Dawn Redwood Advice

[Damart81]

I have a Dawn redwood I have had since January, it has grown a lot, but here in Texas it has been 100-107 every day. It receives morning sun (6ish-2pm) on an southeast facing balcony.
A lot of the interior branches have been dying off, and there are brown tips on the green leaves, should I be worried? It’s now in a saucer with low water, I was previously only watering once a day and checking with a chopstick. It also gets a 20-20-20 fertilizer once a week.

Also, do I need to prune off the dead parts of the branches?

 

[Cruiser]

Dawn redwood are hardy. It appears to be under watered.
What type of substrate is it in? If it drains well, watering once a day and a shallow saucer may not be enough. As the tree generates more and more foliage, it’s water demands go up.

The climate around here is far kinder and my redwood gets watered twice a day. It’s in well draining substrate in an anderson flat. The flat sits in a tub of emulsion-tinted water that submerges the bottom half of the pot. Roots are now growing freely into the water tub. It seems as though they cannot get enough H2O.

What kind of fertilizer does your tree get?

 

[Damart81]

It’s in a mix of potting soil, pumice, kilned clay, lava rocks. Anderson flat rock, I have an Anderson flat ready for it but I know you shouldn’t repot deciduous trees until they’re dormant.

It gets jacks 20-20-20 once a week, do you ever use fish emulsion?

 

[Cruiser]

It’s in a mix of potting soil, pumice, kilned clay, lava rocks. Anderson flat rock, I have an Anderson flat ready for it but I know you shouldn’t repot deciduous trees until they’re dormant.

It gets jacks 20-20-20 once a week, do you ever use fish emulsion?

That seems like a reasonable mix. Try not letting it dry out as much. Continue keeping the tree in a tray of water and/or give it a bit more water throughout the day.
Also consider sheltering the pot and water tray in some way if it gets hot. If all that sitting water around the roots gets too hot it may cause problems.
Keep an eye on your tree over the next couple of weeks to see how it responds. Dawn redwoods are good communicators, they appear to respond quickly to stimuli.

If your tree has been under watered, a strong fertilizer like Jacks might cause issues.
I use Alaska fish emulsion 5-1-1 and osmocote plus. Both claim to be burn free. 3 tbl fish juice/1 gallon water. The dawn redwood gets 1-2 cups of the mix per week.

 

[Shibui]

Looks and sounds like dehydration. Dawn redwood are quite thirsty normally and even do well in a water bath like Bald cypress.
The mix is great for bonsai but really open and drains well. I think once a day watering is likely not enough for a thirsty species in hot weather in Texas, especially in that mix. Water bath should help with that and it will not hurt to have the pot sitting in an inch or so of water for the rest of summer. I also water twice a day through most of summer down here.
Definitely lay off the fertilizer until you see good new growth. There's a possibility that excess fert may cause difficulty with uptake of water by roots.
Dead parts will normally fall off son but you can trim them if you don't like the look.

 

[Cajunrider]

Everyone has already pointed out that the likely cause is dehydration. However, there is possibly another reason. I have my BCs dunked yet I also experienced browning of my BCs and Montezuma cypress. I checked and discovered that the pH in my soil was too high. I adjusted the pH with ammonium sulfate and the new leaves are now green again.