mildew on bonsai
About 2 weeks ago, my husband bought be a 10 year old California winegrape bonsai tree for our anniversary. The paper that came with it said that it needed regular watering, and its been so hot where I live lately that I have been watering it everyday, even though it stays indoors. Now it has this powdery looking mildew on the base of the tree and on the the corners on the top of the soil. I only water it once a day until I see water coming out of the drainage holes. Am I watering it too much? And how do I get rid of the mold?
Well you may be watering it too much. Of much more importance you've got it indoors.
A grape needs to be outdoors. If it was newly airlaired it may well need a shade house. But not indoors.
Generally the age of a woody plant is in the eye of the beholder.
Next spring when it is time to repot, shake and comb old soil out. if the pot is not a rigid mass of roots, the division was done a whole lot more recently than ten years back.
Your grape might be tender in your unspecified zone. Even if it is tender, it will still need a cold room to be dormant in. Cold as in just above freezing cold.
This is not an indoor bonsai
A grape needs to be outdoors. If it was newly airlaired it may well need a shade house. But not indoors.
Generally the age of a woody plant is in the eye of the beholder.
Next spring when it is time to repot, shake and comb old soil out. if the pot is not a rigid mass of roots, the division was done a whole lot more recently than ten years back.
Your grape might be tender in your unspecified zone. Even if it is tender, it will still need a cold room to be dormant in. Cold as in just above freezing cold.
This is not an indoor bonsai
Last edited by tomc on Mon Aug 20, 2012 11:45 am, edited 1 time in total.
Well, the area of my house that its in doesn't get direct sunlight, but I open my blinds everyday and it get great indirect sunlight. I'll start sitting it outside in the mornings. The paper I got just says morning sunlight only to avoid it drying out too quickly, and to watch for mildew, but nothing on how do get rid of it.
It only says to repot every 2-3 years, but doesn't say when it was re-potted last.
I don't really have a place to keep it just above freezing cold, but I have a dark room it can stay during the winter, and I keep my house about 68 in the winter, but I have a feeling that won't suffice.
It only says to repot every 2-3 years, but doesn't say when it was re-potted last.
I don't really have a place to keep it just above freezing cold, but I have a dark room it can stay during the winter, and I keep my house about 68 in the winter, but I have a feeling that won't suffice.
Grape are deciduous. You may be refridgerating your grape as it goes dormant.
Heavy gnarled grape bonsai are usually airlayered from their parent. Those new airlayered roots are the weak link for the first few years on this woody plant. Old IBC photos of left-coast growers, kept their grape in a shade house for the first couple years.
My fox grape, and past concord grapes lived outdoors 24-7-365. 68°F is much too warm to hold a grape in its dormant season. More like less than 40°F.
I don't know which grape cultivar you have (thus its heartyness is speculative), nor your zone. So I have to base my advice on what I have grown.
Heavy gnarled grape bonsai are usually airlayered from their parent. Those new airlayered roots are the weak link for the first few years on this woody plant. Old IBC photos of left-coast growers, kept their grape in a shade house for the first couple years.
My fox grape, and past concord grapes lived outdoors 24-7-365. 68°F is much too warm to hold a grape in its dormant season. More like less than 40°F.
I don't know which grape cultivar you have (thus its heartyness is speculative), nor your zone. So I have to base my advice on what I have grown.
What a woody plant does in nature, is pretty much what it does when kept in a shallow tray.
Grape strives to place itself in full sunlight. I expect you have a yearling or less grape wood (a ten year old cutting would be near the thickness of your ankle). Its weakest link for this year and next is a not very developed root system. Baby it with a shaded growing bench till it looses its leaves. You can berm it into a box of bark mulch for the winter.
It is never an indoors bonsai, even if you do opt to store it in refridgeratiion from December to April. To shelter it from frost.
I like grape. It roots readily and really old massive wood can be adapted to tray culture. It also pleases my goofy esthetic as it gets trained to a mini-kniffin trellis.
Grape strives to place itself in full sunlight. I expect you have a yearling or less grape wood (a ten year old cutting would be near the thickness of your ankle). Its weakest link for this year and next is a not very developed root system. Baby it with a shaded growing bench till it looses its leaves. You can berm it into a box of bark mulch for the winter.
It is never an indoors bonsai, even if you do opt to store it in refridgeratiion from December to April. To shelter it from frost.
I like grape. It roots readily and really old massive wood can be adapted to tray culture. It also pleases my goofy esthetic as it gets trained to a mini-kniffin trellis.