名媛直播

Morning All,

As my user name would indicate I am new to bonsai, really plants in general. I recently, about 3 weeks ago, purchased my bonsai tree. It was listed as Chinese sweet plum tree. Currently I kept it in the pot it arrived in, along with a humidity tray underneath. It is in a room near a south facing window so it does not get direct sun light but should get plenty through out the day.?

I was watering it every few days but did not really know if I was watering it enough or not. Also the water was really pooling in the humidity tray which I was leaving. I wanted to take the guess work out of watering so I bought a humidity thermostat and have now been watering as needed, seems to be every 2-3 days. Also I have not been allowing the humidity tray to pool anymore. I allow a small amount to leak into it but that is it as I read it is not good for it to be sitting in water.

Other key notes the tree did arrive with many branches, leaves ect...I waited about a week and then began to trim it and try to shape it as I wanted. I think I may of gotten a bit over zealous?with the trimming.??Not sure if that has had any effect on its? current status.

Other key notes the plant did come with green pellets which are some brand of? fertilizer I assume. I removed as much of that as I could and switched to a liquid fertilizer. I did one feeding so far for this month.?

I noticed since trimming the tree the leaves have started to dry out, and in some areas get brown spots and fall off. I am not sure if it is related to changing of the season. As? I heard this is what these plants do?in the fall. Since it is a indoor plant though?I would not expect it to be effected by the seasons. The house has central air and is kept steadily around 72 degrees.?

Anyhow, just not sure what I am doing wrong if anything. I have done a great deal of research online and adjusted my habits accordingly. It has been about a week since I started using the humidity thermostat but I have not seen any visual improvement in the plants health, nor any new growth.

Any insight would be appreciated .

Yes, you are way too over ambitious.

There are two things to learn in bonsai and they contradics each others in some way. Those are horticultural and aestetics. If you do not learn the first one, you will not have a chanse of learning the second.

Plant health always go first. Always! That is why we recomend beginners to let a newly purshased tree grow freely without any repotting, styling, wiring nor pruning for at least a year after purshase. I am 7 years into the hobby now and I am still practiceing it on all first time species.

Now you are in a situation where you do not know If it is your cultivation or styling that caused the ill health. And the styling itself has got the tree into a situation where there are not much energy to support recovery.

With that beeing said, I have never seen a long term healthy chinese sweetplum grown in livingroom conditions. And I think keeping it indoors in a heated house may be the biggest issue. I have 10 or so of them and they are really easy trees if kept outdoors inspring, summer, authum and cold but frost free in winter.

But also we never do big jobs on a tree in authum. They need to conserve the energy for the winter.

However the biggest misstake made is to take actions before asking. That will not happen again as you now know both when to ask as well as where to ask. Welcome to the empire and may your next tree be more successful.

Thank you for the quick reply, and for your information! Is there a species of bonsai that would be more highly reccommended for indoor? I really was looking for something to spruce up my at home office.?

In my opinion the answer is no. All trees are best kept outdoors in summer.

If you want a species that do fairly good in livingroom conditions in winter I would say ficus.

If you want something that do good indoors all year and can be trained to look like a bonsai, I would say jades. But they are technically not trees, but succulents. My experience is that they develop faster indoors without dormancy. The only con is that they will not flower indoors.

Thank you for the information, I think I will try Jade then as I do want something that would be indoor all year round. I assume the same protocol of? not pruning for a year would hold true with this as well??

I wrote at least a year, not a year. It can be more if you do not get the care right. What you want is a strong and healthy tree under your conditions and care. So one year after I got it right plus the time left until it is the right time of the year.

I see I see ok thank you very much ?

I realized I am a fool yet again though...here I thought I had a south facing window turns out it is north facing.? It does get a lot of sun light in the room though but now I am worried that none of these bonsai will prosper not even the jade.

Jades will survive in livingroom conditions in a north facing window in most of the world. I am in sweden where there are not much sun in winter, that is why I know for sure. If you are above the artic line, it may suffer badly or die.

If you want tight internodes, flowering and thriving crassulas they need to be outdoors in summer and cold but frost free in winter.

But your question was about survival, they will for sure.

Thank you so much! I am in the US in New? Jersey.? All your insight has been greatly appreciated. I ordered a "dwarf jade" so hopefully that will be fine!?

Jades are crassula ovata. Dwarf jades are portulacaria afra. They are not related at all. Both of them will do fine indoors, but dwarf jade needs more sun. I would not recomend growing dwarf jades in north facing window.