Need urgent advice for my Fukien Tea Bonsai Tree (Carmona retusa)

[JackHammer]

I'm sorry if I confused things with my posts. I was talking about Fukin tea and not Camellia bonsai. OUR Fukin tea is named Camellia (cause drinking tea is camellia sinensis and we try to pick "no-brainer" names for our trees so we don't forget ) and thats what I'm talking about. I usually do let all my tropicals stay out until low 30s, almost sometimes first light frost then they all come in. The Fukien tea has always flowered (tiny white flowers) and is flowering outside right now also.

I was doing this in my greenhouse and the temp dropped more than expected one night. I woke up to a few dead plants. :/

 

[JackHammer]

@tarakanj - the OP has not logged into BNut since March 25, 2021. Perhaps their Fukien Tea, fukien died.

Poor OP.

 

[Kanata Bonsai]

Could be aphids. I went out today and they are mostly gone. I don't like the soap because of the changes to the ph.
Mine have dropped leaves but they never look sick when they do it. They are just growing replacements.

I had that last year. I thought those were aphids but whatever, it doesn't matter. I washed the whole tree with Dawn detergent suds, every leaf and branch. Next day or so, it proceeded to throw the famous "fukien (pronounce as you see fit!) fit" and dropped every single leaf (my Camelia is a drama queen). In a few weeks it grew a whole new canopy and was disease free. Until the next time........rinse and repeat.

Thank you both (and Carol83) and others for this commentary. I bought a lovely Fukien over a month ago. Brought it home and it never skipped a beat or dropped a leaf in its sunny south window. Last week, it was covered in honeydew with small black aphids and as some sooty mold. Used a good hose of water first on the aphids and then the diluted Dawn spray . Repeated the Dawn spray in 3 days. Yesterday, all the leaves fell off except maybe 5. I want to hope it is the shock of the treatment and will be like Mayank's FT... and a new canopy follows. Thanks for the advice and virtual support. Very glad I found Bonsai Nut!

 

[JackHammer]

Thank you both (and Carol83) and others for this commentary. I bought a lovely Fukien over a month ago. Brought it home and it never skipped a beat or dropped a leaf in its sunny south window. Last week, it was covered in honeydew with small black aphids and as some sooty mold. Used a good hose of water first on the aphids and then the diluted Dawn spray . Repeated the Dawn spray in 3 days. Yesterday, all the leaves fell off except maybe 5. I want to hope it is the shock of the treatment and will be like Mayank's FT... and a new canopy follows. Thanks for the advice and virtual support. Very glad I found Bonsai Nut!

Fyi- I did alcohol mix for 2 days and they were gone. Hope your tree recovers.

 

[Titratethis]

I don't own a single fukien but i want one so bad for the associative wordplay

 

[Kanata Bonsai]

JackHammer... remind me of the composition of your alcohol mix would you? I will use it the next time. Many thanks,

 

[JackHammer]

JackHammer... remind me of the composition of your alcohol mix would you? I will use it the next time. Many thanks,

50/50 ish. It is probably a little weaker than that because I had to fill up a spray bottle. Maybe 30/70 rubbing alcohol/water. It doesn't need to be exact, just something close. The regular store bought rubbing alcohol is fine.

Funny thing- when all the aphids died, I had a trail of ants cleaning up the dead aphids. The ants went away on their own. (This was in my greenhouse, not inside the house)

 

[Kanata Bonsai]

THANK YOU BONSAI NUT! I might have thrown that F'in Tea bonsai out... had JackHammer and others not kept me nice and steady.
She is beautiful.... little leaves and flower nodules sprouting everywhere. And, the Ficus Retusa and Ficus Ginseng on either side of her look lovely. No aphids and no damage.

JackHammer... I will try your Alcohol recipe the next time.

Happy Canada Day to all who inhabit the North! Happy Fourth to our friends in the South!

 

[Crawforde]

I had a beautiful Fukien tea for a while. I actually had it in Maryland and it was one of the few trees that survived my move to Florida (most along with their pots were stolen off of my trailer at a motel).
lots of drama every few months, but a really pretty tree when in fresh leaves and flowers.
it Fukien died after the repot last year. I had waited too long, and then didn’t treat it well afterwards. Luckily I had stuck the pruned off bits in some soil and now I have cuttings growing like weeds in yogurt cups.
maybe the Fukien teas need some dairy, although I’ve always hated milk in my tea, maybe tea in milk is better.

 

[Carol 83]

now I have cuttings growing like weeds in yogurt cups.
maybe the Fukien teas need some dairy, although I’ve always hated milk in my tea, maybe tea in milk is better.

Seems to work well for @HorseloverFat!

 

[Crawforde]

Maybe he will start making specialty stoneware yogurt cups or cream cheese tubs, and we can trick our Fukien teas into growing in them.
while the plastic cups work for a time, the Florida sun kills them, they are light and unstable, and they are Fukien ugly on my bench.

 

[DogDude]

Is the soil draining well? If you push your finger into the soil is it wet? What zone/area are you in? You can add that to your profile.
My fukien was looking pretty bad last week shedding leaves which had some white dots (although my leaves seem to have this even when healthy) and I made some soapy solution with Dawn detergent and washed the whole thing, every leaf, and it's still alive this week which is a minor miracle considering it's a Fukien!

I am in NJ, I plan on keeping it indoors because we have tend to get crazy weather here lately.

 

[Katie0317]

OP, please buy a small bag of bonsai substrate from any bonsai company. Eastern Leaf sells one with akadama, pumice and lava...Listed under 'bonsai soil'. It's an inorganic rather than dirt. With dirt you're treating it like a house plant and it can get root rot. Bonsai soil will drain faster and not retain water like dirt will. You'll need to use very small amounts (tiny) of a balanced fertilizer.

Let the leaves fall. Give it time and then with clean sharp scissors (use alcohol) cut a tiny amount of the branch...Less than a quarter inch and see if it's green on the branches. If it's green it will regrow and all will be fine. If it's brown it's dead. Cut it back very very slowly until you see green.

If you never find green, (don't give up easily) and keep finding brown...Check the trunk. Scratch at it with a clean sharp knife looking for green. Keep looking for green. Cut off anything brown but don't give up easily! They can come back.

I really don't think it will come to that but remove dead wood if you find it.

 

[DogDude]

OP, please buy a small bag of bonsai substrate from any bonsai company. Eastern Leaf sells one with akadama, pumice and lava...Listed under 'bonsai soil'. It's an inorganic rather than dirt. With dirt you're treating it like a house plant and it can get root rot. Bonsai soil will drain faster and not retain water like dirt will. You'll need to use very small amounts (tiny) of a balanced fertilizer.

Let the leaves fall. Give it time and then with clean sharp scissors (use alcohol) cut a tiny amount of the branch...Less than a quarter inch and see if it's green on the branches. If it's green it will regrow and all will be fine. If it's brown it's dead. Cut it back very very slowly until you see green.

If you never find green, (don't give up easily) and keep finding brown...Check the trunk. Scratch at it with a clean sharp knife looking for green. Keep looking for green. Cut off anything brown but don't give up easily! They can come back.

I really don't think it will come to that but remove dead wood if you find it.

Thank you for the information, I have some of the Akadama coming along with 7 inch pots with the humidity trays. What has me kind of pissed right now is the trainer pot that my Juniper has does not have drainage holes in the bottom of the pot so I can't water it correctly. That is making me very nervous, I thought about trying to drill some drainage holes so I can get by until the order comes in, but I am not sure of the material that the trainer pot is made of, it feels like plastic but the outside veneer feels like faux stone. This Juniper and the Fakien I got are starting to feel like I got some puppy mill dogs. I started to clean it up because there were a lot of dead foliage at the base of the tree and noticed it has a very weird trunk that actually looks like it split into two trees, I won't know more until I move it into a proper pot as to what is actually going on.

 

[Katie0317]

Puppy mills pups need homes too but seriously I'd not buy again from wherever you're buying from...Mainly because one is in dirt and the other is in a pot without drainage.

Try ordering from Wigert's if you can't find a bonsai nursery near you. The juniper looks like a piece of nursery material stuck in a planter...Not that it can't be worked into a reasonable bonsai although you would need to show what the trunk looks like. That's a lot of green showing there.

Maybe a Juniper person can help you more with that.

 

[Mayank]

Thank you for the information, I have some of the Akadama coming along with 7 inch pots with the humidity trays. What has me kind of pissed right now is the trainer pot that my Juniper has does not have drainage holes in the bottom of the pot so I can't water it correctly. That is making me very nervous, I thought about trying to drill some drainage holes so I can get by until the order comes in, but I am not sure of the material that the trainer pot is made of, it feels like plastic but the outside veneer feels like faux stone. This Juniper and the Fakien I got are starting to feel like I got some puppy mill dogs. I started to clean it up because there were a lot of dead foliage at the base of the tree and noticed it has a very weird trunk that actually looks like it split into two trees, I won't know more until I move it into a proper pot as to what is actually going on.

Not a fan of humidity trays except for when they are inside to show off. Hope yours are outside as much as possible (year round for the juniper, warmer weather for the F'in tea).