Sick Chinese Elm

Aaron_K

Hi everyone,


I'm new here and to bonsai. My first post is about my poorly Chinese Elm. I've had it about 8 weeks now and at a guess I'd say it was 10 - 12 years old.

A few weeks back, I found some little black bugs on the leaves. They were about the size of a pin head. They were obviously eating/sucking the leaves as I could see the "drained" spots when I looked at them. I removed the bugs as soon as I saw them, and went all over the tree with a magnifying glass.

Since then, the leaves have been falling off at an alarming rate. Even healthy looking ones would just fall off with the slightest breeze. The tree hadnt been pruned for a while so I gave it a good trim to regain some shape, and pinched back new buds which had been springing up all over.

Last Sunday, I decided to check the roots as nothing seemed to work and the tree was well over half void of leaves. I removed the tree as gently as possible from the pot to find an incredible amount of roots. Im no bonsai master or even that much of a gardener, but I know full well that the tree should have been repotted a year ago at the latest!

There was not a great deal of soil left, and what did come out was lacking humus and any real structural content. I gently combed the roots out, and cut about 20" off (this still left about 8" - 10" - thats how bad it was inside)

I placed fresh compost into the pot, then put the tree inside and filled around the roots, making sure not to leave spaces. I watered the tree from underneath but didnt allow the surface to get too moist.

The tree sits on my bedroom window sill and gets a few hours of direct sunlight in the morning and indirect for the rest of the day. In the evening I sit it on my desk under a lamp for additional light. I water it daily, with a spray mister and have a humidiy tray too.

I exposed more of the roots when I repotted it, and noticed quite a bit of rot on them, and also up one side of the tree the bark is moveable?? I can press it in and out as though it has swollen, then the wood inside has shrunk back.

I know that repotting will have caused a great deal of stress to the tree which would cause it too lose more leaves. Is there anything else I can do? Any comments or suggestions greatly appreciated.

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TreeBay

You need to be careful about your watering and location of the plant. If you want to put it on a path for recovery, I would get it out of doors in bright light with full morning sun, and learn to water it properly (not on the calendar).

There is more info on watering in the ***FAQ***

Regards,

Matt

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Aaron_K

Hi Matt

Yes I was considering putting it outside for a while to see if that helps. I was wondering if you thought repotting it was the best thing I could of done seens as the tree was so badly pot bound and had poor soil?

many thanks

Aaron