Could anyone help?

Hello all,

Could anyone of you please help with my hornbeam bonsai? I've had this tree for a good few years but since last year the leaves have started turning brown. It happened last year as well. could it be because of over watering? I water all my trees once daily. Back of the tree (last pic) still looks better than the front.

could defoliating the tree help?

I'd really appreciate any help in this regard.

Cheers,

Faisal

Where do you site the tree?
Hornbeam do scorch easily with wind, but not sure if thats whats happened here.
How much/often do you feed it?
With regard to leaf prunning, its really too late now to attempt.

Hi Mr Treevolution,

Tree is kept outside in my back garden. and i feed it once in 2 weeks with 6-8 pellets of bio gold.
you think it could be because of too much of sunshine we had in the past days? cuz thats when it happened.

Looks to me like a root problem.

How long has it been since you repotted?

The soil looks pretty wet and soggy. I'd guess it needs a complete change of soil. The tree is either badly rootbound, or it is growing in soil than can't support it.

It also needs a haircut. It may have more foliage than its roots can support.

Hi Faisal. I'd go with what Jim is saying mostly because I had one up to a few years ago which did exactly the same thing. Late summer, many of the leaves would go brown, curl up and drop off, and the reason seemed to be the "cook-chill" we get up here where it can be brilliant sunshine and temperatures of 75-80F for half a day then teeming wet and/or windy for the rest of it. Usually the tree would struggle out some new growth.

I repotted the tree (it was a root over rock) into a mix of half acadama, quarter multi-purpose compost and quarter kyodama and it seemed to like the better drainage (its previous owner had potted it in almost 100% soil compost).

The other thing I did was ensure it didn't get over-burdened with leaves and I think Jim is spot on here. Hornbeams seem to extend their shoots rampantly and get easily overgrown into long leggy shoots which droop down and smother the rest of the canopy. By keeping all shoots cut back I got mine to ramify better but also it let more light and air in round the leaves. If I did this the leaf drop was considerably curtailed. The remaining leaves also stayed decently sized whereas before they were getting quite large - almost in direct proportion to the lengthiness of the shoots - and I notice on your tree you have quite a number of larger leaves.

It's worth a try - the guy I sold mine to has carried on the practice I set and when I saw the tree a couple of weekends ago it looked good. You could do some thinning and pruning back of shoots just now but obviously a repot is not a go-er until the dormant period. (I'd repot mine in February or early March)

Hope that helps. Best of luck - it looks like a nice tree and worth a bit of extra tlc.

Fiona

btw it's a good idea to give the dimensions of your tree when posting (either write them out or photograph your tree with a size indicator alongside - people use coffee mug/coin/cig lighters/packet of cigs. It helps to know if we're talking about a large bonsai or a Shohin or whatever because sometimes the advice will vary depending on the size of the tree as you can imagine.

friend,
change the soil immediately,firstly clean the rootball and dip the whole tree in an antifungal solution then spray anusin in the roots ,anusin is a bacteriacide for the roots,then plant it in pure sand and water only when completely dry...repot the plants only after it recovers fully...

DO NOT repeat DO NOT REMOVE THE SOIL FROM THIS TREE AT THIS TIME OF YEAR! Hornbeams sometimes suffer when you use tap water [the leaves burn around the edges] Its also been very windy and dry this summer and it might have dried out,you said this happened over a couple of days? I would certainly cut it back as it looks like it needs it anyway and use rain water if you can.

While a repot is badly needed, please don't do it now. It might be the right time in India, but it's not in this hemisphere.

DO cut back on your watering, though. Keep a chopstick jammed deep into the soil. Remove it each morning and feel the dirty end, if it feels damp do NOT water. If it is dry, water. And be sure to water from the top and NOT by submersion. That should help keep it healthy.

And a good trimming also will help.

I have a small (almost tiny) hornbeam which experienced the same thing a few years ago. It lost nearly all its leaves in August and I believe just sat there like that for the remainder of the season. Cause unknown but overwatering is a possibility. I've also had this happen with flowering quince. Regardless, the hornbeam came back like a fury next spring. I would do as Jim recommends. I believe they are tough... The quince? Not so much...

partly off-topic: Why is it so important do repot at the right time? Is something going to happen if you repot a perfectly healthy tree when the time is not right???

Yes, it does depend upon the species but it is very likely to die. I'm replying to Teol.

Yours looks like it should do fine Faisal, if you follow the previous advice.

It is best to repot when the tree is just coming out of dormancy, so it has energy to spare for roots and leaves. A summer repot catches the tree during the summer doldrums, when many trees kinda quit growing for a while.

Fall is -- for some species, and for growers who know what they are doing (not, usually, the folks who ask here) -- an OK secondary time to repot, but it's always best to repot just as the tree is waking up in the spring.

Tropicals are a different matter (again, according to th species) but since I have very few of them, I'll let someone else expand on them.

Of course, there are emergencies, but the results are often iffy.

does this apply to indoor plants too? or plants that aren't seasonal?

As I said above:

Tropicals are a different matter (again, according to th species) but since I have very few of them, I'll let someone else expand on them.

There's no such thing as an "indoor plant."

JimLewis wrote:There's no such thing as an "indoor plant."

Yes there is, it's a plant that normally lives in temperate conditions and loses it's leaves in the winter (or at least goes into dormancy), but doesn't because the conditions that it lives under doesn't allow it. For example a plant growing under lamps and constant temperature...