How to save a possibly dying funkien tea bonsai (Carmona retusa)

[crazybyte]

Hello,

bonsai newbie here. This summer I got a small funkien tea bonsai. I kept it indoor all summer (cannot keep it outside because I cannot provide shade and it would burn and die). I tried to apply all the advice I got on how to care for it, tried to put in a place (indoor) where it can get the much needed light (not direct sunlight), I watered it lightly being careful not to leave standing water at the base of the pot and it seems that it loved place and the care, it even blossomed once. My watering schedule was once a week at most (especially when I saw the tip of the branches wittering)
Since autumn started losing some leaves, but started losing at alarming rate and now most of the leaves are discolored and getting brown before falling. I figure out that, probably, I over watered it somehow and to top the plants' stress, last time I also put a bit of fertilizer into the water (the water soluble type).
Is it possible to save it from dying? I cannot put it outdoor because it's -10 degrees Celsius (the location is Eastern Europe).
Repotting it would help or would add to the stress killing it for sure?
Any advice from you guys on how to save it? I would love saving it, it's such a nice little plant. Hopefully I won't end up with the pot as a consolation price. Thank you!

P.S. I appologize for my bad English, it's not my mother tongue so higly probable some mistakes were made in spelling and grammar.

 

[Forsoothe!]

It doesn't look that bad, neither does your English, remember it's winter and all plants look better in their element, in their season. Winter is not their season and your house in not their element. Continue your care and expect it to lose a leaf a day until March when it will perk up and begin replacing leaves faster than it loses them. In-between now and then, search blogs like this one for discussions of FT and look at the pictures. Save pictures of those you like the style of in a separate picture file in your computer. Trim yours to look like those you like. Over time, you'll learn about how you need to prune to anticipate expected growth patterns so that it looks like what you want after it grows back rather than after you trim it. Take it slow, don't worry about doing everything exactly right immediately, just absorb a little at a time and enjoy bonsai.

 

[Matt H.]

^ What he said ^
I just want to add that I think it can take / wants more sunlight than it sounds like it is getting, so long as it doesn't dry out.

 

[Carol 83]

As @Forsoothe! said, it doesn't look that bad. Mine dropped alot of leaves, when I first brought it indoors. It's rebounding like crazy and has flower buds all over. Repotting now would be detrimental. If you have no place to keep trees outdoors spring-fall, maybe get a couple of ficus. They are less labor intensive then Fukien teas. And less dramatic. For future advice, add your location to your profile, to get the best advice for your part of the planet.

 

[Wizeeerrrddd]

You need to water more, the soil is too dry for a Fukien! Spray the tree at least twice a day with water as well.

The leaves look like theyre dropping from a lack of water. I had this problem this year with when I swapped my Fukien to my indoor light for winter and was getting used to the water routine. Soak the all the soil when watering and if you see a good response with the leaves lifting again add a little bit of fertilizer a little while after.

 

[sorce]

Welcome to Crazy!

Sorce

 

[crazybyte]

Thank you all for your kind advices. I watered it a bit more and it seems that it helped at least the tip of the branches lifted. What concerns me is that since yesterday a lot of leaves changed color becoming more yellow. Beside watering and trying to a better lighted place I will leave it to rest as you all recommended and hope that it will recover . My geographic location is Transylvania (outskirt of Cluj-Napoca/Klausenburg), Romania (hopefully that my plant wasn't bitten by Count Dracula, I need to put some garlic around it ).

 

[Forsoothe!]

The leaves only live about one year. The length of that year depends upon how far north the plant lives. The further north, the fewer the number of days in the growing season. The end of the growing season is signaled as having growing conditions where the leaves produce less energy than they use. This can be due to a dry season as in the tropics where it doesn't get too cold to grow leaves, or to too little warmth as in snow country, or too little sunlight for a given plant species almost everywhere north or south of the Tropics of Cancer or Capricorn, or any combination of conditions, thereof. Houseplants that grow outdoors in sunny situations have leaves that need more and better light than can be had indoors. If you want to grow your FT at a lesser rate, keep it indoors in the same place all year. It will still loose some leaves on a regular basis, but will adapt and grow very slowly. It will not be as robust as when it spends summers outdoors in the sun. A third option is to have it in the shade outdoors in the summer.

It would be very unusual for your FT to not lose all its leaves by the end of winter. Those plants that are woody and good houseplants have leaves that last more than one year, but not much more. They replace leaves in spring, in good indoor situations, at about the same rate as they loose old leaves and thus appear to be "evergreen". There are lots of figs (Ficus) which make good houseplants and they have many varied species with leaves with leaves smaller than FT all the way up to a foot long. Do a few searches for Ficus benjamina 'Too Little', Ficus orientale, Ficus neriifolia, Ficus microcarpa 'Green Island'. These are all good houseplants and the sap is poison to Dracula. Learn to love FT with all its faults.

 

[crazybyte]

I see. Thank you @Forsoothe! I that case I will be patient with my FT. Thank you all!

 

[solo56]

Hello,

bonsai newbie here. This summer I got a small funkien tea bonsai. I kept it indoor all summer (cannot keep it outside because I cannot provide shade and it would burn and die). I tried to apply all the advice I got on how to care for it, tried to put in a place (indoor) where it can get the much needed light (not direct sunlight), I watered it lightly being careful not to leave standing water at the base of the pot and it seems that it loved place and the care, it even blossomed once. My watering schedule was once a week at most (especially when I saw the tip of the branches wittering)
Since autumn started losing some leaves, but started losing at alarming rate and now most of the leaves are discolored and getting brown before falling. I figure out that, probably, I over watered it somehow and to top the plants' stress, last time I also put a bit of fertilizer into the water (the water soluble type).
Is it possible to save it from dying? I cannot put it outdoor because it's -10 degrees Celsius (the location is Eastern Europe).
Repotting it would help or would add to the stress killing it for sure?
Any advice from you guys on how to save it? I would love saving it, it's such a nice little plant. Hopefully I won't end up with the pot as a consolation price. Thank you!

P.S. I appologize for my bad English, it's not my mother tongue so higly probable some mistakes were made in spelling and grammar.

Hello,

bonsai newbie here. This summer I got a small funkien tea bonsai. I kept it indoor all summer (cannot keep it outside because I cannot provide shade and it would burn and die). I tried to apply all the advice I got on how to care for it, tried to put in a place (indoor) where it can get the much needed light (not direct sunlight), I watered it lightly being careful not to leave standing water at the base of the pot and it seems that it loved place and the care, it even blossomed once. My watering schedule was once a week at most (especially when I saw the tip of the branches wittering)
Since autumn started losing some leaves, but started losing at alarming rate and now most of the leaves are discolored and getting brown before falling. I figure out that, probably, I over watered it somehow and to top the plants' stress, last time I also put a bit of fertilizer into the water (the water soluble type).
Is it possible to save it from dying? I cannot put it outdoor because it's -10 degrees Celsius (the location is Eastern Europe).
Repotting it would help or would add to the stress killing it for sure?
Any advice from you guys on how to save it? I would love saving it, it's such a nice little plant. Hopefully I won't end up with the pot as a consolation price. Thank you!

P.S. I appologize for my bad English, it's not my mother tongue so higly probable some mistakes were made in spelling and grammar.

Have you got 2 adequate drainage hole in your pot? I had the same problem when I bought my Carmona bonsai from a garden centre and there was no drainage hole in the pot. Leaves turn yellow and fell. I then put 2 20mm drainage holes and add some proper bonsai soil (Akadama, Pumice and Kyodama) and it is growing nicely even have plenty of flowers now.