I thought my ficus was doing well while it was at home, under a 1700 Lumen light, and about a week ago I fertilized it with some diluted Miracle Gro, 15-30-15. Since I got it I have repotted it from the mass produced gravel/peat mix and have recycled the gravel and substituted the peat for a more freely draining wood chips. About a 3:1 ratio of chips to gravel. I know that's a little heavy on the organic, but it's the best I can do for now. Now that I brought it to school and I'm seeing it at a different angle, I noticed that most of the leaves have lost their bright green tint and are looking kind of blackish/reddish.What is the reason for the loss of the healthy green tint and the new blackish/reddish color?
Edit: There's also a whitish deposit on some of the leaves. I don't do any misting, so could it be powdery mildew? Would this cause a blackening of the leaves?
Color of leaves when I first got it (Dec 22).
[img]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v144/JTsoccer59/Bonsai012.jpg[/img]
Leaves now:
[img]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v144/JTsoccer59/bonsai004.jpg[/img]
[img]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v144/JTsoccer59/bonsai0052.jpg[/img]
[img]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v144/JTsoccer59/bonsai0062.jpg[/img]
Dorm room setup
[img]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v144/JTsoccer59/bonsai003.jpg[/img]
(The lighting situation isn't ideal, but its the best I can do.)
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Gnome
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 5122
- Joined: Wed Jul 05, 2006 12:17 am
- Location: Western PA USDA Zone 6A
JTred,
I'm not sure what the problem is, but a few possibilities come to mind.
Some Ficus are known for reacting badly when their environment/lighting is changed. Yours has been recently relocated twice that you know of, and you don't know how long it was at the retailer so this may indeed be the third recent move.
Consider what it has likely gone through in the past six weeks or so. It has been moved from some greenhouse, probably in a warm state, in a cold truck. Situated at the retailers where it may have been ill treated. After purchase it was transported and exposed, even if only briefly, to cold temperatures. Re-potted, and again transported during cold weather to its, possibly, fourth location. That's a lot of moving around. Also, had it not been re-potted just prior to the last move it might have fared better.
Sorry I can't offer anything more definitive, perhaps someone else has another take on it.
Norm
I'm not sure what the problem is, but a few possibilities come to mind.
Some Ficus are known for reacting badly when their environment/lighting is changed. Yours has been recently relocated twice that you know of, and you don't know how long it was at the retailer so this may indeed be the third recent move.
Consider what it has likely gone through in the past six weeks or so. It has been moved from some greenhouse, probably in a warm state, in a cold truck. Situated at the retailers where it may have been ill treated. After purchase it was transported and exposed, even if only briefly, to cold temperatures. Re-potted, and again transported during cold weather to its, possibly, fourth location. That's a lot of moving around. Also, had it not been re-potted just prior to the last move it might have fared better.
Sorry I can't offer anything more definitive, perhaps someone else has another take on it.
Norm
I have decided on removing the worst of the leaves (they will fall off anyhow and it just offers the chance for further infection), and treating the leaves with a spray of a sodium bicarbonate solution or a commercial fungicide. I haven't decided which yet because I was wondering if anyone knew the effects of sodum bicarbonate and fungicide on roots as I would like to treat the roots for good measure if it won't harm them.
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Gnome
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 5122
- Joined: Wed Jul 05, 2006 12:17 am
- Location: Western PA USDA Zone 6A
JTred,
I have not had any occasion to use this remedy so I don't know the risks of allowing it to enter the soil, or to the plant for that matter. I think I would tend to try to exclude it from the soil by covering it with some plastic bags first. If you do strip the leaves I suggest that you cut through the petioles, or leaf stems, rather than pull them off. There are new buds below that might be damaged if you pull them off. The little stub will fall off by itself as it dries.
The best thing you can do for the plant in general is to provide it with good growing conditions. By this I mostly mean warmth, light and not to keep moving it around. If you position that lamp a little higher it might help to more evenly distribute the light. A second fixture certainly would not hurt either.
Norm
I have not had any occasion to use this remedy so I don't know the risks of allowing it to enter the soil, or to the plant for that matter. I think I would tend to try to exclude it from the soil by covering it with some plastic bags first. If you do strip the leaves I suggest that you cut through the petioles, or leaf stems, rather than pull them off. There are new buds below that might be damaged if you pull them off. The little stub will fall off by itself as it dries.
The best thing you can do for the plant in general is to provide it with good growing conditions. By this I mostly mean warmth, light and not to keep moving it around. If you position that lamp a little higher it might help to more evenly distribute the light. A second fixture certainly would not hurt either.
Norm
The leafs look burned to me. Are you using the same lamp as seen in the picture to light the bonsai? If so there is your problem. First, it is very harmful to any plant to be exposed to a sideways light source for extended periods of time. Second, that light looks like it could get very hot. Even if the light from the lamp is not shining directly on the plant, the heat given off by it may be enough to dehydrate the leafs.
I don't think it was the light, I still believe the main cause was powdery mildew, as the description in my Ortho's Bonsai book fits exactly. However, The light may have been a factor in how quickly the leaves have been lost. I had been using that bulb for the last 3 weeks, however it was in a ceiling fan fixture about 4 and half feet from the plant. I noticed the plant was turning brown on Friday, the day I started this topic, and didn't start using that light setup until Saturday (I had it setup but didn't turn it on). It gets kind of hot, but its an energy saving fluorescent, so it gets warm, but you can put your hand on it even after it has been on for hours. It has also been relocated to higher and has a more downward angle. I agree that for now, I probably don't need to use it as much because there are really no leaves left that healthy enough to use the light. Maybe I will only use it only when I leave the room and the overhead industrial fluorescent dorm light needs to be turned out.
P.S. Any suggestions on when to time the fertilizer so as to not stress the tree more, yet still give it a leg up in the new growth? It has been about two weeks since the last fertilization. (There are decent sized green buds at the end of most of the branches, and smaller green buds are beginning to appear just above where the old leaf stems fell out)
The carnage:
[img]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v144/JTsoccer59/SickBonsai001.jpg[/img]
The regrowth:
[img]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v144/JTsoccer59/SickBonsai002.jpg[/img]
[img]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v144/JTsoccer59/SickBonsai003.jpg[/img]
[img]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v144/JTsoccer59/SickBonsai004.jpg[/img]
P.S. Any suggestions on when to time the fertilizer so as to not stress the tree more, yet still give it a leg up in the new growth? It has been about two weeks since the last fertilization. (There are decent sized green buds at the end of most of the branches, and smaller green buds are beginning to appear just above where the old leaf stems fell out)
The carnage:
[img]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v144/JTsoccer59/SickBonsai001.jpg[/img]
The regrowth:
[img]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v144/JTsoccer59/SickBonsai002.jpg[/img]
[img]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v144/JTsoccer59/SickBonsai003.jpg[/img]
[img]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v144/JTsoccer59/SickBonsai004.jpg[/img]
Jeez I can't seem to catch a break with this poor tree. I'm not exactly sure what you mean, but here's a few pics from the day after I got it.
[img]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v144/JTsoccer59/Bonsai011.jpg[/img]
[img]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v144/JTsoccer59/Bonsai010.jpg[/img]
[img]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v144/JTsoccer59/Bonsai006.jpg[/img]
[img]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v144/JTsoccer59/Bonsai013.jpg[/img]
I really hope it's not a root disease because I don't have the tools here to remove that root.
[img]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v144/JTsoccer59/Bonsai011.jpg[/img]
[img]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v144/JTsoccer59/Bonsai010.jpg[/img]
[img]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v144/JTsoccer59/Bonsai006.jpg[/img]
[img]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v144/JTsoccer59/Bonsai013.jpg[/img]
I really hope it's not a root disease because I don't have the tools here to remove that root.
Sorry, I cant tell from the pictures if there is much of a difference, so if I were you I'd keep an eye on that root to see if it wrinkles any more. I would also watch the other roots just in case. And, if you should need to cut the root off, it doesn't require to special a tool. As a matter of fact, it may be easier and better if you cut off that section of three roots, and turned the main root into a trunk. Now, as for the fungi its contracted (and then again, maybe it hasn't got it), here is as much information as I know on it. What happens is, for unknown reasons (although I beleve it is related to letting the soil dry out), a fungi (that is, from my expiriance, harmfull only to genseng variaties, probably because almost all the plant consists of 'root') will invade the roots of the tree. It then decays all the vascular tissues on the inside of the root. The infection stops at the trunk or branches, but the plant is no longer able to obtain water, because the roots have been killed. The plant then, for lack of water, looses its leafs, and dies. Once it strikes a root, it is best to amputate it. One can tell if a root is infected due to a shived, wrinkled appearance, and a rather soft feel to it rather than a smooth, succulent look and normal firmness. However, if the fungi infects all the roots, it is usualy too late. This fungi is, from my experiance, little known because I have never seen it mentioned anywere.
Ok, thanks for the info. My book describes something similar called verticillium wilt? Anyhow I will keep an eye on it, and if it gets any worse when I get home and have access to a saw (the sharpest thing I have here is a pair of scissors). Hopefully it won't come to that, the root doesn't feel soft, but it is slightly discolored. Thanks for the heads up, I suppose if worst comes to worst and it dies, I found that they sell smaller ginsengs at Walmart for only $10, but I sincerely hope it doesn't come to that.
Umm... I actually had one of those for a while. I'm not the most brilliant when it comes to Bonsai but the same basically happened except that I didn't have mine in such sub-par conditions. If the leaves started falling when they were barely turning that dull red colour it was root-rot or one of the main roots were damaged and the tree reacted violently with the damage. So, yeah. I'm sorry if I'm incorrect or if I'm not of any help but something like that happened to my Ficus.
But also, another thought struck me. Did you open the window in your dorm? PA + December = Death to a tropical, its a deadly formula swirling around your tree.
But also, another thought struck me. Did you open the window in your dorm? PA + December = Death to a tropical, its a deadly formula swirling around your tree.