Dawn Redwood wilting

[Adi]

I am sad! I have had this dawn redwood for about 2 months. It was doing fine and sprouting new leafs. However... it was root bound and i decided to repot it and also give it form by wiring.
New soil mix is ~60% akadama , ~25% pumice and ~15% bonsai soil. I did prune the roots too, about 30-40% of them.

Additional info:
- watered last friday (a little bit wilted, similar to after repot picture), left for the weekend and watered again on sunday (heavily wilted)
- i usualy water daily, with once a week Pokon fertilizer diluted as instructed on the bottle.
- repot was done in mid June, more than a week ago
- living in Bucharest, Romania
- plant is growing inside, by a window facing north with little sunlight.
- water passes quickly through the soil. In ~4 seconds it drips through the bottom
- when it started to wilt heavily i removed all wire and wiggled the tree a litle bit as i thought i squished the roots when i pressed the soil with a chopstick.

P.S: Excuse my grammar!

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Greetings to Bonsai Nut!

Hmm…peaked. Likely due to bending, possibly cambial damage.

Most redwoods are straight and thick, informal upright is a bit beyond realistic.

In any event, this tree needs full sun! At least 8 hours worth. Ease it in over a couple weeks.

Good luck
DSD sends

 

[sorce]

Welcome to Crazy!

Sorce

 

[Paradox]

To add to what Deep Sea stated. Typically we repot bonsai in early spring as buds swell. Once the foliage extends, it's too late. Doing bends also causes some damage so it needs to to heal. Might have been the wrong time of year to do such a bend. Damage to the cambium happens when the bark slips during the bend. The can effect water transport in the trunk which is why we tend to do bends in early spring. During high active growth there is mire water in the trunk and that causes the slippage/greater damage.

Also, messing around with the roots when there is foliage is very risky because that foliage relies on the roots for water.

If you cut the roots as well, it is even worse. The roots often can not recover fast enough to overcome the transpiration of water out of the leaves and you get droopy leaves.

 

[Adi]

Greetings to Bonsai Nut!

Hmm…peaked. Likely due to bending, possibly cambial damage.

Most redwoods are straight and thick, informal upright is a bit beyond realistic.

In any event, this tree needs full sun! At least 8 hours worth. Ease it in over a couple weeks.

Good luck
DSD sends

Hello and thanks for the answer!

Yeah, i saw that redwoods are grown mostly upright and for forests. I guess that most people who know vaguely of bonsai have that bended tree image in their head. The company selling the tree knows this and already bent it a bit with wire. I bent it further because I thought it looked nicer.

The tree died a while ago. Moving it more and more in the full sun didn't change anything. The bastard started dying right after I left over the weekend. When I came back it was too late. Sad times!

 

[ibakey]

Probably was a cutting that was weak. There does not seem to be a tonne of foilage on it. Usually dawn redwoods have a lot of leaves everywhere looking overgrown, even on young plants.

I think to begin with, the plant was not very strong already.

But, don't give up. Dawn redwoods are pretty cool trees.

 

[Cypress187]

That soils looks to have good draining. Welcome to the forum!

 

[rockm]

FWIW, a few things--indoors is a very bad place for a dawn redwood. Not enough light, low humidity and light.

Second -- repotting a tree in leaf is asking for trouble. Leaves depend on roots. If roots are disturbed or cut while leaves are present, the compromised roots can't transport water to the leaves. Indoors, with lower humidity levels, that demand from the leaves would increase--with no ability to keep up.

Third--wiring is a stressful thing to impose on tree to begin with. Wiring after repotting when the tree is in leaf can break the cambium tissue on the stems and trunk--cambium is the "living" portion of the tree. That further interrupts the tree's ability to transfer water from the roots up the trunk.

Fourth-the soil. Dawn redwood like moisture in the soil, including organic material. You used 85% free draining, inorganic soil. That won't hold enough moisture for a dawn redwood...

Fifth--Giving a recently-repotted tree fertilizer is mostly useless. Disturbed or compromised roots can't use it. Also specialized "bonsai" fertilizer, like Pokon, is simply diluted "regular" plant fertilizer. You're paying a premium for water. Typically repotted bonsai are allowed to sit for a couple of weeks with no fertilizing, only watering. That allows the tree to sprout new roots that can actually use fert.

 

[SalvatoreAAmico]

Awesome Tree! I also have a Dawn Redwood with mine living outside on my patio. (Summer 70s plus daily - Northshore Massachusetts, United States) It seems to thrive with lots of suns and a large amount of watering. I water mine daily in the morning and night, in addition to leaving the tree in a water dish. I'll post a picture below.