My Fukien Tea with a question.

Lobaeux

Shohin
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I really don't want to bring it inside. I've got it under our awning in our backyard, no rain, but it'll get the morning sun.

The soil I think is good, majority lava rock with a little bit of turf ace and organic material.
 
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Hi.

In my opinion it may not be black spot disease since this is a tropical tree and they are not prone to this type of disease.
I strongly suggest to check underneath the leaves that are turning yellow and check for mites.
Do the leaves feel sticky?
 

Lobaeux

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Hi.

In my opinion it may not be black spot disease since this is a tropical tree and they are not prone to this type of disease.
I strongly suggest to check underneath the leaves that are turning yellow and check for mites.
Do the leaves feel sticky?

I don't remember the leaves feeling sticky. I sprayed with some Neem oil and the problem went away. Then, I left for a couple of days for vacation, left my new watering system with misters on and came back to bugs.

Little bugs, which I assume were aphids were inside the soil. I could move a bit of the soil aside and see the bugs moving about. The leaves looked like they had been chewed on as well. I used Malathion on the soil and the leaves, that got rid of the little critters right away. Now, it's starting to recover a bit. The pads are starting to fill in.

I've got to do some work on clearing out the pads, getting rid of some of the "unwanted" branches, but that will come later. I really think I need it to just strengthen a bit.

Here's the tree this morning:
 

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It's looking good. Next time you see yellowing leaves look underneath. Aphids tend to hide there. The aphids that will do this are white and very small. I used a magnifying glass to see them.
To eliminate them I used a eco friendly soap based product that Home Depot sales.

Steve
 

Lobaeux

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Came back from holiday and the leaves had turned black, it was overrun with pests and just looked awful. I cleaned it up, defoliated and wired a couple of branches.
Weather has been in the high 70s, low 80s and looks to stay that way for the rest of the month. It's getting sunlight in the morning, and it's already starting to bud.

IMG_3923.JPG
 

petegreg

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Back from ashes? Cool, it would be sad to lose such a nice tree.
 

Lobaeux

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Kinda. Bugs had started to decimate it, so I took some drastic action. Also, defoliating it helped, along with clearing out some branches that weren't needed. He's getting some good sun now and protected from the wind.
 

Anthony

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Now that is really special, none of ours have corky bark.
If you ever get seed, please think of sending to me.
I will see what I can send you in exchange.

Corky bark, imagine that.
Lucky duck.
Good Day
Anthony
 

Lobaeux

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Now that is really special, none of ours have corky bark.
If you ever get seed, please think of sending to me.
I will see what I can send you in exchange.

Corky bark, imagine that.
Lucky duck.
Good Day
Anthony

As much advise as you've given me Anthony, if it does seed, you'll be the first to get them!
 

Anthony

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Only need 3 to 5 thank you.

Carl Rosner of IBC sent a small bag of Fukien Tea seeds as a gift about 8 years ago.
After the first 10, we had to give away an enormous amount.

Carl 1 [ first fukien tea from seed is being grown on ]
And Thank You again.
Good Day
Anthony
 

Lobaeux

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Removed all the wiring off this Fukien Tea today. He's got ants and aphids, gonna try a different technique to get rid of them. Instead of spraying it with chemicals, I'm going to try just high pressure water. It worked on the Barbados Cherry, should work on this tree.

IMG_5639.JPG
 

Anthony

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Also try thinning the foliage and developing the branches for a tree like look.

You need to build on your negative / positive spaces.

Try resting the pot on a piece of metal , corragated wire, brc etc.
Ants don't like to walk on metal on our side.

Our stands are metal.
Best of growing.
Good Day
Anthony
 

Lobaeux

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I was thinking the exact same yesterday when I was looking at the leaves. Need to trim it down a bit, expose more of the tree as it looks like just a bunch of pompoms.
 

power270lb

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As much advise as you've given me Anthony, if it does seed, you'll be the first to get them!
What did u do to revive it once u got rid of bugs? Mine doesn't have bugs, I rescued it from Lowe's because it looked like it was pushing out new growth. Came in a shallow pot to the point one of the woody roots were sticking out an inch. The soil was regular garden soil so after three weeks I changed to DE, pumice, lava rock and some pine bark. 1 or 2 leaves occasionally turn yellow and drop but I've read over and over that it does this all the time. Last few days or so it's seemingly dropping more. Flowers would look about to bloom but then become crisp. I have a skewer in measuring if the soil is moist and it is but first few inches dries quickly. It's under a strong grow light and in my setup everything has flourished. Wondering if I need to water more (I had a chinese elm that had a lot of crispy leaves, since I've watered every 36 hours and the tree has exploded) I was waiting longer to water but should I up it? Tree still has a lot of leaves it's only dropped maybe 8-10 larger leaves but was tempted to put a plastic bag on it. There's a humidifier, fan and the whole setup is enclosed in mylar. Full setup
 

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