Help With Bonsai

vintageheart

Hi everyone, I'm a bonsai newbie My friend gave me a bonsai a few days ago and it's lost the few leaves it had, I'm afraid I may have overwatered it when I got it because it was so dry and not used to getting watered. I don't even know what kind of bonsai it is, or if it's sick at all ... Any help will be much appreciated. I'm going to see someone about its health, but I won't be able to go until Wed, so any input beforehand would be so great! I would very much like to help this poor little plant out. Thanks so much in advance.

I answered the questions on the sick bonsai faq:

1. What kind of bonsai do you have and how long have you had it? I don't know what kind of bonsai it is. The brand on the brick says "Bloom-Rite" ..

2. Where did you get it, and what was its condition at the time you acquired it? Target store, it was in pretty bad shape. My friend bought it on clearance for me.

3. When did you notice the problem? Right away I noticed it was pretty weak, with more brown crispy leaves than green ones.

4. How have you been watering it and how frequently? I think I overwatered it ... I read somewhere to soak the bonsai in water and right after I did the poor thing started to wilt. It was very dry when I got it.

5. What region are you located geographically and where are you keeping your tree, indoors or out, full sun, part sun, shade? I'm in Chicago IL, and it's very cold with no sun right now. I keep the bonsai under a lamp pretty much all day and night.

6. Does the soil have any unpleasant odor? No it doesn't.

7. When was the tree last repotted? I tried repotting it yesterday, but I have no clue if I really did it correctly. I used the "chopstick method" and cleaned off the roots, removed dead roots, then repotted.

8. Is there any discoloration of the foliage? Would you describe it as turgid and green, dry and brown, wilting, mottled or partially eaten? If you brush the foliage with a fingertip, does it fall off? All the foliage has fallen off! There wasn't too much to start with. It was brown, dry, crispy. It fell off easily.

9. Is there evidence of pests, like ants or aphids? No.

10. Can you post a picture of your tree to the forum? Here are five images, I apologize about the hastily taken pictures.

http://members.aol.com/k7cloud/bonsai1.jpg
http://members.aol.com/k7cloud/bonsai2.jpg
http://members.aol.com/k7cloud/bonsai3.jpg
http://members.aol.com/k7cloud/bonsai4.jpg
http://members.aol.com/k7cloud/bonsai5.jpg

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TreeBay

It sounds (and looks) like your tree might have been already dead when your received it. It looks like it had rough bark, like a pine. Did it have needles or leaves?

It would be a better sign if the foliage had actually fallen off on its own. It sounds like it died and you brushed it off? Not that you did anything wrong, it's just if it dies and stays attached, that's an especially bad sign.

Regards,

Matt

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vintageheart

Oh no, how depressing! Is there any way to tell if it's completely dead? Is there anything else I can do? It had leaves, I did pull some dead ones off, but some did fall off on their own too. Poor little mallsai... Thanks for your reply.

vintageheart

edit: I just looked it up, I'm pretty certain my bonsai is a Hawaiian Umbrella.

I just scraped a little of the bark by the bottom of the bonsai and the color is moist green still, so I'm hoping it can still be saved? I read two different passages on how to continue to care for it, both saying not to repot it/fertalize/overwater it, but one says to keep under light daily and the other says to keep in a shady area. Can anyone give me their own opinions? Thanks for any input.

TreeBay

It should be bright and cool - like open shade outdoors or morning sun. Indoors you'd want to make sure it didn't overheat in the window sill.

You can scratch the bark near the base and see if you see anything green. It's looking pretty dead at the top.

Regards,

Matt

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