guesskoenig

Here's an update on my three bonsai trees, three months in. The ficus I repotted around a month ago is doing great, with new growth and large vibrant green leaves. It's still not strongly rooted in the pot so I have to be extra careful when handling it. The only problems I've noticed is that once there was a leaf that was green but had yellow veins that I usually see when I overwater, but it was only a single leaf! Also, one of my leaves had a brown spot like it had been nibbled on so I've been watching if anything's getting on my trees. It's fertilized with rapeseed cakes underneath a layer of peabody decorative rock - not that glued on stuff. I barely placed enough to cover the soil (rootopia from Joe Bonsai) to make sure it got enough air going through.

Moving on to my chinese elm, I'm not sure what to think. It doesn't seem to be growing what so ever, with no new foliage. Every now and then I'll spot a single yellow leaf but they are always on the inside of the canopy where they're blocked by the foliage. It's potted in the 1 to 3 tidy cat and pine mulch lineup that I got from Mortalis. I put about a quarter or a half inch of the tree's trunk under the soil line to make sure it rooted extra good because it's so small. It's got the rapeseed cake fertilizer like the ficus, but it doesn't seem to be going anywhere. I water once a day around one or two with my other plants. The branches and foliage are small and delicate, they literally break to the touch so I can not really handle this tree. I'm not sure on the direction I'm going to take with this tree, wether I want to keep it small or make into a larger specimen such as my ficus and juniper but I'd appreciate some feed back. I bumped it up to the next largest container available, because it had become root bound in the nursery if you're wondering why it's in that seemingly gargantuan potter.

Finally, there's my juniper. I pulled this massive tree out of it's pot and fluffed the edges of it's roots to get them freed up a little a bit and to get a bunch of debris off the soil. I pinched off a few little branches coming off here and there, as well as a few others I didn't want. Nothing considerable just small cuts or twists. I've got the multiple trunks it seems to have split off of one another with the left side hanging over the pot to become a cascade in the future. I'd really like to develop it into a very nice cascasde on the left, possibly with a good shari. I'm not sure what to do with the rest of three, having put thought into shaping the branches/trunks into two formal uprights. It's really quite the odd tree and I haven't been able to do it's structure justice with my camera phone. It is not fertilized with rapeseed cakes, by the way as the soil it's in had appropiate food for six months.

Anyways, I'd appreciate any feedback on the trees especially on how to strengthen my elm up and maybe what to do with the juniper and ficus. I'm starting to think of just growing my ficus as a nice looking indoor/outdoor decorative plant instead of a true bonsai due to it's styling.

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philgrayser

Hi there, it sounds like your Elm could be overwatered. Elms dont need water every day that is maybee why you are loosing leaves and they are turning yellow.
The brittleness in the fine twigs could be to strong of a fertiliser for a small tree, my Elms have quite springy twigs even the really fine ones and i use a weak feed watered down and i only feed once a month aswell as too much feed can make your leaves grow too big and elongate your nodes. cheers Phil G

Mortalis

You may want to be watchful on the watering of your ficus as if its getting any yellow at all. Ficus likes to get almost completely dry before watering. Ficus can be deceptive it can continue to grow well for a time even when being over watered. Eventually the over watering will catch up and it will begin to decline. Regardless of the variety of ficus except the box leaf fig they like to be a little dry.

When using the mix your using I find my ficus to need water around every 3 days in low humidity and as long as a week in higher humidity but don't water on a schedule. Water when it is mostly dry. Its hard to tell mostly dry you can use the chopstick method to be sure. Stick a small piece of wooden dowel rod into the soil and let it sit for 5-10 min if it comes out moist don't water. Do check every day to make sure you get it on the right day.

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guesskoenig

What about my juniper?

Mortalis

I do not grow juniper. I know little about them.

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"I'm ready to meet my maker, whether my maker is ready to meet me is another matter" W.Church hill.

guesskoenig

I've switched to watering all of my trees every two to three days depending on the heat, usually waiting three. The Ficus seems to be doing just fine but I still don't know if it has very strong roots yet, and the elm is experience new growth with nice dark leaves.

However, while my juniper is maintaining it's color it does not seem to be growing at all - although this might be because it has a different growing season, I am not sure. It doesn't seem to be having any visible problems and it's been on this cycle for a month and a half or so now, but you don't know with evergreens until it's too late.

So, I was wondering if anyone had experience on when to water procumbens nana?