Please Help!

carrottop76

My chinese elm seems to be having issues. Some of the leaves are yellow, other yellow with black dots, and others still are kind of a brick red to brown. I thought it might be a combination of things, with one of them being the so called "black dot" disease so I have been treating it with a neem oil mist once a week (its been two weeks and no better). I am also wondering if I am watering correctly. I live in Alabama and it is HOT! I check my trees two or three times a day by pushing my finger down into the soil. I often times find them dry or almost dry and water them. I am wondering if perhaps I am overwatering and should only water when they are completely dry or if I am underwatering and need to get out there more often. Here is a link to some pictures of the tree (the website is under construction so please excuse its incompleteness!). Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

http://www.freewebs.com/bonsaigirl/myfirstbonsai.htm

Advertisement

sauce

Hi Carrottop, I believe you have an overwatering problem. First off stop with the Neem Oil. Your soil looks quite dense and water retentive. What may be happening is the top layer of soil dries quicker than the soil deeper in the pot thereby leading you to believe the soil is dry when in fact the soil around the rootball is soaking wet. Since you recently bought and re-potted I would let the soil dry more between watering and see how she does. If the yellowing of leaves continues to get worse you may have to re-pot it again into a good free draining soil. This would be considered an emergency re-pot so wait and see for now. If you can, get hold of a wooden chopstick or skewer and stick it deep into the soil. This will tell you how wet the deeper soil is. In the meantime you should find some good bonsai soil and plan on replacing the existing soil, maybe sooner than later. Nice pics by the way! Come back if you have further questions or the problem worsens. Good Luck!

rockm

The tree looks to be in muck, which is holding too much water on top and not allowing the water to drain through to the root--a common thing with bad soil. The heat makes things worse, as it hardens dense soil into cement.

You should repot into bonsai soil soon--without disturbing the roots, into a slightly larger pot. Rinse all the old soil off, plant in proper bonsai soil.

Neem oil is an insecticide and won't prevent black spot --which is a fungal disease.

Aaron_K

Hi Carrot,

I agree with Rockm regarding the soil and repotting into a free draining mix, as this will safeguard against root problems further down the road.

To be perfectly honest though, I think the tree is in pretty good health if the photo's are recent. The yellowing leaves could well be last years foliage that didn't drop in the winter that is being replaced now.

All of my elms are currently doing this and have been for a couple of months. I wouldn't worry about the reddish new growth either. Mine have/had this too and continued growing and soon "greened off".

The best thing is to quit fussing over the tree so much. I know that sounds wrong and if I was saying this to your face you'd probably look at me as if I was from Mars or something lol but, 90% of the time its the worrying and "helping" that kills a tree. Its how I killed my first tree - a Chinese elm . Being observant is good, inspecting your trees daily for bugs, abnormalities and soil moisture is a very worthwhile and recommended practise to get into, but playing with them isn't.

Its a phaze everybody goes through when first starting out, largely because of the myths and misconceptions surrounding bonsai, but once you learn about your tree, its growth habit and how to care for it properly, those myths about bonsai are dispelled and you'll think to yourself "what the hell was I worried about?".

Please don't let this discourage you from posting questions, as everyone here is more than willing to help and answer any queries you have. My intention here is to attempt to put your mind at rest somewhat... and I've probably failed miserably .

All the best,

Aaron

__________________
Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. - Muriel Strode

Vulpes pilum mutat, non mores!

"A fox may change its skin but never its character"

carrottop76

Hi Everyone, Thanks for your input. I had watered the tree just prior to taking the pictures...don't know if that changes your advice concerning watering. I like the repotting idea. I have some soil I bought from Dallas Bonsai. It has peat moss, river sand, triple screened pine bark and a clacined clay product--does that sound good? Would you put down a layer of rocks at the bottom as well? I appreciate your help.... A

Aaron_K

Hi again Carrot,

If its come from Dallas Bonsai, then I'm sure its perfectly suitable .

In there you have lots of inorganics in the form of river sand and calcified clay to maintain soil structure and some organics to retain moisture and also provide a natural source of nitrogen. The screening removes the fine particles that reduce airspace and retain too much moisture around the roots. Once repotted, your tree will thank you for it.

One thing I have noticed with my trees is the more airflow given to the roots, the better the top growth. To give you a first hand example....

I have about 50 Scots pine seedlings which I decided to experiment with. Roughly 1/3 are in 100% organics, 1/3 in a mixture of about 70% inorganics/30% organic and the remainder in 100% inorganic. All mixtures were screened thoroughly to remove the fine particles.

Without getting a tape measure out, I'd say that those in the organic mixture are about 3" tall. Those in the 70/30 mixture approximately 5" and those in completely inorganic roughly 6-7".

All seedlings were germinated at the same time from the same batch of seed, fed and watered together and are situated next to one another, receiving equal sunlight. This goes to show how important drainage and airflow are in achieving good healthy growth in a tree. We are always concerned with how much we water and feed our trees, but all too often "airing" them is over looked.

I'll stop waffeling now.... but yes, the soil will be perfectly fine

All the best,

Aaron

__________________
Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. - Muriel Strode

Vulpes pilum mutat, non mores!

"A fox may change its skin but never its character"

PinkFloyd

Hello Carrot Top,


I picked up a couple of those trees at a local Big Lots store. The soil in them is terrible, very muddy, and one of them already had a few dead roots. After repotting them ( I use a mix of 60% lava rock and 40% pine bark ) both are doing quite well. The repotting took place about 5 weeks ago. I also live in Alabama (Axis, which is close to Mobile), my elms sometimes drop a few leaves after turning yellow.

John Lee

carrottop76

This is turning out to be very educational! What is meant by "fine particles"? Sand? Dirt? I noticed that the soil the tree is in is very sandy...


PinkFloyd: So you live in Alabama too, huh? Do you find you need to shield your trees from the sun? I have mine on the back porch and it gets sun until about 1pm. I am hoping this will not be too hot for them but I don't know where else to put them. The sun is everywhere! I've only been here 4 months and am a native of Seattle so this is definitely foreign terriroty!

Thanks for all your help! A

PinkFloyd

Yes, I have to be careful on positioning the trees. I have a bench set up and it is under The "dappled shade" of some oaks. They get full sun until about 10 AM, then the shade starts. I have to be real careful with dark colored pots, just an hour in full summer afternoon sun is enough to cook the roots. I can tell when they get heat stress as the leaves start yellowing.

John Lee