fukien tea

remraf

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Hello
My Fukien tea has a brown wool substance at the base of the older leaf stems, not on newer growth.
Is this a normal thing for carmona? Also is there any way to divert growth from flowers to foliage?
Thanks
 

cquinn

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Hello
My Fukien tea has a brown wool substance at the base of the older leaf stems, not on newer growth.
Is this a normal thing for carmona? Also is there any way to divert growth from flowers to foliage?
Thanks

Not sure about the brown wool as I don't have this species. Could be just the way the hardened leaf stems are naturally. Pull the flowers off if you want to divert the energy away from them.
 
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post a pic if possible, I have had alot of fukien tea's and never came across any brown wool substance... The flowers really don't take much energy away, besides they drop so fast. but would have to agree just pull them off. If you are trying to promote growth, you might have to defoliate another part of the tree.
 

Bill S

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Not sure about the brown wool as I don't have this species. Could be just the way the hardened leaf stems are naturally. Pull the flowers off if you want to divert the energy away from them.

I don't have these either, but this has been the best answer so far, I'd use a q tip or tweezer and remove at least one of the wolly masses and open it up and see what is inside. If live, kill it and the rest, could be a form of wolly aphid. Removing flower buds prior to actually getting to size is best, but pulling them now would seem to save some energy going thier way. Keeping them off in the future will keep energy to the foliage(probably, some species deal with this the oposite from some past readings).

I would find out more about the species before defoliating, this is usually a more advanced part of our horticulture w/ bonsai.

Get an insecticidal soap, these are famous trees for attracting about every know pest there is, and I think there will be others that second this . Maybe a systemic would help with the pest issue, but I would talk to someone in a nusery near you to see what they think, local help is usually pretty good.
 
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I would happen to agee with Bill about the wooley substance, I am not sure where you live, and it might be something we don't have,or get here in florida... but as far as the flowers, what I was getting at with the teas, is that, we grow them in the full sun, deep bonsai pot, with a normal soil (non-bonsai), and plenty of water/humidity, they are very vigorous. The flowers that are here today are gone tomorrow, perhaps because of the full sun... so, they take very little away from the tree... now with the dwarf variety, they will not only flower, but produce berries, of which I've be told oolong tea is made from. Now I could see where with the berries and the flowers, they might take away some more of the energy. See where the problem lies with these trees, is often they again face the dreaded " I'm an indoor plant " story. Which just zombifies the plant, it's lethargic, best remedy get it out of the house, and slowly into the light. Everything every taught in chinese/japanese bonsai culture, says do not keep a plant inside for more that 2 days, which I beleive to be true as well. Now, I understand in severe whether ok, but I feel part of the prob. is that we all like to have plants that some times don't do to well in our locations, ie. I have some jap. maples that keep burning in the sun.
Now as far as defoliation, this I would only do on a outdoor tree, I have resorted to defoilating parts of a tree to help premote growth in other areas, but because of the old age of the tree, was reluctant to doing the whole tree. Removing the top, where it was most resilient forced out the desired new growth lower in the tree, and it didn't skip a beat.
 
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