ESM
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Joined: Wed Nov 30, 2016 8:41 am

Help with a Sageretia

Hello everyone,

Please help! This is my first Bonsai. I believe it’s a Sageretia. I got it in the early summer and ended up putting it outside where it flourished. I was going to leave it outside all winter in one of those mini greenhouses (plastic covering) but after a couple of weeks doing so I decided it was getting far too cold to leave outside. I brought inside at the beginning of November and it sits on a windowsill in our living room. It gets quite a bit of sun there but our house does tend to be warm. I regularly give it water but I would say over the past week, it hasn’t ‘drank’ much as there is always water in its pot. A lot of leaves have turned brown and crispy and fallen off and there are quite a few that have turned yellow. Is there anything I can do?

Thank you for any advice!!

ESM
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tomc
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Posts: 2661
Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2011 2:52 am
Location: SE-OH USA Zone 6-A

A shallow under-pot is a humidity tray. I'm not sure they work as advertised. If there is enough water in that tray, to keep your tree standing in water, its drowning. Water it away from tray and let it drain for a while before returning it to its humidity tray.

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rainbowgardener
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Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: TN/GA 7b

Yes, it it is not taking up water, then you are watering it too much. If it is growing less, then it needs less water than when it was growing more actively.

Sageretia (bird plum) is an evergreen tropical. It makes a good indoor bonsai. If kept warm and well lighted, it will grow all through winter. However, below 50 deg F (10 deg C) it acts like a deciduous tree - drops leaves and goes dormant. Presumably you kept it outside below 50 deg enough to trigger it into dormancy.

At this point, it is too confusing to the tree to try to bring it back. I would treat it like a deciduous tree. Put it in the coolest spot in your house, with no extra light, just ambient. Water very little and don't fertilize at all. It will finish dropping leaves. Once the days are longer and warming up, bring it back out into light and warmth. In spring you should repot it in to better bonsai soil and then start regular fertilization.

It always helps to tell us where you are!



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