Help! Sekka hinoki browning before winter

[ibresk]

Hi Everyone!

I have few concerns about my sekka hinoki. I'm getting a lot of browning foliage and i'm scared that the winter will be fatal for him. The soil is quite old akadama, it was scheduled to repot next spring.

What can I attempt? A late repotting using sphagnum moss? GIve him fertilizer? Watering less (I do it once a week now)? using growing lamps?

Thansk alot!!!

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Is it kept inside or outside?
Watering once a week is probably not enough.
If the soil is bad, it is best to adapt watering practices to ensure the entire root mass has access to water, and then be allowed to dry, but not completely, before watering again. This means getting the top wet, waiting a minute, watering again; letting the water pool up and drain through, and do it once or twice more.
Repotting a weak tree out of season will often finish off the tree.

 

[ibresk]

outside full sun in the morning and shadow afternoon.
I let the solil dry between each watering. Few weeks ago I got a large pillbug colony in the vase so I thought I was watering the tree too much, so I scaled down.

 

[horibonsai]

Sekka will brown in the winter, but this is extreme. Take a bucket of water and fill a quarter of a way. Dunk the tree and leave it submerged for 5 minutes. Take it out and let the water drain out. Hinoki needs more water than, say, a juniper. Touch and look at the soil and see if you need to water.
When I get home from work, it's pitch dark, and I feel like Zatoichi with a watering wand instead of a sword.

 

[WavyGaby]

Hi Everyone!

I have few concerns about my sekka hinoki. I'm getting a lot of browning foliage and i'm scared that the winter will be fatal for him. The soil is quite old akadama, it was scheduled to repot next spring.

What can I attempt? A late repotting using sphagnum moss? GIve him fertilizer? Watering less (I do it once a week now)? using growing lamps?

Thansk alot!!!

Ciao!
It looks root bound but its hard to tell from the photos. Hopefully, you can nurse it along and repot in late winter / early spring.
You have rather mild winters, right? If so, you might do a light repot now and protect it from frost.

 

[WNC Bonsai]

I have about a dozen of these and water every day, but my soil is very well draining and has only about 20% pine bark, the rest being pumice (which should be easy to dig up in Italy.). These usually do yellow and brown up a bit in fall/winter but I too think this is due to inadequate water. Wait until spring before repotting. You can also then pick off all the dead brown foliage to encourage new growth. These are pretty complicated to manage correctly and @Eric Schrader has a couple of good videos on his bonsaify YouTube channel. There also is a Japanese YouTube channel that is almost all about sekka hinoki.

 

[WNC Bonsai]

Of course if it doesn’t survive you could try this Thai method!

 

[ibresk]

Of course if it doesn’t survive you could try this Thai method!

this seems a little bit to drastic

 

[ibresk]

I have about a dozen of these and water every day, but my soil is very well draining and has only about 20% pine bark, the rest being pumice (which should be easy to dig up in Italy.).

yes we have very cheap pumice here, the problem is that summer is so dry and hot I need to rump up my organic a little to improve the water retention otherwise I will end up watering every hour
I purchased the tree last year after summer, and it came from japan in this old decomposed akadama, very powdery. I decided to wait one spring before repotting but I should have done it ...

 

[WNC Bonsai]

yes we have very cheap pumice here, the problem is that summer is so dry and hot I need to rump up my organic a little to improve the water retention otherwise I will end up watering every hour
I purchased the tree last year after summer, and it came from japan in this old decomposed akadama, very powdery. I decided to wait one spring before repotting but I should have done it ...

Yes, from the Japanese videos I’ve watched they use akadame for just about everything! I have used a bit on some of my bonsai but prefer a 50:50 mix of pumice and Permatil, a heat expanded slate similar to a lot of heat treated clays but more durable. I then mix in various proportions of composted pine bark depending on the tree species and its water needs. This also provides a substrate for beneficial microbes. I can get away with only watering once a day even in the middle of summer, but we rarely go above 85 degrees F where I live.

 

[Orion_metalhead]

Id try the dunk method also would be good in this situation to make sure you dont have any dry spots in the root ball.