Advice needed on next steps of this crabapple and how to nurse it back to health

keyfen06

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Hi all. Back in April, I bought a Nagasaki Crabapple from someone from my local club. It was very healthy then, with flowers just finishing up. However, in early-mid June, I noticed that the leaves were browning and curling up. I was quite confused as I'd never encountered this before, but then I deduced that it was probably a disease that had come from an apple tree in our garden which had been moved previously, most likely weakened. I then posted on Reddit asking for advice and to see if anyone could identify the specific problem the crabapple was facing, however no one could answer it definitively and someone said that it was from too much direct sunlight and lack of water. I didn't think this could be the case as the previous seller (who is very reputable and trusted) had the bonsai in direct sunlight constantly in a south-facing garden, and it was completely fine with him. I was making sure to give it plenty of water, soaking it twice thoroughly on my watering runs.

I'm possibly thinking that it's 'Apple Scab', however this is my first time facing a disease / fungus (or whatever it is) on my bonsai apart from powdery mildew or a general aphid infestation. I sprayed it with some rose rust spray when this problem was happening, and it didn't seem to improve. If anyone's seen this before, I would appreciate it if someone could identify it for me. Any advice on the next steps I should take to nurse it back to health would also be appreciated, as I was told that I should give it a thorough wipe down with lime sulfur in the winter to kill any fungus on the tree before it wakes up in spring. If you need any more pictures to help identify it, please request them.
 

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Leprous Garden

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Doesn't particularly look like a disease to me. The leaves are crisping up at the tips, which makes me think underwatering. It doesn't look at all like apple scab not is it rust.

What kind of substrate is it planted in? Did you repot it? And are you in the same area as the seller?
 

cmeg1

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Yeah I am curious as to what media it is planted in whether organic or volcanic and also the water are you using chlorinated water or even worse water with chloromine it will definitely whack a tree.

And if your water is hard meaning it has a high natural mineral content like city tap water may have large amounts of calcium and magnesium thats actually too large and completely unusable so if you use a slightly high fertilizer strength it makes it so strong that water uptake is very restricted like using a very high fertilizer which is generally not needed in trees anyway they need more water uptake.

And let’s not forget pH of the nutrient instant death of a tree in a matter of two months if it’s below 5.5 or above 6.5.
very quickly in an volcanic soil
 

keyfen06

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Doesn't particularly look like a disease to me. The leaves are crisping up at the tips, which makes me think underwatering. It doesn't look at all like apple scab not is it rust.

What kind of substrate is it planted in? Did you repot it? And are you in the same area as the seller?
I'm not entirely sure what it's planted in, but I believe it's akadama and lava rock. I didn't repot it, and I am in the same area as the seller. Although, as @cmeg1 mentioned, it may be due to chlorinated water. I believe the seller uses rain butt's for watering his bonsai, while mine comes straight from the mains from a tap outside.
 

Leprous Garden

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I mean you can check your water ph but I don't agree that anything below 5.5 out above 6.5 will lol the tree so quickly. But it's worth checking.

Maybe repot the tree next spring but it looks like it might just be fine. Plants don't always like change and some browning leaves is just not always gonna be a real problem.
 

Ben in Kzoo

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I have a crabapple and underwatered a bit recently
See picture. I don’t think underwatering is your problem
 

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keyfen06

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I have a crabapple and underwatered a bit recently
See picture. I don’t think underwatering is your problem
That's a lovely crabapple. I didn't really think it was an underwatering problem either, but from the previous comments I'm definitely going to be testing the pH of my water soon enough. I'm going to give it a wipe down with lime sulfur in winter just to cover all bases but I'm quite sure it should pull through anyway considering it was very healthy (until I got my hands on it!)
 
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