Buddhist pine - help

[Rymo]

Hello

Beginner here - I’ve had this Buddhist pine for several months and it’s been doing fine, over the past couple of weeks its leaves seem to be drying out and I don’t know how to help it.

I’m UK based - North West
It’s indoor
I lightly mist the tree daily
Water when I feel the top layer of soil is dry
It has nutrients once a week
Sits in indirect light

The only thing I can think of is how dry the air is in my apartment during the summer but I’ve been putting water in the tray and it’s not done anything to help.

Any suggestions appreciated

 

[Adamski77]

I have few of these... many people think of them same way as Chinese Elm... it's an "indoor" bonsai... nothing like this exists... so first advise is to take it outside... outside they can stand pretty much anything... I have mine in full sun (shanghai 40C+)... half shade, full shade and they all doing really fine. I don't think indoor will make it far...

 

[rockm]

In addition to the above great advice -stop misting it. It doesn’t do anything good. Only raises humidity levels for a few minutes to get adequate humidity levels you wil have to humidify the entire room the plant is in.

If you don’t have an area outdoors. Get robust supplemental lighting. Not just a “plant light”.

Also the soil it is in looks dense and probably waterlogged easily or is hard to re wet after it dries out. Problems like yours typically trace back to root issues. Either too wet or tooo dry both conditions kill roots. The symptoms of over and under watering are much the same because the dead roots can’t transfer moisture to leaves. The process of inadequate watering shows up typically a few weeks after the plant is purchased. Watering correctly is the hardest part of bonsai to learn. Keeping the plant inside only make that situation worse as there isi adequate light humidity and air circulation

 

[Shibui]

Agree with both above.
Buddhist pine is Podocarpus macrophyllus - a conifer. Very few tree species can survive long term indoors. I don't know any conifers that will survive indoors and that does not change according to where we live. Trees just cannot cope with the low light, low humidity and lack of air movement that are found inside our houses.
In addition, pests and diseases tend to thrive indoors to further weaken trees kept indoors.
Plants that can cope tend to be the toughest rainforest species that have adapted to low light and periods of dry and low humidity.

A search of this site should bring up a thread dedicated to this theme - Why you cannot keep bonsai trees indoors

 

[Rymo]

In addition to the above great advice -stop misting it. It doesn’t do anything good. Only raises humidity levels for a few minutes to get adequate humidity levels you wil have to humidify the entire room the plant is in.

If you don’t have an area outdoors. Get robust supplemental lighting. Not just a “plant light”.

Also the soil it is in looks dense and probably waterlogged easily or is hard to re wet after it dries out. Problems like yours typically trace back to root issues. Either too wet or tooo dry both conditions kill roots. The symptoms of over and under watering are much the same because the dead roots can’t transfer moisture to leaves. The process of inadequate watering shows up typically a few weeks after the plant is purchased. Watering correctly is the hardest part of bonsai to learn. Keeping the plant inside only make that situation worse as there isi adequate light humidity and air circulation

 

[Rymo]

Hello

Beginner here - I’ve had this Buddhist pine for several months and it’s been doing fine, over the past couple of weeks its leaves seem to be drying out and I don’t know how to help it.

I’m UK based - North West
It’s indoor
I lightly mist the tree daily
Water when I feel the top layer of soil is dry
It has nutrients once a week
Sits in indirect light

The only thing I can think of is how dry the air is in my apartment during the summer but I’ve been putting water in the tray and it’s not done anything to help.

Any suggestions appreciated

Thanks for the advice all.

I have a balcony which gets plenty of natural light. I can place her there and hopefully she will improve.