Bald cypress with pale yellow foliage

[Bonsaihead]

I think I'm gonna tweet for the ants and root aphids and see where that gets me

 

[Bonsaihead]

Treat*

 

[GGB]

Roots seemed good to me, I think if you are patient you'll see the most damaged leaves fall off and regrow within a few weeks, maybe lose a few branch tips but I'm not convinced you need to go throwing chemicals at this tree

Edit- On second thought, I guess it wouldn't hurt. I wonder if fully submerging the pot wouldn't drown those (potential) roots aphids in minutes.

 

[WNC Bonsai]

Thank you everyone for your feedback so far. So based off my space situation and the fact that regardless of the issue, all off the foliage is toast or close to and the tree needing to regrow new foliage anyways I decided to give it the swing of the ax. It has about eight or nine shoots about a inch long on the trunk still and a leader about a foot long. I did the spider mite taste and just had one random bug fall off. Still sprayed it with need oil to be safe. I knew about Microrhiza, just couldn't remember the name of it or how to tell the difference between it and root aphids or other critters. Even though that is believed to be Microrhiza by you guys and the health of the root mass I still believe that the issue lays somewhere inside of that root ball. based off all the ants inside the soil and also the new shoots that are popping out low on the trunk are coming out yellow

If you start chopping willy nilly you are going to kill the tree. At this point other than yellow foliage it doesn’t look all that bad—a decent photo of the whole tree would help those of us following this thread. IMHO your best bet is to water it like crazy, then stand back and see what it does. Sometimes doing nothing is the best strategy.

 

[Bonsaihead]

Roots seemed good to me, I think if you are patient you'll see the most damaged leaves fall off and regrow within a few weeks, maybe lose a few branch tips but I'm not convinced you need to go throwing chemicals at this tree

Edit- On second thought, I guess it wouldn't hurt. I wonder if fully submerging the pot wouldn't drown those (potential) roots aphids in minutes.

submergi

 

[Bonsaihead]

Well unfortunately based off of space and sun light the tree already got swing of the ax. I do like the idea of attempting to drowning them. There is certainly a ton of ants in the pot which really makes me believe that I do have some sort of infestation. I'm also rather convinced it's issues were never a lack of water. I know for a fact that the tree sat in heavy rain for two weeks straight pretty much with out any sun and it has been a very rainy spring here all together. The tree also has been in this condition since it leafed out in the spring

 

[theone420]

I have one here in southern California and it was sitting in a bucket of water and I still got yellow leaves just like yours. I knew it wasn't because of not watering, but then thought maybe it had something to do with our hard water here in the desert. So I took it out of the water for a couple weeks and the leaves stayed yellow so I figured it wasn't my hard water causing an issue so I then started feeding it with fertilizer that had some iron in it and I noticed my leaves slowly changing back to green. I never lost a leaf or anything just changing colors.
I would say it could be chlorosis. I m not too familiar with BC(this is my first and from arbordayfoundation) but from the incident I had with mine I'm going to guess you might be having the same trouble.

I also thought it might be heat but now that it is regularly over 110 degrees and the leaves are still green it must have needed some iron.

 

[Johnathan]

Very cool info about the roots and the Microrhiza. Never knew that. Good call @Vance Wood Vance

@Bonsaihead how is this BC doing? Did it just need some iron?

 

[Cable]

IIRC if you see white fuzz and it is directly on the roots it is root aphids but if it is next to the roots it is Mycorrhiza.

 

[Zach Smith]

Looks like root mealy bug. It's not mychorriza.

 

[Bonsaihead]

So..@Johnathan so far I've watered it consistently, watered with water that sat with coffee grounds in it (to make sure the soil is acidic enough. I've watered with light doses of ironite (to make sure there's enough iron in the soil). I've also submerged it twice for 24 hour intervals ( to hopefully drowned out any Critters). It currently has about 15/20 buds on it that are starting to pop but seem like they are gonna come out yellow. Happy I didn't kill it by chopping it but bummed it's coming back yellow again

 

[Bonsaihead]

@Zack Smith after googling root mealy bug I think you are right. The previous suspected mychorriza looks very similar to the deposits left by the mealy bug. Any suggestions on having a mealy bug Armageddon? Or do you think that I probably drowned them already by submerging the tree for 24 hours at a time

 

[GGB]

Wow, good for you, asking questions man. If that were my tree i would have just been dumping water on it daily waiting for it to bounce back

 

[Bonsaihead]

Wow, good for you, asking questions man. If that were my tree i would have just been dumping water on it daily waiting for it to bounce back

So you wouldn't be worried about the root mealy bug? Seem like a rather large issue to me

 

[Bonsaihead]

Hoping it's something I can clear up by submerging the root ball to drown them out

 

[Dav4]

Hoping it's something I can clear up by submerging the root ball to drown them out

Unlikely, being a root parasite. I suspect it'll take some kind of insecticidal root drench but I've never performed one so can't advise you. I'd contact Zack or @BillsBayou and get their input.

 

[GGB]

@Bonsaihead it is a rather large issue. I'm saying I wouldn't have noticed it/ assumed it was myco fungi

 

[BillsBayou]

I had the same problem with the leaves on my oldest bald cypress. My situation is different in that I did hard work on it in January, then the tree erupted with long twigs and yellow leaves. The stems of the leaves were find. I tried fertilizing it, and it didn't seem to have an effect. The soil has not been changed in .... forever. I ran a screwdriver through the root ball in several places to improve drainage and distribution of nutrients. I then soaked the tree in a tub of water mixed with liquid fish emulsion. About 1.5 tablespoons per gallon. I added the water to the tub by mixing the emulsion in a 2-gallon watering can and watering the roots. I submerged the roots up to about half an inch above the root line. 3 days later it smelled like I killed a guy and forgot to bury him. The tree's roots were submerged for about a month then a hole was drilled into the tub to release the water. I also sprayed the foliage with Ironite. No success for weeks. The tree only got weaker and weaker looking. About half the leaves turned brown and fell off the tree. Then finally, the remaining leaves started turning green and new growth is coming in fully green.

I'll see how well the tree recovers before deciding to repot it or not this December.

I believe the culprit is the heavy cut on a tree with bad soil. The tree had enough of what it needed to grow branches and leaves, but not nearly enough to fill them with chlorophyll and vigor.

 

[Johnathan]

@Bonsaihead seems like you're on the right track. It's not dead lol thats always progress I think. I recently got a BC, nothing that old or great. I didn't completely bareroot it, but I knocked most of the sandy clay that it was planted in off and fuzzed up the side roots a little. I have it in water for now with soil mixture of potting soil, redbud compost, and perlite. I really love these trees.

I'm curious how'd you determine to add coffee to the water? After reading up on them I was concerned about acidic soils vs alkaline and all that, but I had already re-potted by then

 

[Bonsaihead]

Wow, good for you, asking questions man. If that were my tree i would have just been dumping water on it daily waiting for it to bounce back

Ahhh gotcha. I just had developed a pretty strong case against it being under watered and had a strong gut feeling it was something else.