Weeping willow - trouble?

[hierophant]

Hi folks,

I've got this weeping willow. I bought it as a couple-year-old tree two months ago. It arrived as a stick in a pot: straight up and down, no leaves.

I repotted it a month ago and wired it at the same time. The soil is 1/3 gravel, 1/3 red lava, 1/3 pine bark. It lives inside under an 8-bulb T5 array next to a humidifier and fan. It's watered almost daily (any time it's dry more than ~inch down).

Since repotting, it's thrown out leaves everywhere.

My question: a couple of its leaves are starting to look beige and patchy like this, and a few others are browning at the tips.

Any ideas what it needs more or less of?

 

[JoeH]

looks kind of like leaf miner. Are you keeping it outdoors?

 

[hierophant]

Nope; it lives indoors.

I checked under the leaves (there are several looking splotchy) and ONE of them DID have a little white guy living under it (see below). The others didn't, though, and a leaf miner wouldn't explain the browning tips on the leaves with no visible bugs, would it?

 

[discusmike]

Needs to be outdoors

 

[hierophant]

Needs to be outdoors

I don't want to derail this into "can you grow X indoors?" but what do you think I'm failing to replicate from outdoors properly? It's getting a full soak once daily; humidity is 45%; temp is 76ish overnight up to 90 during the day under the bulbs, which I run 18 hours; it's getting breeze from the fan.

 

[JosephCooper]

Maybe "introduce it outdoors"?

Don't shock it by taking it straight outside, but ease it into a shady place, and slowly give it more sun?

Also it's really warm, 76 overnight is too much.

I don't know much about willows, but they do not like 90 degrees in February.

 

[hierophant]

I live in Louisiana; at 9:30 PM, it's currently 76F outside, and the high tomorrow is 85F.

Indoors or outdoors, it's gonna have to live with it.

Unless the argument is "weeping willows can't grow here?" Which I don't think is accurate (but then I'm still learning about willows too).

 

[JosephCooper]

I live in Louisiana; at 9:30 PM, it's currently 76F outside, and the high tomorrow is 85F.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....

treat the pests for aphids though...

Just use some insecticide lightly

 

[hierophant]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....

treat the pests for aphids though...

Just use some insecticide lightly

Aphids are a good thought; I'll check again. It LOOKED aphid-free, but the pomegranate two trees down had a bad case up through last week.

 

[hierophant]

Just checked; no sign of aphids.

 

[miker]

In the long-term, a weeping willow bonsai (or landscape tree, for that matter) should do fairly well appropriately situated outdoors in Baton Rouge. This species will benefit from experiencing four seasons and some winter chill (I think it actually requires some winter chill for proper dormancy). It will likely not do well grown indoors like a tropical bonsai, since it is a temperate, deciduous tree.

As others suggested, I would gradually transition it to the outdoors over a period of a few months, then allow it to enjoy the outdoors where it belongs, going forward.

Edit: I just had to add this about weeping willows. I spent the first 30 years of my life in Orlando, Fl and there are many weeping willows growing there, especially in wet areas like near lakes. Orlando must be just chilly enough in the winter for them to survive because I never saw a single one south of the Orlando area. When I visited Boston in 2011, I saw the absolutely massive weeping willows all over the city that make the Orlando weeping willows look so scrawny and pathetic by comparison. This species does not get anywhere even remotely close to its potential in Central Fl, but Baton Rouge gets a lot more chill hours than Orlando (hours between November 1 - Mar 31 of temperatures between 32F - 45F). What I am trying to say is, you might as well allow your weeping willow to take full advantage of the suitable climate you have there in Baton Rouge, rather than keep it in an unnecessary and possibly detrimental artificial indoor set up.

Introducing some nice twists and turns into the trunk from the get go was a good idea.

 

[JoeH]

Should be outdoors and willows should be fine in LA. I keep mine in a nondraining pot, left it out during the freezes and its growing like crazy. Not sure what that one bug in your pic is, but it has something going on.

 

[hierophant]

Thanks for all your help! Due to the overwhelming response, I've moved the weeping willow outside to a stand that receives direct sunlight some of the day and shade some of the day. Should be ideal for its outdoor home.

 

[hierophant]

(And I knocked that bug off the leaf. I couldn't find any others on any other leaves. I'm increasingly confident the actual issue is water -- it's in fairly well-draining soil -- so I'm upping its watering to twice daily to see what it'll do. I suspect "explode and go everywhere," because weeping willow.)

 

[JoeH]

They will grow in water, so there is no such thing as too much for it. As I said earlier, I keep it in a nondraining pot. I just top it off every few days.