Help! My elm got scorched!

[Acurl]

I live in Las Vegas and I've got this beautiful little Chinese elm that's been thriving awesomely until my watering system mysteriously zeroed out and it went for one or two days too long with no water :-( :-( it had literally just leafed out too. It feels like it's still alive but I fear it will die a slow death which will break my heart. The branches are still flexible at this point, and there are just a very few unwithered leaves as well. I have trimmed back a small section to see if I can encourage back budding, past that I don't know what to do. Obviously the water is back on! I've attached a photo below.

 

[JudyB]

Welcome to the forum. It's an elm, so it may survive this. Just make sure you don't overwater now since it has no leaves. Don't fertilize now either. Just be patient, and wait for new buds. Good luck, let us know how it does.

 

[milehigh_7]

Ah yes the Las Vegas potato chip leaf thing. Las Vegas primer item #1 never fully trust your automatic watering system.

What part of town do you live in? I have been trying bonsai here for 10 years... It is... a challenge.


You have the right advice from Judy. Don't over water and don't let it totally dry out. This time of year is murder and so is the fall.

 

[Smoke]

It will bounce back. It does not look that bad. You will know in a week.

 

[Acurl]

Thanks!

Ah yes the Las Vegas potato chip leaf thing. Las Vegas primer item #1 never fully trust your automatic watering system.

What part of town do you live in? I have been trying bonsai here for 10 years... It is... a challenge.


You have the right advice from Judy. Don't over water and don't let it totally dry out. This time of year is murder and so is the fall.

I'm up in centennial hills, I was doing great here --much better than in Indiana until this leaf wilt thing! And thanks to everyone for the encouragement

 

[jk_lewis]

You don't check on your trees at least once day? Especially in the desert?

 

[Acurl]

You don't check on your trees at least once day? Especially in the desert?

Normally yes, I do. However, family was in town and a lot was just going on so I missed a day. I checked it this morning and to my everlasting relief the tree has fully re-budded. The force is strong with this one

 

[milehigh_7]

Jim is right. The key is constant vigilance out here. During the heat of Summer I will water up to 4x per day.

You can see temps of 115+ (and will often) with 3% humidity and 30mph wind. I have said before that I lost 50 trees summer before last. Most of them in one day. I made it through the whole summer just fine and we had a spike during the fall.

1) No direct summer sun after 10AM (shade cloth is your friend)
2) Very fast draining soil
3) Water often (I have overhead misters under my shade cloth that are on a timer and I manually water at least 2x during the summer)
4) On the hottest driest days push everything as close together as possible
5) Watch reflected heat from walls, sidewalks pools and windows. A hot block wall will cook your plants well into the night.


This is what works for me.

 

[Acurl]

Thanks for all the tips! I keep the little guy in a protected little nitch on my patio that gets the morning sun and then gets shaded the rest of the day, the space also provides an excellent wind-break. Even on the days we have 30+ mile an hour winds the tree does not get disturbed. I'd eventually like to have something built so that I can have more trees. That space has protected that tree on it's solitary stand for 2years now so I can see it being a good place to have more. I also find it necessary out here to have some sort of auto watering to augment my own watering/Misting to keep things alive out here!

I bought the tree at one of the bonsai society shows at plant world so it is in good soil, although I fear it may need re-potting at this point since it's been in it's pot for 2years now. I've not had the opportunity to repot because when I lived in Indiana everything I bought always died within 6 months I need to attend a society meeting or something so I can get som pointers on it. I'm not even sure if I should do it now since the tree got stressed.

 

[october]

Hello Acurl.. I would not repot or do anything to this tree. That includes pruning. Also, no fertilizer for a little while or at least until there is a lot of new growth. You might not be out of the woods yet. Sometimes, trees push out one final flush of growth before they die. Although I don't think that is the case here.

Rob

 

[Acurl]

Tree update

Hi, I just thought I'd add an update to show how the tree is doing so far. It has begun to re-leaf. I was planning to repot it this year but I might not do that now.

 

[JudyB]

Glad to see that it's doing better. I wouldn't do anything stressful this year, just let it grow and recover fully.