Brown spots on dawn redwood leaves

Microraptor_123

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I recently potted this tree and it has developed small brown spots scattered throught the foliage:

I put a little bit of osmocote+ on it, water it once daily, and put it in a fairly shady area.
I'm wondering if maybe you can help me figure out whats wrong with it.
Thanks in advance
 

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0soyoung

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I don't have a dawn, but I was just looking at some specimens in my favorite garden center nursery last week. Your tree definitely has a problem. I'd say the roots are having trouble from the repot. It takes a little while for them to recover.

Let me wager that you are over-watering it. Dig your finger down into whatever it is you are using for soil/substrate.
Feels barely damp --> water; else don't. You can also do this with a bamboo chop stick. Just plunge it into the soil and drive it to the bottom. Use it like a dip stick. Pull it out occasionally. Don't water until it is just feeling damp at the tip (bottom of the pot). New growth will droop (like old lettuce) if it is too dry - water and it should recover its normal turgor within an hour or two. Once it has perked up some, you can experiment over a weekend to calibrate the feeling when it is time to water.

What is your 'little bit of osmocote'? I use the stuff too. I apply at the rate of about 0.25 teaspoon per pot gallon; give or take. Is this anything like your 'little bit'? If so, it isn't causing your problem. If you applied a lot more, just scrape some of it off.

btw, a couple of nice thing about Osmocote are its time release and that it releases more at higher temperatures - plants consume more mineral at higher temperatures.


Finally, even though everything I've offered is incredibly useful :rolleyes:, it might not be the right advice for your tree's current situation. More detail from you and any description of how what I've said doesn't quite fit with the facts will be very helpful for getting you better advice.
 

Microraptor_123

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I grabbed about 10 pellets of osmocote out of the bag and put them on the soil. When I water it the surface is dry, and its probably damp about half an inch under, is that too damp still?

Also, on the topic of water, I kinda messed up while potting it and just have some of the roots resting on the bottom of the pot as opposed to having a leyr of soil underneath them, so maybe water would just be pooling up on them?
 

0soyoung

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I grabbed about 10 pellets of osmocote out of the bag and put them on the soil.
That's okay. A classic noob mistake is to think of fertilizer as a cure all. Too much fert will desiccate any plant and severly damage, if not kill it.
When I water it the surface is dry, and its probably damp about half an inch under, is that too damp still?
All that matters is where the roots are (and soon should be).
Also, on the topic of water, I kinda messed up while potting it and just have some of the roots resting on the bottom of the pot as opposed to having a leyr of soil underneath them, so maybe water would just be pooling up on them?
Every substrate/soil-mix stays very wet at the bottom of a pot. All that water in the soil means no air (oxygen in particular) is getting to the roots - roots must get oxygen to survive. This is why we pot plants with the roots an just under the soil surface, within an inch or so of the surface; certainly no deeper than half the pot depth. I think you need to fix this.
Gently pour the roots and substrate out of the pot onto a flat surface. Refill your pot one-third to one-half full and sit your tree back into the pot (hold the ball of roots and soil in you cupped hands, maybe, to minimize root damage. Add soil to fill the spaces as you normally would.

I've omitted wiring/securing the tree into the pot because I cannot tell what kind of pot you are using. It is important that the roots not move in the pot when the tree is bumped or pushed by a breeze. If you have a mica bonsai pot, it probably has holes for wire - just wire the tree into the pot like you seen done in tutorials (such as Bonsai Empire). With conventional plastic nursery pots a wire can be run from a drain hole, over the roots and back down to a drain hole - the ends of the wire are simply bent up the outside of the pot (or across the bottom if a single bottom hole is all there is). I stabilize tall trees (large air layers) by screwing a bamboo pole to the side of a common nursery plastic pot and then tie the stem to the pole a foot or more above the soil. I've noted that many just pile rocks on the soil at the base of the trunk - maybe it works, but I'm not a fan.
 
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