Azalea winter browning and leafs dropping

[Taylonious]

This is my first winter for my azaleas. On has had some browning but minimal leaf dropping, my other one, which I will attach pictures of, was super healthy looking and has taken a turn in the last few weeks. A lot of leaves getting brown and “crispy” and dropping. I keep them in the garage, and since there is minimal light, I have a grow light to help supplement. I don’t water as much, tend to stick to the whole waiting for the soil to get dry but not completely dry. Any advice? Is this normal for wintering?

 

[RaginCajun]

It is normal for azaleas to drop leaves in the winter. Some cultivars are more cold hardy than other so that may explain why one is losing more leaves than the other.
Are you keeping them moist?
I keep mine outside and protect from frost down to 25 degrees. They may be able to tolerate even colder but I get chicken at 25 degrees.
I’m not sure how an azalea would fare overwintering in a dark garage.

 

[Taylonious]

Yeah I give them a daily mist. From my research everything said to bring them into a shed or an unheated garage. But that’s why I got the grow light so they could get some light

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Not all are old leaves. There seems somth8ng else going on in this plant than just a watering issue.

My first thought were these were frost bit. But could also be water. Add-in wiring. Possibly all together.

Have a whole lot of questions.

How cold does the garage get?

What is the watering technique, soak, sprinkle etc?

When was the azalea wired?

What media is the azalea in?

Do you have other azaleas to compare to?

Before answering these questions, can you please remove all leaves totally brown or dead leaves. Then send another post with a new image and the answers.

Cheers
DSD sends

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

I keep mine outside and protect from frost down to 25 degrees. They may be able to tolerate even colder but I get chicken at 25 degrees.

Probably a good thing too!

I’m not sure how an azalea would fare overwintering in a dark garage.

Seems there is a light. However would also like to see the light set up.

Cheers
DSD sends

 

[Glaucus]

I move azaleas indoors every winter. To make them bloom. But most azaleas are outdoors. Right now, it is -6C/21F. The cold makes them perfectly healthy. Just dormant and waiting for spring.
I'd recommend you keep them outdoors next winter. Because that is just much easier. And if you get a crazy once every decade cold snap, move them indoors in an unheated shed just for 2 or 3 days. But in that case, make sure that they don't warm up too quick indoors. I'd avoid keeping them indoors for too many days during winter. I have not had good results with that. From my experience, indoors is only good when you try to wake them up. I lost many azaleas when I started out, trying to shield them from the winter. They would never wake up during spring. Probably they got too dry indoors. Not sure. When I stopped moving things indoors, keeping everything in a pot, I have had very little winter losses. But winters have been mild. Maybe this year is different.
They are in cheap plastic nursery pots with a peat/perlite/ericaceous compost mix. Indoors, I give them very long days quite suddenly. But the temperatures there are partially unheated. I only have a small heat mat which I usually only use for seedlings.
These plants are healthy and near to being pot bound. Generally, they are not bonsai and were not pruned or wired.

Those indoors wake up from dormancy in 2 to 3 weeks time. Then they push new leaves. Which can go limp if not watered every two days. Then, it is easier to judge their watering needs. But, if you water a few hours after the new growth goes limp, which looks quite dramatic, they fully restore.
The only issues I have had with azaleas indoors is 1) their flower buds seem to dry out and terminate sometimes. Maybe more often than when I just wait for spring? 2) their new growth is very tender. No wind, no UV light, 3) Since the plants grow so fast, they become pot bound and need a repot, which I have not always given them. 4) The timing for moving them back outdoors is tricky. Once outdoors, they do not seem to do as well. They want to end the growing season I really need to make sure these indoor plants are repotted indoors, and moved outdoors only in late spring, when outdoor days are also long and night temperatures are no longer low. But there is also time to adapt to the power of a summer sun.

This azalea in your picture still dormant, but the leaves are dying. Are the other ones the same? They need very little water when still dormant. I would never mist the old leaves.
Maybe this is fungus? Do you have a strong grow light?
I believe that if the light is not sufficient, it will just drop perfectly green leaves? But lack of water, either through no water in the potting mix, or no roots in the wet potting mix, can cause browning of leaves. The fungus on leaves during winter is generally more blackish? And affects the entire leaves, not just the tips.

Out of about 80 azaleas I have move indoors, only 1 dropped the summer leaves and seemed to have dried up the flower buds. One one day I would tap it, and most leaves dropped. But now, it is growing with new leaves no problem. Not sure why it did this. Maybe it did get too dry?

 

[Taylonious]

Not all are old leaves. There seems somth8ng else going on in this plant than just a watering issue.

My first thought were these were frost bit. But could also be water. Add-in wiring. Possibly all together.

Have a whole lot of questions.

How cold does the garage get?

What is the watering technique, soak, sprinkle etc?

When was the azalea wired?

What media is the azalea in?

Do you have other azaleas to compare to?

Before answering these questions, can you please remove all leaves totally brown or dead leaves. Then send another post with a new image and the answers.

Cheers
DSD sends

Not sure the exact temperatures of the garage it fluctuates with what the outside temp is, it is unheated so probably just a little warmer than what it actually is outside.

I let the soil get almost dried out and then water until it starts to leak out of the bottom.

I wired it in probably mid fall, I think in November.

I don’t know what the medium consist of, I bought it from Brussels Bonsai and it is still in what the potted it with.

I have another azalea that Is right beside it, it is doing similar but not as much, I will post a picture of it at the end as well as the lights. I removed all the brown fully crisped up leaves.
I did notice it is trying to put out some new shoots as well

 

[Glaucus]

How much watt of LEDs is that? I use at least 100 watts of LEDS that were tested to have a high efficiency. So at least 1.8 µmol/W.
It looks very light in the picture. And it may also be to your eyes. But we humans cannot detect light intensity.
These lights do not look like panels but just one single bar/row of LEDs. So I question the lights.

 

[Taylonious]

How much watt of LEDs is that? I use at least 100 watts of LEDS that were tested to have a high efficiency. So at least 1.8 .8 µmol/W.
It looks very light in the picture. And it may also be to your eyes. But we humans cannot detect light intensity.
These lights do not look like panels but just one single bar/row of LEDs. So I question the lights.

They are 100 watts

 

[Glaucus]

Some healthy plants, growing:




One that is just budding out:


This one did have a leaf issue on last years's leaves. Either because of the cold or last part of summer, but the new leaves are good:




The one in the round container, it does seem to be actively growing. Did it drop all the other leaves? I would watch the new leaves on that one as an indication of health.
I would put the day length to at least 14 hours.

Is that large one budding out new buds on the old wood? It is out of focus on the picture. If so, that is behaviour you get one azaleas that are pruned. So it is trying to respond to lost leaves by creating new buds.
Are they all still green? Or has at least one dried up?

 

[Taylonious]

Some healthy plants, growing:
View attachment 583895

View attachment 583896

One that is just budding out:
View attachment 583893

This one did have a leaf issue on last years's leaves. Either because of the cold or last part of summer, but the new leaves are good:
View attachment 583894



The one in the round container, it does seem to be actively growing. Did it drop all the other leaves? I would watch the new leaves on that one as an indication of health.
I would put the day length to at least 14 hours.

Is that large one budding out new buds on the old wood? If so, that is behaviour you get one azaleas that are pruned. So it is trying to respond to lost leaves by creating new buds.
Are they all still green? Or has at least one dried up?

The one in the round container with any an azalea, it is one I propagated off of a bush in the fall. It didn’t have many leaves to begin with but it did shed off most of them. Ok that’s good to know I have it set at 8 hours right now. Yes those are new shoots on old wood and are just starting so they are all green. When I was clearing the dead leaves ai could also see green at the point the leaf was attached. I pruned it back in the fall. I was also putting out new shoots right at the beginning of winter, one or two hardened off and the others seemed to have died off

 

[Glaucus]

This is how they would bud out when healthy:

You may want to spray with a systemic fungicide, but consider the implication aerosols of fungicide indoors and breathing them back in.
I am not sure I could recreate your issue even if I wanted to try.
The large one looks like it was healthy during autumn. And to me too little or too much water both don't really fit.

They are waking up anyway, so I would go with long days. You can almost double the daily light integral without having to upgrade the lights.
You just have to be careful with moving them outdoors. Once days get shorter, azaleas will want to stop growing, create flower buds. And those will only start to flower after a cold period.
Then next year, just keep them outdoors all winter.
And for overwintering indoors, they would have to stay colder.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Thinking a couple things went on. Transition issues from moving indoors. Old leaves dying off per @RaginCajun Watering technique/timing. Wiring issues. Also one cluster appeared to die off due to some unknown cause - guessing mechanical, wiring?

A couple observations.

Garage storage - it’s fine to do this, especially considering the weather Huntsville has been having in the teens at night. 13F/ -10.5C is not good for any azalea in a pot imho. The first year is the hardest. As @Glaucus mentioned all trees kept in indoor storage need to be properly “hardened off to transition them outside. It takes a bit more than a week here of bring the azaleas in and out for increasing amounts of time.

After five years of keeping some azaleas inside I’ve learned a lot. My watering method once the media is near dry is to soak the pot/media in water until completely waterlogged, then to take the pot out of the water and chock the pot up on a slant until all excess water runs off. In our garage with overhead led lights on 14-16 hours, azaleas require water every 5-8 days. You will have to figure your situation out.

Stylistically- These azalea were not styled prior to sale. As a result, there are a whole lot of long branches emanating from one point. This means the length of these branches would usually be pushed in quite a bit if a clump style was desired. Otherwise many will have to be removed to create other bonsai styles, with the remaining branches shortened.

Wiring - wire doesn’t have to be laid on beautifully, but it does have to be functional. Crossing wires is avoided for functional and aesthetic reasons. Functionally, when wires are crossed, additional pressure is exerted on the branch at the crossing points, which often causes additional external and sometimes internal damage and certainly a loss of functionality.

Criss-crossing wires down a branch certainly loses functionality - one the branch is twisted one direction, one of the wires becomes loosen and so on.

Here are a couple wiring resources to help you.

Bonsai Wiring Essentials

Structural wiring

Bonsai Detail wiring

Finally, don’t believe they need fungicide at this point. If needed begin with 2 tbsp 3% H2O2 in one qt of H2O spray bottle. Mix and use immediately.

That’s a lot, so stopping now.

Cheers
DSD sends

 

[Taylonious]

Thinking a couple things went on. Transition issues from moving indoors. Old leaves dying off per @RaginCajun Watering technique/timing. Wiring issues. Also one cluster appeared to die off due to some unknown cause - guessing mechanical, wiring?

A couple observations.

Garage storage - it’s fine to do this, especially considering the weather Huntsville has been having in the teens at night. 13F/ -10.5C is not good for any azalea in a pot imho. The first year is the hardest. As @Glaucus mentioned all trees kept in indoor storage need to be properly “hardened off to transition them outside. It takes a bit more than a week here of bring the azaleas in and out for increasing amounts of time.

After five years of keeping some azaleas inside I’ve learned a lot. My watering method once the media is near dry is to soak the pot/media in water until completely waterlogged, then to take the pot out of the water and chock the pot up on a slant until all excess water runs off. In our garage with overhead led lights on 14-16 hours, azaleas require water every 5-8 days. You will have to figure your situation out.

Stylistically- These azalea were not styled prior to sale. As a result, there are a whole lot of long branches emanating from one point. This means the length of these branches would usually be pushed in quite a bit if a clump style was desired. Otherwise many will have to be removed to create other bonsai styles, with the remaining branches shortened.

Wiring - wire doesn’t have to be laid on beautifully, but it does have to be functional. Crossing wires is avoided for functional and aesthetic reasons. Functionally, when wires are crossed, additional pressure is exerted on the branch at the crossing points, which often causes additional external and sometimes internal damage and certainly a loss of functionality.

Criss-crossing wires down a branch certainly loses functionality - one the branch is twisted one direction, one of the wires becomes loosen and so on.

Here are a couple wiring resources to help you.

Bonsai Wiring Essentials

Structural wiring

Bonsai Detail wiring

Finally, don’t believe they need fungicide at this point. If needed begin with 2 tbsp 3% H2O2 in one qt of H2O spray bottle. Mix and use immediately.

That’s a lot, so stopping now.

Cheers
DSD sends

 

[Taylonious]

Ok if anything it sounds like I have watered them too much then. This was my first wiring, I did some of them with the parallel technique which I believe is the proper way but I see what you are saying on the crisscrossed ones. The one cluster you are talking about has no wiring on that branch tho. I went ahead and upped the timer on the lights. I’ll go ahead and get the H2O2 mixture and begin spraying. Do I want to make sure it gets down to the roots or just spraying the foliage?

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Here’s the rub, under and overwatering (causing root rot which is possible here), over fertilizing and cold damage (to a point) all can look similar with the partial die back on the leaf tips. Only you can tell what you did.

Or garage is in rainy winter Seattle area. Yours is in Slabama, watering intervals will vary. Use the heft of the pot and your finger tip to sense the need for more water.

Didn’t think spraying was indicated. Of done, don’t soak the roots at this time. But spray if you wish. Your trees your choice.

Looking forward to seeing updates in Spring.

Cheers
DSD sends

 

[Taylonious]

Here’s the rub, under and overwatering (causing root rot which is possible here), over fertilizing and cold damage (to a point) all can look similar with the partial die back on the leaf tips. Only you can tell what you did.

Or garage is in rainy winter Seattle area. Yours is in Slabama, watering intervals will vary. Use the heft of the pot and your finger tip to sense the need for more water.

Didn’t think spraying was indicated. Of done, don’t soak the roots at this time. But spray if you wish. Your trees your choice.

Looking forward to seeing updates in Spring.

Cheers
DSD sends

Ok based on all the info you have given me, I think it was more than likely over watering. I was going off of visual opposed to digging my finger down because the soil/root system was so thick and compacted. Was only giving 8 hours of light and was watering probably every 4 days