Brazilian Rain tree Losing leaves.

Jason

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I feel like I was tortured by various tropicals for years with this kind of behavior. I finally got kind of fed up and impatient. Is it wrong of me to advocate growing something that likes living in chicago...say a nice trident maple? Oh damn.....sorry...didn't see I was on the tropical forum. ;)
 

octoberust

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Your right Jason! It is a good thing it,s trash day because I filled the trash can with all of my indoor plants.;) It feels really lonely with just my elm and two junipers left, but hey no pushing the boundaries. Right!? I find myself missing the sense peace within my house with all of the tropical plants gone, not to mention the added humidity.;) Again, thank you for the help Jason, as it was much easier to throw away my plants as apposed to try and provide for there needs. If only there were a place, like say a forum, where people could share helpful ideas and share information about caring for tropical bonsai.;) Then your advice and my trash can would not have been needed at all.;)
 

Jason

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Your right Jason! It is a good thing it,s trash day because I filled the trash can with all of my indoor plants.;) It feels really lonely with just my elm and two junipers left, but hey no pushing the boundaries. Right!? I find myself missing the sense peace within my house with all of the tropical plants gone, not to mention the added humidity.;) Again, thank you for the help Jason, as it was much easier to throw away my plants as apposed to try and provide for there needs. If only there were a place, like say a forum, where people could share helpful ideas and share information about caring for tropical bonsai.;) Then your advice and my trash can would not have been needed at all.;)

Hey, I'm glad I could help save you some hassles. I'm glad you can take constructive criticism, see I was only trying to help, and take no offense. Now you can concentrate on developing your bonsai skills on trees that will actually grow where you live. Your life will be much better. Fewer problems with lack of light, lack of humidity, lack of air circulation, dropping leaves, white flies....I did all that myself and just wanted to share. Remember though if you ever end up moving to say Florida, or Cambodia, you can always pick back up where you left off. Tropicals make beautiful bonsai when you live in the tropics! And...there are great forums that discuss that ;) If you have to have a tropical bonsai in zone 5 crassulas and portulacarias seem to do well on the indoor part year -outdoor part year schedule. I have quite a few...unfortunately they don't fit everyones bonsai aesthetic. Good luck to you on your bonsai journey!
 
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octoberust

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Back to some constructive thinking.

I am testing a new hypothesis on my pouting BRT. I have read several posts from Mike 423 on this, and other forums who ran in to an issue with the leaves on his BRT not closing up. Mike ended up doing an emergency re-pot to discover his soil was to water retentive and I believe he even had some rot issues. My thinking is that the BRT was trying to perspirate as much moisture from the leaves as possible to try and fix the overly moist condition. If that is the case then a reason the leaves on my BRT are not opening would be because the tree is trying to hold on to any and all the moisture it can. This seems in line as I did do some pretty major root work to the tree. So the humidifier goes back in the room to up the moisture content in the air, so the leaves will be at less risk of drying. Hopefully this will encourage the BRT to begin to perk back up. If all of this is right, then it adds a hole new dimension to the BRT, for me at least. Not only does a BRT let you know when it is not happy, but it may also inform you of conditions to wet, or lack of moisture uptake issues. :) This is a big part of why I love bonsai, as you in essence have a science experiment growing in each pot. I am hoping this will pay off, and would love feed back from any one interested or concerned if this sounds out of wack.
 
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octoberust

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My hypothesis seems to be correct!:D The BRT is again starting to open its leaves! To truly use the scientific method I suppose I would need to retest my finding several times, but I will let others if they would like, as my BRT has been through enough.
 

DaveV

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When leaves become pale yellow my first thought is too much water or not adequate drainage ( too much organic in you mix). I always consider roots and soil drainage first.

DaveV
 

octoberust

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Strait turface here. No yellowing leaves just not opening up and a few of the younger ones dried up when the turface became a little to on the dry side. I have kept the tree in very hight humidity and it is finally starting to come back. Thanks for the input though as I will take any and all the constructive information I can get.:)
 

Mike423

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One thing I have come to notice is that these trees seem to periodically have leaf sets that yellow and drop periodically. I'm starting to believe it is not really to stress but that the tree sheds its old leaves to grow younger ones with more vitality.

Yes one of my Brazilian rain trees had a problem while being in a soil mixture that was too moisture retentive while inside during the winter. Coincidentally it expressed this by have large foliage pads successively turning yellow and dropping (much different in form from how it does when normally shedding leaves). I have noticed that this tree likes to have short periods of dry soil (when in good health and has a properly situated root system in its pot) before it is watered.

Also for anyone who didn't already know I noticed early on that the finer section of the root ball had ball like nodules attached to the roots and was at first concerned thinking I might of had a nematode infestation or some thing similar. After some research and talking to treebeard I realized that these nodules are actually a natural occurrence in the root system of BRT's and is actually needed to absorb nitrogen optimally. So if you see them dont remove them!
 

reg-i

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I am testing a new hypothesis on my pouting BRT. I have read several posts from Mike 423 on this, and other forums who ran in to an issue with the leaves on his BRT not closing up. Mike ended up doing an emergency re-pot to discover his soil was to water retentive and I believe he even had some rot issues. My thinking is that the BRT was trying to perspirate as much moisture from the leaves as possible to try and fix the overly moist condition. If that is the case then a reason the leaves on my BRT are not opening would be because the tree is trying to hold on to any and all the moisture it can. This seems in line as I did do some pretty major root work to the tree. So the humidifier goes back in the room to up the moisture content in the air, so the leaves will be at less risk of drying. Hopefully this will encourage the BRT to begin to perk back up. If all of this is right, then it adds a hole new dimension to the BRT, for me at least. Not only does a BRT let you know when it is not happy, but it may also inform you of conditions to wet, or lack of moisture uptake issues. :) This is a big part of why I love bonsai, as you in essence have a science experiment growing in each pot. I am hoping this will pay off, and would love feed back from any one interested or concerned if this sounds out of wack.

Sounds right on and very informative this needs to be marked as a reference I use a heavy turface mix with my seedlings and terracotta pots the pots really breath well I get the best results this way I was also wondering if anyone has gotten theses little black spots on any of the leaves its like I get one little black dot per leaf i've also seen this at the local nursery I don't know if its some kinda parasite or bug shit anybody
 

IndoorJenny

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BRT Advice and stuff

One thing I have come to notice is that these trees seem to periodically have leaf sets that yellow and drop periodically. I'm starting to believe it is not really to stress but that the tree sheds its old leaves to grow younger ones with more vitality.

That's right, the BRT will generally drop it's leaves to push new ones out, but if you're strictly growing indoors under lights, as I am, your BRT may not experience this. And therein lies the conundrum. If you give your BRT 12 hours of grow light a day, it's always summer indoors, but your BRT can still sense when winter is coming or near or here. Indoor growing under lights could mean your BRT will drop some leaves, but not all, or no leaves at all.

Set the BRT In front of a window though, and chances are you'll see it shed the old for the new.

My BRT is a big one in an 8 inch pot and she's shed some leaves, mostly from cold damage during shipping to my zone, and there's some new baby growth but not the kind of growth I see from other bonsai (my Chinese Elm, for example).

There are a few yellow tinged leaves down low, some prune-ish looking ones, and quite a bit of healthy looking ones.

But it's January and it's raining ice outside, so all things considered...

It's good to get into the habit of checking your BRT for pests once a week. Inspect the undersides of the leaves, check the branches, and look for anything irregular. BRT's are fairly pest free but it pays to look. Sometimes, when all else fails, it's some creepy crawler at work.

As for watering, mine likes to be evenly moist but not completely dry. If you're unsure, buy a moisture meter until you get the hang of it. Mine tends to go 4-5 days with moisture before the lights dry her out.

Need indoor growing tips? Ask me!
 

Valerie

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I recently got a BRT and I've found that it is growing like crazy with 5-6 new pinnate leaves forming practically everyday. I definitely seem to have a knack for this plant since I too got the plant when it was a bit too cold outside and I was afraid that it would lose a lot of its leaves and take awhile to recover from the trip. Boy was I wrong! It only took 3-4 days for it to just start growing like crazy. I do have it planted in soil that has a decent amount of organic matter however I don't water it very often so it seems that doing it that way also works since the tree has more time that it is just plain moist not wet or dry. Also it seems that the best thing to do when in that type of soil is to also NOT totally soak the soil when you do water it since the soil hangs on to the water TOO well. Eventually I'll re-pot into a more bonsai ish container with bonsai fast draining soil but not yet. I rather wait and let the tree keep growing super fast and thickening up before I do ANYTHING to cause the tree to have to spend too much energy bouncing back. As far as I'm concerned, what REALLY is most important to this plant is SUNLIGHT! It is it's food after all! ;) So I'm stuffing my plants mouths with as much food as they might EVER want! lol I have a 600watt led light on it that is 5500k color (it's actually a studio light that I use on the job) However seeing the results with this type of lighting I've bought a led grow light that is 1000 watts and customized it to be used almost entirely for vegetative growth. (Most led grow lights are more about hydroponics which means they are ALL about trying to get as much flowering and produce as possible NOT to grow the plants as big as possible.) Luckily there is a company that allows you to customize almost every aspect of the light from color spectrum, how many lights of each color to picking specific color wavelengths that chlorophyll in plants respond greatest too and the even better part is that light only set me back $140.00 at that price even with replacing the whole light every 8 years I'm still paying less then I'd spend on MH bulbs let alone the light fixture that and I'm NOT having to spend electricity using my light and then turning around and having to use even more electricity cooling the house back down because 80% of all the energy the MH uses is HEAT! All in all I'm loving having a BRT in fact at this point it's my favorite because the tree is SO responsive to whats going on around it!
 

MauroUna

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My trees like being outside, where they belong.

Trees may not die indoors, some even develop fairly well, but they will never thrive.
 

MauroUna

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Do you have a Raintree?

Sold the 2 I had along with an acacia and 2 ficus microcarpa.. I have 2 ficus left that surprisingly, my wife wouldn't let me sell!

She says they tie the room together!

Indoor care is just a pain In the ass.
 

LanceMac10

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Oh, I can agree with that!!:mad:
These BRT's.....almost indestructible!!!
I'll get a picture later, cuz after about 5 months with a handful of leaves, when these suckers wake up, you can only hope to contain it:eek::D
 

JudyB

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Brt do very well inside during winter. Mine put on as much growth as they do in summer outside.
 

MauroUna

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Mi
Brt do very well inside during winter. Mine put on as much growth as they do in summer outside.

Mine did as well. I grew tired of watering in the sink and keeping the animals out of the fert baskets..

Perhaps if I had a greenhouse I would be more inclined to keep more tropicals .. But for now, no thanks!
 

Paradox

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Mine sit on tables down in my basement during the winter. I have trays under them so I can water them without the floor getting wet. I have the pots on tiles in the trays so the pots drain and they are not sitting in water. I have 4 foot fluorescent light fixtures above them. I use miracle grow powder mix to feed them. I have 3 big dogs and they dont bother them at all. They do fine, in fact I have to keep them constantly pruned or they get out of hand quickly.
 

JudyB

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Mi


Mine did as well. I grew tired of watering in the sink and keeping the animals out of the fert baskets..

Perhaps if I had a greenhouse I would be more inclined to keep more tropicals .. But for now, no thanks!
I have no greenhouse for tropicals. A small shelf under a regular fluorescent light in a south window. No other special treatment. Water every other day. I place on a board over the mud sink and catch the water in a pan, to reuse, as there is liquid fert, and I don't waste it. So so easy.
 

coh

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Having that south window is a big help. Most of the people I know who do well with tropicals either have a greenhouse or a large south window (to which they may add supplemental lighting). Those of us who have to rely strictly on artificial lighting have a more difficult time, though it does depend on which species you are growing.

I've been having pretty good luck keeping some tropicals healthy and growing during the winter (jaboticaba and brush cherry), less luck with others (willow leaf ficus, water jasmine). Just added an LED grow light and will be evaluating the results...several times I've been close to just unloading the tropicals but I'm stubborn :) and want to make it work.
 
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