My Chinese Elm is driving me to drink - defoliation with each fertilizing attempt

KiwiPlantGuy

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Hi,
I think there should/is a distinction between deciduous and conifers being used in pond baskets. The general rule is conifers in pond baskets because it doesn’t matter if they dry out a bit. Deciduous trees are thirsty beasts so a pond basket dries too fast.
Sorry for the lecture if you already know this stuff.
Charles
 

Toshi

Mame
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Hi,
I think there should/is a distinction between deciduous and conifers being used in pond baskets. The general rule is conifers in pond baskets because it doesn’t matter if they dry out a bit. Deciduous trees are thirsty beasts so a pond basket dries too fast.
Sorry for the lecture if you already know this stuff.
Charles
I actually did not know this, thank you :]
 

Toshi

Mame
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Yes.… Hydrogen Peroxide.…. and I really like @leatherback ’s thought to get the tree out of the pond basket.

Good luck and please follow up on this tree.

chers
DSD sends
Thank you. Just out of curiosity why the peroxide? Is it intended to be used as a fungicide in this scenario?
 

dbonsaiw

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I use BonsaiPro as well and can't imagine that's the problem. I'll use up to 10 ML in 5 gallons of water and haven't seen any negatives, only massive growth. I fertilize every other watering. I use the shower setting on the hose to water and will even use it prior to fertilizing. I find that switching off and pre-watering will rinse out the soil fairly well and I haven't seen salts build up. Not sure what kind of growth you can possibly have in NYC in Jan/Feb and wouldn't need to fertilize then.

My son overwintered his Chinese Elm indoors last year and it was wonky. Seemed to have lost its leaves and regrown them at random times in a grow tent under lights.
 

Chop_n_Change

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I have 2 Jacqueline Hillier Elms, along with some Seju elms, and the Jacqueline Elms seem to defoliate the interior leaves in the first heat flush of the year. here in Seattle it has been a constant mid 60's for most of the spring, but we did have a 2 day stretch where it hit 90. all elms were under shade cloth (30%) watered twice a day, and the Hillier's both defoliated their interiors. no scorch, no fert. interior leaves just yellowed over 3 days post heat, and dropped. This has been my experience in the 4 years i have had these trees and might just be a reaction to heat. Below you can see the leaves, green and yellow that just shook loose. Tree is otherwise perfectly healthy.

Elm_22.png
 
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Toshi

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Two weeks ago I decided to repot the tree into a mix of black lava, turface and pine bark. Although the only pot I had is smaller than I would've liked, it responded positively almost immediately and has put on significant growth since then.


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leatherback

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Two weeks ago I decided to repot the tree into a mix of black lava, turface and pine bark. Although the only pot I had is smaller than I would've liked, it responded positively almost immediately and has put on significant growth since then.
Happy to hear it has started to grow! YOu need some massive growth to deal with the large cuts.
Do you have pictures what the tree looks like now?
 

Toshi

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Happy to hear it has started to grow! YOu need some massive growth to deal with the large cuts.
Do you have pictures what the tree looks like now?

These pictures are from this morning. I'm going to let it run riot until I repot it into a wider pot next spring and leave it outside permanently.
 
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