BRT please help

[sjoh197]

Hi everyone.
I am really new to bonsai. Someone got me a Brazilian Rain Tree as a gift, knowing that I miss my gardening and plant care, now that I've moved to a tiny apartment in a big city.
Unfortunately, I don't have outdoor space which is why this person got me an "indoor bonsai". I know that this tree would have done better outside, and I have done as much research as I can to try to help it live inside until such a time when I can get an outdoor space for it.

I've had it for a few months now, and it was doing really well. I was watering it every other day, letting the soil get a tad dry, but not completely. It gets 6 hours of direct sunlight from a large window, with the rest of the day being indirect sun. I have a grow lamp over it that goes on after the full sun is over to help supplement the indirect light for the rest of the day. It has about 60% humidity, although I've been trying to increase it.

It has suddenly started looking not so great. The leaves are turning yellow and falling off. In fact, the tree itself is starting to look kind of yellowish in general. It still has a lot of green on it, but I don't want this trend to continue. Any advice. I tried taking pictures... hopefully they help.

 

[Cypress187]

Hi everyone. I am really new to bonsai.

If you want it to live, put it outside. Welcome to the forum.

 

[Cypress187]

If you want it to live, put it outside. Welcome to the forum.

Oh wait, it depends on ur climate, so please update ur profile so we see it don't want to put a tropical raintree into the snow

 

[sjoh197]

I live in Houston... so I know that it will do really well outside... however, I won't be somewhere were I can put it outside until August. Then I will have a nice balcony to set it on. But I need to keep it alive until then

 

[Redwood Ryan]

It won't die if kept indoors, regardless of location. You'll just need to make sure you give it plenty of light and water only when the soil is dry. The problem here is probably too much water.

 

[sorce]

Welcome to Crazy!

All I know about these is I want one.

And @Alain 's has gone through worse than that!

It will be fine, likely with less water as Ryan suggested.

Nice!

Sorce

 

[Alain]

This was my BRT on April 17th after spending all winter inside in Chicago:


And this is it now after one pruning and some kind of summer-ish weather:



I don't think yours is dying like, now...

Water it carefully, feed it and put it outside as soon as it will be possible and everything should be fine.

 

[sjoh197]

Wow alain... yours is so pretty. I've always had a great green thumb with most things, but bonsai is pretty hard lol. I hope that I can not kill my tree and have it look like yours one day.

My tree is still in whatever soil it was in when I got it. Should I be letting the soil completely dry out before I water it again?

 

[ConorDash]

Welcome to the forum.

One thing, no matter how many times you tell guys on here that you can't put it outdoors, they will still tell you to lol. You can live in a cave, 1 mile below the earths crust and they will still say..... Put it outside lol. For good reason of course, but I can understand the frustration of simply not being able to.
Make sure you dig your finger under the soil a bit to see if the soil underneath is truly dry enough to be watered. Soil on top might be dry, doesn't mean it all is.

 

[JudyB]

Use a wooden skewer shoved down into the soil. Remove it every day and if it's starting to dry then it's time to water. If it's still very wet, do not water. Rain trees like to be on the moister side, so never let it get completely dry.
Good luck. I keep mine inside all winter long with just a sunny window and a regular shop fluorescent fixture, so it can be done.

 

[ConorDash]

Use a wooden skewer shoved down into the soil. Remove it every day and if it's starting to dry then it's time to water. If it's still very wet, do not water. Rain trees like to be on the moister side, so never let it get completely dry.
Good luck. I keep mine inside all winter long with just a sunny window and a regular shop fluorescent fixture, so it can be done.

Wow alain... yours is so pretty. I've always had a great green thumb with most things, but bonsai is pretty hard lol. I hope that I can not kill my tree and have it look like yours one day.

My tree is still in whatever soil it was in when I got it. Should I be letting the soil completely dry out before I water it again?

Essential, our advice, when in doubt, stick something long, hard and pointy in to it.

 

[Potawatomi13]

If wanting any trunk development get out of Bonsai pot and into much bigger growing container or box with good draining Bonsai soil. Should not ever let dry out completely or much at all and with good soil over watering is not a worry. As a tropical should be able to repot most any time. Expect leaves to sunburn when putting outside as my citrus and Cycads do. Try partial shade. Should be interesting Bonsai if does well for you.

 

[choppychoppy]

My tree is still in whatever soil it was in when I got it. Should I be letting the soil completely dry out before I water it again?

I would prob repot it and give it a major pruning since it is just a bush now. Pick some lines and remove the rest. It should be growing fast so that it needs constant pruning. It will do fine inside. The folks that say to let it dry out before watering prob dont have these bc they like to be wet. Water BEFORE the soil is dried keep it moist. This tree never dries out. Here is mine - proof is in the picture Get the watering tray out from under it.

 

[LanceMac10]

I would prob repot it and give it a major pruning since it is just a bush now. Pick some lines and remove the rest. It should be growing fast so that it needs constant pruning. It will do fine inside. The folks that say to let it dry out before watering prob dont have these bc they like to be wet. Water BEFORE the soil is dried keep it moist. This tree never dries out. Here is mine - proof is in the picture Get the watering tray out from under it.

View attachment 107807

And I'll add that they like lots of fertilizer......lots and lots......
I'll be putting mine back into a deeper container this summer.

 

[sorce]

, but bonsai is pretty hard

Don't let this thing that almost all these trees do at least once let you keep that thought.

I reckon you can repot it now.

But find appropriate soil first....

Hopefully keepers of these will assist.

Sorce

 

[LanceMac10]

Has not dumped any leaves yet.....needs to go back into the old container for a couple years and then I might/gonna build a box for it. It's gotta' be somewhat presentable, it's right in the living room for 6-7...8 months?!?! So inevitably it get's the occasional "bum prune" from a spouse that shall remain nameless....


A little noisey background? I'm gonna have to do something one of these days. I need to go to the @jeremy_norbury school of "gettin' it right!" Hehehee....base of the the trunk is gettin' there....

 

[Alain]

Wow alain... yours is so pretty. I've always had a great green thumb with most things, but bonsai is pretty hard lol. I hope that I can not kill my tree and have it look like yours one day.

My tree is still in whatever soil it was in when I got it. Should I be letting the soil completely dry out before I water it again?

Thanks!

Mine is still in the nursery pot it was when I bought it. So I don't know exactly what kind of soil, I just know it likes it.
Anyway, as for all trees I guess, the deal is to have a good drainage.

For the watering now that it's outside I water it everyday unless we've been soaked with a summer storm the day before. However, this winter when it was inside, I just water it when the soil looks dry or approx twice a week. But it was winter, no growing there. Also its general look at the end of the winter obviously proves that there was room for improvement (but mainly regarding the T of the room I kept it I think, not regarding the watering).
The 'stick something hard, long and pointy inside' tip is a good one, despite the funny formulation that could make you wonder how long it has to be, eternal debate I reckon...

For the feeding: it really loves to eat.
There was some fertilizer gravels in the soil when I bought it, they are still there but now on top of that I added osmocote (14/14/14) and I also feed it once a week (on Sunday for me ) with vigoro general use fertilizer (when my stock will be out I plan to replace it with Miracle grow) and I also started to use Alaskan fish stuff last week (so in this case instead of the vigoro I give my trees the fish stuff, I don't give them both the same week, the fish stuff will be once a month I think and you could find it at Walmart for approx $5 a bottle). Warning: the Alaskan fish stuff stinks, like badly , may be wait it to be outside before starting to use it.

Otherwise: they are really though trees. You saw the picture of mine after it spent all winter loosing its leaves. I was really sure it was dead but not at all.
And as I said in the specific thread on this tree: it moved from Miami to Chicago, during the Thanksgiving week-end, by plane, in a bag as my carry on...
So basically it passed in a couple of hours from outside, 90 something to inside, 55 something with a quick touch and go at around 20 something the time we exit O'Hare and jumped in the cab, all that after being X-rayed and having spent several hours in an - open at least - bag...
I don't think yours will ever experiment such a trauma, well unless you want it to

 

[sjoh197]

I would prob repot it and give it a major pruning since it is just a bush now. Pick some lines and remove the rest. It should be growing fast so that it needs constant pruning. It will do fine inside. The folks that say to let it dry out before watering prob dont have these bc they like to be wet. Water BEFORE the soil is dried keep it moist. This tree never dries out. Here is mine - proof is in the picture Get the watering tray out from under it.

View attachment 107807

Thanks. I would like to give it a nice pruning because I don't like the way it looks, but I had thought that waiting until it is outside might be better since it doesn't seem to like being inside as much. It's not really growing very fast at all. Hardly any, but I'm quite sure that's my fault. I've been so busy lately that I haven't had time to figure this poor little guy out.

 

[sjoh197]

Thanks!


For the feeding: it really loves to eat.
There was some fertilizer gravels in the soil when I bought it, they are still there but now on top of that I added osmocote (14/14/14) and I also feed it once a week (on Sunday for me ) with vigoro general use fertilizer (when my stock will be out I plan to replace it with Miracle grow) and I also started to use Alaskan fish stuff last week (so in this case instead of the vigoro I give my trees the fish stuff, I don't give them both the same week, the fish stuff will be once a month I think and you could find it at Walmart for approx $5 a bottle). Warning: the Alaskan fish stuff stinks, like badly , may be wait it to be outside before starting to use it.

Otherwise: they are really though trees. You saw the picture of mine after it spent all winter loosing its leaves. I was really sure it was dead but not at all.
And as I said in the specific thread on this tree: it moved from Miami to Chicago, during the Thanksgiving week-end, by plane, in a bag as my carry on...
So basically it passed in a couple of hours from outside, 90 something to inside, 55 something with a quick touch and go at around 20 something the time we exit O'Hare and jumped in the cab, all that after being X-rayed and having spent several hours in an - open at least - bag...
I don't think yours will ever experiment such a trauma, well unless you want it to

This tree came with some like 3 month fertilizer gravel things that I used once so far. I didn't realize that these should be fertilized so often. Should I be giving it osmocote and miracle grow too? I have miracle grow for a couple of temporary "indoor" special plants of mine.

 

[Alain]

This tree came with some like 3 month fertilizer gravel things that I used once so far. I didn't realize that these should be fertilized so often. Should I be giving it osmocote and miracle grow too? I have miracle grow for a couple of temporary "indoor" special plants of mine.

I'm fairly new at fertilizing myself so no definitive advises here (anyway if you look a little bit around the forum you'll see that fertilizing and fertilizers are the kind of topics for which more or less every Nuts has his own beliefs and recipes). Also your tree is inside so I don't know which kind of difference that could make.
May be for the moment you could just water it with Miracle grow once a week and see what happen?
Anyway for mine the guy from the nursery where I bought it also told me that it was fertilized enough for a while so it stayed like that, with only the fertilizing pebbles, all winter. In spring I just put osmocote on the top of the soil but I think it's @LanceMac10 who told me that BRT love to eat and that it wasn't enough. As this growing season I'm trying to increase my fertilizing habits and diversified my fertilizers choices my BRT becomes like my measuring stick and whatever I tried on it for the moment it likes it as long as it's something to eat!