Chinese elm help

[Freshman100]

Hi my 15 year old elm has leaves turning yellow then falling. This is happening a day after I water my tree, I do this by sitting the pot in water for 5 min. Then I let drain. Next day some inner leaves are yellow and falling, this keeps happening. The first photo is 8 weeks ago, the last photo is now. I've lost alot of leaves. However it is budding continuously. My first thoughts is that I'm leaving it too long before watering. What do you think??

 

[Shibui]

The trouble is that too dry and too wet both produce similar outcome. You have not mentioned how often you are currently watering this tree. I water every morning and evening in summer over here but how often depends on local conditions, what potting mix it is in and how long since repotting. You really need to check if the soil is getting dry before watering so you can tell whether to water more often or less often.
first picture is inside but the others are outside so I guess you are keeping it outside now. Chinese elm does not like inside and leaves will drop off like this and the tree usually dies eventually.
Fertiliser: bonsai in a small pot watered often need regular fertiliser. Trees that are not fed can starve and leaves will go yellow and drop off.

You can see that diagnosis is not simple without knowing plenty of history.

 

[sorce]

I would gather the only relation to the leaves falling and the watering, is the leaves are getting jostled being moved, and maybe fall off due to that.

But that's guessing on you have a high retaining, dirt like soil.
Since that is a tree and pot combo that has a high retaining, dirt like soil more than 80%
Of the time.

If it has chunky soil like the top throughout, it will be underwatering.

Fungus (or whatever the hell causes that yeller leaf and drop) can also be an issue, and I'd be lying if I said overwatering causes it.
I pulled all my yeller leaves off an elm near the solstice, have been keeping it wetter since, and it ain't getting no yeller. So I highly doubt overwatering is the cause, unless that highly retentive soil smells of sewage.

Sorce

Sorce

 

[Freshman100]

Hi, I water normally every other day, when top soil is dry, and soil 1 inch into pot is slightly damp. I feed using bio gold in water every 3 weeks. The tree was grown in a greenhouse. I kept it in a south facing porchway, with large humidity tray underneath. I have gradually introduced to being outside now over a few weeks. It's outside permantly now. Budding well over the tree. Still concerned when I water it, I see yellow leaves the next days after. So I'm confused. But it's not dieing, just maybe a little unhappy?

 

[Colorado]

Maybe try watering it with a watering can rather than dunking it for 5 min? I’ve never tried the dunk method but I doubt that’s the best way to do it...

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Actually dunking a tree as watering method, it is better than most methods. It guarantees no dry spots left in the pot. Like I did with my ex - you hold it under water until the bubbles stop. (relax only joking about the ex) Then you set it somewhere to drain a few minutes, then return it to where it is being grown. This is a very good way to thoroughly wet all the media in the pot.

Digging your finger in to one inch deep to see if the media is wet is a good technique. Are you sure you check daily, even if you tend to water every other day? Reason is, that an unusually hot, or low humidity day can dry a plant out more quickly. Perhaps there was a few day episode where daily water was needed and you only checked every other day. Consistency lulled you into a routine. Or it could just be the normal dropping of leaves related to adapting to living outdoors. The leaves that developed in a greenhouse, being replaced by leaves developed outdoors. I would not worry. Keep your tree outdoors, it will be fine over winter, as it is winter hardy. Next spring you can repot.

 

[Freshman100]

Thankyou for your replies, I'm gonna keep an eye on it, leave it out over winter although, I'm slightly worried about the torrential rain we have in South West UK over winter, We will see how it goes over winter, I will repot it in spring with a decent acadama, pumice, soil mixture. Hopefully will get through it all.