Kevin the Brazilian Rain Tree

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To save potentially starting new threads about my brt I’m going to post all questions I have here as well as progression for myself and others who are interested... quick info, received January of 2020 as an air layer, lots of growth, figured I’d let it grow out over winter so it has more room to store energy.
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Bottom branch I’m growing as a sacrificial branch to thicken trunk and I’ll airlayer it this spring.

recently most of the leaves have turned yellow and fallen off, I’m not sure what it’s trying to tell me but I may have missed a watering so I’m pointing it toward that. Would this be a good time to defoliate and hard chop?
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LemonBonsai

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I know I missed a watering on mine, was probably late by a day and the thing dropped 30% of its leaves. From what I can tell they dont like to be dry at all or they throw a temper tantrum. Nice looking tree though! Is it pushing new growth as its losing leaves? When I under watered mine there was lots of new growth pushing once it did get watered even though it was consistently losing leaves. I also heard that they tend to drop leaves twice a year for no reason.
 

Bonsai Nut

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I also heard that they tend to drop leaves twice a year for no reason.
When I kept mine outdoors 24/7 in SoCal, it would drop leaves in the fall due to cold weather, but would come roaring back in the spring.

Since I moved to NC, I kept it indoors for about three months, and it dropped about half of its leaves... very gradually. I put it outdoors about three weeks ago, and it is bursting forth with new growth everywhere, even though most days have been in the 60's and we have still had some nights in the low 30's.

I would not prune your tree heavily until it is going into its spring growth phase - which usually means that you are putting it outside.
 
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Found a leader that is turning yellow... must be some kind of stress
 

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leatherback

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Too dark?
Too little water?
Too much fertilizer?
Too much sun?
Too much water?
Sneezed when walking by?

Could be any of these. I go with the first though.
Complaining buggers they can be ;)
 

LanceMac10

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Big fat bud staring right back at you in the last photo.......closer look at the long canes of new growth show fat buds at each leaf.....


leaf has limited shelf life.....

yellow means, "Hey, I'm done here"......especially when buds further back start looking like brussel sprouts.....
 

LanceMac10

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Over-potted in a bad way for BRT, too deep. You need to prune more often in the top third of the tree if you want to keep this a nice small tree.

Keep lower branches longer/stronger thru the winter.

Probably best not to prune if you want to be conservative. But you got a long stretch before you can bring it outdoors with confidence.

But the yellowing leaf and swollen buds is the tree telling you it's spring.....right now!! 😁 😁😁😁
 

Paradox

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Im guessing the yellow leaves are from getting dried out. Brazilian rain trees really dislike getting too dry.
I would not chop it at all.
I agree with Lance that the pot is very wrong for this tree but I would not repot it until its growing healthy again.
It is stressed right now and needs to recover from that first
 
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Yes the pot is rather large. It was air layered and potted late 2019 and the guy I bought it from said it’s in that nursery pot to help promote root growth. I plan on putting it in a shallow pot to force the roots to pull the trunk out, trying hard to fight the reverse taper from the first major fork
 
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Why do brt sometimes do 4 sets of leaflets and other times 8? Amount of light? Temperature/humidity? Nutrients in the soil? Indoors vs outdoors? All of the above? Lots of swelling buds and new leaders starting!
 

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Carol 83

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Why do brt sometimes do 4 sets of leaflets and other times 8? Amount of light? Temperature/humidity? Nutrients in the soil? Indoors vs outdoors? All of the above? Lots of swelling buds and new leaders starting!
I don't know, but it's growing so that's good. I've never named a tree. It cracks me up that you named it Kevin. My first boyfriend, that broke my heart when I was 16, then I broke his when he wanted to get back together. Kind of makes me mad at your tree, lol.
 
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I don't know, but it's growing so that's good. I've never named a tree. It cracks me up that you named it Kevin. My first boyfriend, that broke my heart when I was 16, then I broke his when he wanted to get back together. Kind of makes me mad at your tree, lol.
Hahaha well I’d change it but Kevin seems to suit it! Plus everyone knows it as Kevin haha
 
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It’s the kevsters first day outside now that temps are decent atleast! Leaves folded in because of the Wind I think so I moved him closer to a wall for protection. I plan on doing a hard chop and not sure when to do it, should I wait for buds starting to swell so I know she’s in the mood or just say gday and give her? The paper is his structure (more less) if he was squashed down flat. I’m thinking chop back close to the V on each branch for ramification and pinch buds that try to grow where I don’t want them, as for the top I’d like to chop below the V to try and shorten it, just not sure how it would work
 
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SWfloirda

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It’s the kevsters first day outside now that temps are decent atleast! Leaves folded in because of the Wind I think so I moved him closer to a wall for protection. I plan on doing a hard chop and not sure when to do it, should I wait for buds starting to swell so I know she’s in the mood or just say gday and give her? The paper is his structure (more less) if he was squashed down flat. I’m thinking chop back close to the V on each branch for ramification and pinch buds that try to grow where I don’t want them, as for the top I’d like to chop below the V to try and shorten it, just not sure how it would work
The leaves on mine open and close several times a day. It’s nothing to worry about.
 
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