RoseRed15@msn.com
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Fukien Tea Bonsai

Hello, I recently purchased a Fukien Tea Bonsai. It is doing fine. It came in a 6" pot. I ordered bonsai soil from bonsai store and new pot from england. I repotted (without wiring) and is doing ok. Now drops 1-2 leaves/day. Not overwatering, no bugs or fungus. Soil very gritty with lots of gravel...freely draining. I will not feed for awhile till it recuperates from the repotting. Problem is I think I have been moving in and out of window too much for night temp and sun. Should I wait on the feeding ...how long. What fertilizer and should I really water down the fertilizer. No misting. I have to get a humidity tray and can I use sea glass for pebbles in the tray. Thank you for any help.

Rosemary

kdodds
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RoseRed15@msn.com wrote:Hello, I recently purchased a Fukien Tea Bonsai. It is doing fine. It came in a 6" pot. I ordered bonsai soil from bonsai store and new pot from england. I repotted (without wiring) and is doing ok. Now drops 1-2 leaves/day. Not overwatering, no bugs or fungus. Soil very gritty with lots of gravel...freely draining. I will not feed for awhile till it recuperates from the repotting. Problem is I think I have been moving in and out of window too much for night temp and sun. Should I wait on the feeding ...how long. What fertilizer and should I really water down the fertilizer. No misting. I have to get a humidity tray and can I use sea glass for pebbles in the tray. Thank you for any help.

Rosemary
LOL, this may sound like a very simple solution, and sometimes one that's hard to believe, but... slow down. That's it. Most people have teh inclination to act when the perceive something wrong, like repotting immediately, changing soil, and heck, sometimes even unnecessary or unwarranted (at the time) root pruning. Moving too quickly, changing things up all of the time, all of these things can be stressors that damage a tree. Did you prune when repotting? If so, what, and how much? How often are you watering and are you allowing the soil surface to become dry before watering again? Hold off on any fertilizer until the tree is stable, and then, being winter, I would use quarter strength houseplant fertilizer, maybe once every other week to every week. Stable would, to me, be defined as the tree being settled in a permanent location, not dropping leaves, with watering and misting schedules established. Once it starts showing new growth, you should be okay to fertilize. You don't necessarily need a humidity tray, I don't use them at all, just mist once or twice per day, which seems to work better for me. But, to each his own, there's no real right or wrong way to do things as long as you remain successful. ;)

My guess here is that the recent massive changes have led to the tree dropping mostly its inner leaves. If this is not the case, and the outer leaves are also dropping, you may have a bigger problem.

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uzeyr
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sorry slightyly out of topic my ficus is dropping its inner leaves what could tha be a result of (not the one that has recently been repotted but another one )

RoseRed15@msn.com
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I think you are right. I have been moving at a fast pace with the Fukien. I did prune when repotting. The Tree was really rootbound in the orig. pot. I pruned to the size of a donut to get it into the new pot. There is slight new growth on the top, but it has slowed down with the new growth. I think it is in shock. Not overwatering. Love my bonsai.

Rosemary

kdodds
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How much of the root system did you remove? More than a third?



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