Karine wrote:hi,
I bought a Japanese pepper bonsai tree 2 months ago, research how to take care of it and follow the simple instruction, water it when the soil feels dried, place it in a well lighted window, and spay its little leaves often. But few weeks ago it started to lose a lot of leaves, which would become yellow and fall, it also looks very poorly and deflated.
I've attached a couple of pictures, can anyone help!?
Thanks in advance.
image.jpg
Good afternoon OP,
First off congrats on your tree. Yellowing of leaves is usually a symptom of a couple of things, over watering, lack of watering, lack of nitrogen, the list goes on and on. I believe your yellowing and "deflated" look could be attributed to lack of light and/or either over or under watering. I don't see and shoot elongation so I'm not even sure lighting is playing a big part here. Normally the soil that these trees are shipped in are poor draining soil. If you held the water till dry it is possible that the soil has dried out too much and become impermeable to water, this is common with soils high in peat. I recommend moving your tree outside in a shady area and gradually move it into a location with more sun so that it may take advantage of higher CO2 and light levels.
Also you can use the submersion technique (for watering) to ensure you are hitting every square inch of that pot. Once your tree has recovered you can bring it inside from time to time but you will always need to bring back outside so it can regain vigor.
Don't forget to fertilize a timed released fertilizer stacked with a monthly water soluble fertilizer will suffice. If you want to get fancy you can fertilize at every watering with a very weak solution. I don't recommend this but I'm sure others will disagree. And as always have fun and enjoy your little tree!
Feel free to PM me with any questions.
-Jonathan
