I am completely new to bonsai gardening. I am used to caring for orchids, not bonsai. I have a grape vine bonsai. In the beginning it was doing fine, but as winter arrived its leaves which were about 1 square inch started falling off. I assumed it was going dormant but the leaves came back.
I realized the leaves had signs of biting. I found a spider in its soil. I used something I read about to get rid of the spider mite: a combination of water, vegetable oil, and a little dish soap. The mite seems to have died and the leaves no longer showed signs of bitting and I have not seen spider mites in its soil.
But the leaves again fell off. I again assumed it was going dormant but the leaves came back. But this time, they did not grow. They grew up to less than 1/5 of their original size, turned blackish, dried up, and fell off. They were replaced by new ones but these did not grow again. This has been going on for a while.
I need help with it. I want it to live and be happy.
I water it every day, I put some water on the plate where its pot sits, so that it does not suffer from the dryness of the apartment. It is sitting in a South-facing window with plenty of sun.
Can anyone help me with this?
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ingluisantonio
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Gnome
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ingluisantonio,
Temperate plants require a yearly dormancy period, it's in their nature. If you wish to continue with bonsai in an apartment setting then you need to look to tropicals and sub-tropicals not temperate plants.
The Grape may have been trying to enter dormancy or it may have lost it's leaves due to less than ideal culture. Regardless, I fear that in several attempts to put out new leaves that it has become so weak that it may not recover.
Ideally temperate trees are kept outside and allowed to enter dormancy slowly following the summer solstice. At this point I'm not sure what to suggest, putting it outside now would certainly be quite a shock. On the other hand, by keeping it warm you encourage another flush of leaves that will likely fail again. You are on the horns of a dilemma. Do you have any alternate storage options?
One thing that might help is to be more careful with your watering as part of the problem could be from watering too frequently. You mention that you water it everyday. How do you know that it needs water everyday? A plant without leaves will not require watering on the same schedule that you may have used previously.
Read [url=https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1479]this[/url] making sure to follow the links. Pay particular attention to the use of a chopstick or skewer as an aid in determining when to water. I'm by no means sure that this will get your Grape 'out of the woods' but it's a start.
Norm
Temperate plants require a yearly dormancy period, it's in their nature. If you wish to continue with bonsai in an apartment setting then you need to look to tropicals and sub-tropicals not temperate plants.
The Grape may have been trying to enter dormancy or it may have lost it's leaves due to less than ideal culture. Regardless, I fear that in several attempts to put out new leaves that it has become so weak that it may not recover.
Ideally temperate trees are kept outside and allowed to enter dormancy slowly following the summer solstice. At this point I'm not sure what to suggest, putting it outside now would certainly be quite a shock. On the other hand, by keeping it warm you encourage another flush of leaves that will likely fail again. You are on the horns of a dilemma. Do you have any alternate storage options?
One thing that might help is to be more careful with your watering as part of the problem could be from watering too frequently. You mention that you water it everyday. How do you know that it needs water everyday? A plant without leaves will not require watering on the same schedule that you may have used previously.
Read [url=https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1479]this[/url] making sure to follow the links. Pay particular attention to the use of a chopstick or skewer as an aid in determining when to water. I'm by no means sure that this will get your Grape 'out of the woods' but it's a start.
Norm