elm leaves falling in diffrent colours green brown yello :S

[uzeyr]

help
my chinese elm is loosing leaves its only a small number right now but I know it will strat to increase
well one of the leaves turned yellow
there was a leaf that had turned brown and that fell yeaterday and today morning four leaves that were green but they looked a dirty gren like they were about to loose the green shade and turn brown fell four leaves like that fell today I'm really concerned it had been doing fine even growing well and now...........
but they have really turned the heating high in teh house could that be a problem also all the leaves that fell were at the sort of edge of the branches :S I ahve no idea wats goimg on and I have never seen leaves turn brown in all my bonsai keeping time so I think this may be an external factor

please any advice would be much appreciated
thanx

[Gnome]

uzeyr,

Can you briefly outline the history of this plant as you know it? If these are older leaves and newer ones are/have been coming in then it is not unusual for the oldest leaves to fade and drop.

For instance: Although I usually keep this species dormant throughout the winter this year I handled one as I have suggested before on this forum. Allowing a relatively short but definite dormancy period and later bringing the plant inside to leaf out as a sort of early spring. Despite the dormancy numerous leaves had not dropped and as new leaves came in the old leaves slowly fell.

A similar thing could be happening to your tree even if it has not experienced a dormant period. Older leaves from a previous growth spurt will eventually drop as new ones come in. No single leaf will last indefinitely.

I suggest that you continue with the practices that have been working and monitor the tree carefully. If you are concerned about the dry air, a humidity tray and/or misting can help. I keep mine on a large humidity tray that always has water below the surface of clean gravel.

Also reconsider your watering practice. Are you allowing the soil to partially dry before watering again or are you keeping it more on the wet side? The former is more appropriate than the latter.

Also since it is actively growing a fertilization schedule should be established if you have not already done so.

Norm

[uzeyr]

ok here is teh story I have no idea of the history I mean I got in november 08 so I really wouldnt know and that from ebay the seller said that they got it from china and they have no idea of the history either

but the tree was fine u knw I dunno , its renoving loads of new shoots but the some newly formed ones are falling out and some old I guess

about the watering I water every time its become moist u knw I can pull the tree out of the pot because it cam loose so I can see how much water is present at the bottom levels of the soil would the elm tolerate dry soil for a day ??? because I have never let it get wet

I keep it on a humidity tray slightly bigger than the pot I kepp it with gravel .by the way I have started misting it like two months ago and that is when the problems started could they be connected u knw because the elm was the best tree last year I dunno why this year it wanst to be recognised as a problem