy, the only thing i do is cut off any flowers as soon as they start to appear, so far so good.
As far as they say 1000lux, that appears to me very low indeed, maybe they made a typo error on that one, what ya think?

vince

Lighting - If grown indoors they need to be in a bright area of about 1,000 lux. A typical brightly lit office is about 400 lux. By contrast outdoor sunlight will range between 32,000 and 100,000 lux. What that means is to do best it needs to be in a brightly lit room preferably close to a window where it can get some indirect sunlight. I can send you the link if you want. Cheers.

vince

The link, just in case i get sued. LOL LOL
http://ezinearticles.com/?All-About...n-Tea&id=868149

jamie111

ok i have just used soapy water mostly, i did try a mix of soapy water and a tiny splash of metho as i had read that in post to stop scale.it recieves about 5 hours a day of sunlight, it is summer but im in more of a tropical climate, 25-29 dgrees celcius each day with usually 75-90% humidity most of the time. species is carmona and the other thing i noticed was the fact that there is ants all over it after the scale, i read that this is common as they farm them?
i have managed to pick of most of them, and the water doesnt get drowned but doesnt dry out to much either, i have that down preety well.

that site seem very handy, i will have to study that more, thanks for the info guys, will keep posted

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queensland australia, in hervey bay. 21 years old junior bonsai artist, willing to learn anything