Dying Satsuki Azalea!

[pixlweaver]

Hello! I'm new here and new to bonsais. I'm cursed when it comes to keeping plants alive...but my husband gave me a Satsuki Azalea bonsai for Valentine's day this year, so I decided to rise to the challenge.

I live in Austin, Texas - so zone 8b. I keep the bonsai on the front porch, which is covered from the elements and gets a couple hours of full sun in the late morning. The pot stays on a tray of river rock.

I water it every morning, until water starts to show in the tray. We have been getting 90+ degree weather since May.

In March and also in June, I put 2 Biogold original fertilizer pellets in the soil.

Got lots of new growth pretty much up until the weather started getting hotter in May. For the past month, the leaves have been slowly turning brown. Memorial day weekend, we were away so it did not get watered for 3 days. Pretty much since then, the leaves have been turning even faster.

Is there anything I can do to save it at this point? Any help is so greatly appreciated!

 

[Kullas]

What kinda soil is it in? Just at first guess as it looks as if the leaves are dieing back from the tips is not enough water.

 

[pixlweaver]

What kinda soil is it in? Just at first guess as it looks as if the leaves are dieing back from the tips is not enough water.

I have no idea what soil it's in! My husband ordered it from 1-800-Flowers.

I water it with tap/city water that sits in an open watering can outside for a while before watering.

 

[Kullas]

The texture of what I can see in the pics don't look like regular potting soil which is good. Is it all the way through or just the top layer?

 

[Dav4]

I’d get it in mostly shade and dial in the watering… keep the soil moist but not sodden. Also, what’s your water like? Azaleas are very sensitive to water quality and don’t do well with water high in calcium.

 

[pixlweaver]

The texture of what I can see in the pics don't look like regular potting soil which is good. Is it all the way through or just the top layer?

It's the same soil all the way through. Attached a pic of the soil.

 

[pixlweaver]

I’d get it in mostly shade and dial in the watering… keep the soil moist but not sodden. Also, what’s your water like? Azaleas are very sensitive to water quality and don’t do well with water high in calcium.

Ok! I'll try pushing the bonsai more into the corner so it gets very little direct light. It will still get a lot of bounced light though.

According to our city water report of last year, the calcium is 181.

 

[Kullas]

Azaleas like it a little on the acidic side. Whats the ph?

 

[pixlweaver]

Azaleas like it a little on the acidic side. Whats the ph?

8.2

 

[Kullas]

That is a bit alkaline for azalea they like around 4.5 to 6 as 5.5 being the sweet spot. This may be part of the problem to.

 

[sorce]

Welcome to Crazy!

No more vacations!

Sorce

 

[pixlweaver]

That is a bit alkaline for azalea they like around 4.5 to 6 as 5.5 being the sweet spot. This may be part of the problem to.

Ok, I bought some ph tester strips and some ph down to modify the water. Fingers crossed!

 

[Kadebe]

Ok, I bought some ph tester strips and some ph down to modify the water. Fingers crossed!

Azaleas have mainly hair roots. In your substrate, those hair roots cannot penetrate the grains. So in the appropriate season, I would repot the azalea in a better substrate... mix of kanuma and pumice 80/20.
Kanuma is very brittle... if you press on the grain, it immediately falls apart. Because these grains are so brittle, the hair roots can very well penetrate the grain Kanuma is slightly acidic, so ideal for azalea.
Tip... be careful when handling kanuma. Be sure to use a dust mask when sieving. Also, wear gloves while handling kanuma because if you take some kanuma in your hand, you will feel your skin dry out immediately. It pulls all the moisture out of your skin.
When you run roots, be aware to NOT REMOVE THE SHIN, because then you'll lose the apex completely.

 

[VAFisher]

Azaleas have mainly hair roots. In your substrate, those hair roots cannot penetrate the grains. So in the appropriate season, I would repot the azalea in a better substrate... mix of kanuma and pumice 80/20.
Kanuma is very brittle... if you press on the grain, it immediately falls apart. Because these grains are so brittle, the hair roots can very well penetrate the grain Kanuma is slightly acidic, so ideal for azalea.
Tip... be careful when handling kanuma. Be sure to use a dust mask when sieving. Also, wear gloves while handling kanuma because if you take some kanuma in your hand, you will feel your skin dry out immediately. It pulls all the moisture out of your skin.
When you run roots, be aware to NOT REMOVE THE SHIN, because then you'll lose the apex completely.

I will give you 1000 to 1 odds that a new person to bonsai has no clue what a "shin" is.

 

[Glaucus]

I have seen azaleas like this before. The root ball looks like it was grown in peat. And then it is planted inside large pieces of substrate with the rootball exposed. Just seems really bad way to grow an azalea. This was sold this way?

The damage you see, I would say is fertilizer burn.

 

[Kadebe]

I will give you 1000 to 1 odds that a new person to bonsai has no clue what a "shin" is.

Yup, you're right...
Shin is the dense root system just below the trunk

 

[Bonsai Nut]

To be honest, it looks like it dried out too much. It was on its way to being 100% dead, but you caught it just in time and it is only 50% dead

Happens to the best of us. I water my garden religiously, but missed a dwarf quince (watered it, but not deeply enough) and came out to see the leaves extremely shocked. I watered immediately, and half the leaves crisped like in your azalea photo, and many dropped. However I caught it in time, and the tree is pushing new growth everywhere.

Next time you go out of town and it might be too hot or dry, just place your plant in 100% shade. It won't care for three or four days, and it will cut water use significantly.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Sure feels an awful lot like root rot to me folks. Brown root tips can be either root rot from over watering , fertilizer burn, underwatering and frost. It ain’t frost. It doesn’t look like underwatering to me. The inner parts of the leaves are too healthy,

imho overwatering seems the very most likely. OP said she watered everyday in a peat based media. That’s just an inevitable outcome on a nursery tree that is packed densely with roots.

The tree looks just like a couple of my azaleas after the extended cold wet spring we had here… torrential downpours coupled with rainy days. Root rot crept in.

Here’s what that looked like on a small azalea that had been repotted 4 weeks before. The tree went back in a greenhouse to dry it out and responded well. This tree dropped these leaves eventually, while H2O2 applications brought it back, and new foliage kicked in, but it remains to be very weak a month later, wilting easily in the heat due to really weak roots.

&

But…Haven’t heard about fertilization yet. Could be possible, yet somehow I doubt this as the tree was watered so much.

@pixlweaver Wondering…have you fertilized the azalea multiple times…? If so what type of fertilizer did you use.

In the mean time @Bonsai Nut has some good ideas along the line to help…

Here’s what I’d recommend.
- Take the azalea out of the sun, find a cool dappled shady spot or medium shade.
- Keep from getting hot (90F). Cooler the better.
- Stop watering until the root ball becomes moist, not wet. Chock up one side of the pot to encourage this.
- Once soil does get dried out think moisten soil, not wet the soil clear through…. Please find a new home for the humidity tray.
- In the interim, Mist the leaves and soil a couple times a day, using 2 TBSP 3% H2O2 / Qt.

cheers
DSD sends

 

[Pitoon]

That azalea looks like it got burned....either by the sun or too much fertilizer. Remove all the fertilizer and move it to the shade. Start trimming off all the dead or dying tips/branches. This will induce it to back bud. You might still have a chance to save this one.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Example of burned azalea. Courtesy of PS Heat Dome ‘21



Cheers
DSD sends