Tips of brush cherry leaves are brown...

The Tips of the leaves on my Brush Cherry tree are brown and more crisp than they should be. I got the tree about 2 months ago I water it when it dries out (so about once a week-ish). I have also gave it one watering with some Miracid and plan to give it some more after a month has past. It also seems to be growing a good bit with about a dozen new leaves sprouting in the past few weeks. Some of the older of the new leaves them have developed the brown tips as well. Please tell me if there is anything I can do to make my tree as healthy as possible.

Frishkorn
Maybe your water quality. Have you had it checked? Are you on a well or city water supply. Just a guess I'd say city water. City water often has a high level of sodium. this is one of main causes of leaf burn.

Mitch

I've had a brush cherry for about a year and a half now, and I've never had any issues with brown leaf tips (knock on wood). Can you tell us a little more about the tree? Did it have brown leaf tips when you got it, or is this a new development? A photo could be very helpful.

My tree gets watered at least twice a week...it goes through water quite quickly. I've got it under fluorescents and it continues to grow through the winter. I'm using municipal water, fertilizing every 10 days to 2 weeks.

Where are you keeping the tree? How much light does it get? What is the average temperature & humidity in its location? You can get a temperature/humidity gauge at the hardware store.
Once a week watering may be enough, but to be sure, after you water it, every few days stick a bamboo chopstick, skewer, or your finger (if it fits) way down in the soil. When it starts to get dry, water it again.
Join the nearest bonsai club. And Google on Brush cherry bonsai care.
Your water supply may not be a problem unless you are on a well.
Iris

Although I haven't worked with Syzygium (I believe its Syzygium now) I can tell you that my tropicals usually start to brown out and crisp up just the very tips of some of their older leaves around this time of year and I've always just put it down to having to spend the long winter indoors with me in a house heated by a wood stove (low humidity). They always bounce back to lovely leaves come spring. Thats my simplistic answer. You know now that I think about it I believe I've read that Brush Cherries like a relatively high humidity throughout winter (one of the reasons I never tried them)

-Jay

drgonzo wrote:Although I haven't worked with Syzygium (I believe its Syzygium now) I can tell you that my tropicals usually start to brown out and crisp up just the very tips of some of their older leaves around this time of year and I've always just put it down to having to spend the long winter indoors with me in a house heated by a wood stove (low humidity). They always bounce back to lovely leaves come spring. Thats my simplistic answer. You know now that I think about it I believe I've read that Brush Cherries like a relatively high humidity throughout winter (one of the reasons I never tried them)

-Jay

Jay, I can't remember what kind of humidity you have in your house...but for reference, the room I'm growing in generally maintains 30-40% during the winter (somewhat lower when it's been really cold outside for a while). At that level, I did not have any leaf browning last winter on brush cherry or jaboticaba. None this winter either. Temps range from mid-upper 50s on really cold nights to mid 70s on sunny, milder days.