Kingsville boxwood leaves curled up and dried, what to do?

[Kiani]

Hi all, a friend of mine who bought 2 kingsville boxwoods from house of bonsai. Both kept indoors unfortunately, but one looks fine, green soft foliage, the other one has gone dry, the leaves have curled up and have lost their deep green color, and now look more light green. The leaves don't snap when bent but are very hard and rigid. I told him I think it's because this particular tree was under direct sunlight next to a window for too long, while the other healthy one is in shade more often.

But I can't be sure. Either way he has given this tree to me to take home and see if I can get it healthy again.

Any tips?

 

[Smoke]

Get it outdoors in some partial shade.

"That", is not a kingsville.

I wish vendors would stop selling morris midget as "kingsville". Once you have seen a real kingsville you will never mistake it for any other boxwood ever again.

 

[Ang3lfir3]

Get it outdoors in some partial shade.

"That", is not a kingsville.

I wish vendors would stop selling morris midget as "kingsville". Once you have seen a real kingsville you will never mistake it for any other boxwood ever again.

Quoted for truth.... on all points!

 

[Kiani]

Get it outdoors in some partial shade.

"That", is not a kingsville.

I wish vendors would stop selling morris midget as "kingsville". Once you have seen a real kingsville you will never mistake it for any other boxwood ever again.

Thanks smoke!

Any styling tips for this tree? My friend asked me to help get it back to health and then style it.

 

[mat]

My tip would be don't try to style an unhealthy tree.

 

[Kiani]

My tip would be don't try to style an unhealthy tree.

Nope, definitely not now. Just asking for later, what style other than broom suits this type of tree.

 

[edprocoat]

I had no idea Boxwoods could be kept indoors. I would think that plant looks like its been dehydrated. The one in the shade is doing well, I would have thought that would have been even worse on a boxwood. It has a nice trunk and next year with luck and care when its healthy you could probably make a nice windswept from it judging by the way the branches on the right side are almost going that way right now and the ones on the left could be wired that way about halway up.

ed

 

[rockm]

Boxwood can't be kept indoors, as this tree shows. This one has significant, if not fatal, problems. The roots are obviously shut down, possibly completely dead. This could be from a number of different causes, primarily having to do with the soil. If this was in the sun near a window, that might mean the soil was baked to concrete. Or, it could have been overwatered. Both produce similar results -- dead dried up foliage resulting from root death.

If this were mine, I'd do an emergency repot to see what the roots are like. I'd get the tree outside ASAP and into better soil, possibly removing a significant amount of soil to replace it with good bonsai soil. I'd also not hold out much hope for its future.

Boxwood is tough however. Depends on how much live roots are left...

 

[alonsou]

Get it outdoors in some partial shade.

"That", is not a kingsville.

I wish vendors would stop selling morris midget as "kingsville". Once you have seen a real kingsville you will never mistake it for any other boxwood ever again.

Smoke,

I will think this is more like a Harland Boxwood rather than a Morris Midget see here
The Morris midget have more rounded leaves.

I know by a fact that this is Harland, I bought one from HOB some time ago, mine its doing fantastic, it's been outdoor all the time and being fertilize in a regular basis however, it required an immediate change of soil, once I got it home, it pretty much was leaving in dry out hard clay type of soil.

Kiani,

I don't want to be pessimist but I think that boxwood its a goner, you might want to try and repot it now for any chance of survival (if any) and keep it outside.

 

[Kiani]

Smoke,

I will think this is more like a Harland Boxwood rather than a Morris Midget see here
The Morris midget have more rounded leaves.

I know by a fact that this is Harland, I bought one from HOB some time ago, mine its doing fantastic, it's been outdoor all the time and being fertilize in a regular basis however, it required an immediate change of soil, once I got it home, it pretty much was leaving in dry out hard clay type of soil.

Kiani,

I don't want to be pessimist but I think that boxwood its a goner, you might want to try and repot it now for any chance of survival (if any) and keep it outside.

Oh well. Even with my limited bonsai knowledge, I tell my friends and family to NOT keep their bonsai trees indoors unless they are specifically classed as indoor bonsais, and to not over water them and feel the soil before watering. I hope I can save this tree, I gave it a generous watering with liquid food/vitamin last night and have left it under my bonsai bench to keep it out of direct sunlight. I'll report back in a week or two and see if there's any change. Thanks all.

 

[rockm]

Watering and vitamins aren't going to cut it, unfortunately. It needs a soil change if it's going to have a chance. Watering could even speed its death. Vitamins aren't of any use since it can't take them up--it can't take up water either, since the roots are not functioning...

 

[Kiani]

You're right rock, the entire soil seems to be root bound, I have to go to house of bonsai on Saturday and get some soil and pots.

How much of the roots should I remove when re-potting?

 

[alonsou]

You're right rock, the entire soil seems to be root bound, I have to go to house of bonsai on Saturday and get some soil and pots.

How much of the roots should I remove when re-potting?

This kind of Boxwood have some very tender roots that can break very, I repeat, very easily, you need to be extra gentle when re-potting it, "white" colored roots its what you want to keep, any death roots should be black, rotten like. I guess since they are already death, you could remove them without worsening the tree current condition.

This is what I will do, try to submerge the entire root ball in water for plenty of time, it should help loosen up the old soil, make a really good free draining soil mix, keep in out under shade, and do not feed it until it shows signs of recovery, what rockm said its very true, the roots can't take any food now since they seem to be shut down. good luck!

 

[Kiani]

This kind of Boxwood have some very tender roots that can break very, I repeat, very easily, you need to be extra gentle when re-potting it, "white" colored roots its what you want to keep, any death roots should be black, rotten like. I guess since they are already death, you could remove them without worsening the tree current condition.

This is what I will do, try to submerge the entire root ball in water for plenty of time, it should help loosen up the old soil, make a really good free draining soil mix, keep in out under shade, and do not feed it until it shows signs of recovery, what rockm said its very true, the roots can't take any food now since they seem to be shut down. good luck!

Thanks Alansou. Will update in a week or two. Hopefully this little guy makes it.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

That tree looks like a goner, but boxwoods are tough and you might be surprised. It looks like it got cooked in the window. I'd go the soak it and get it in the shade route. Not sure why some automatically run to the "repot it now" remedy. Almost without fail, when I lose a tree it's because of something I did to the roots. This one is stressed on top already, what will you gain by stressing it further with a repot? Especially if the signs don't point to a root problem...it looks like it was healthy until very suddenly it wasnt. My $.02...As much as I hate to be contradictory.

 

[rockm]

"Not sure why some automatically run to the "repot it now" remedy. Almost without fail, when I lose a tree it's because of something I did to the roots. This one is stressed on top already, what will you gain by stressing it further with a repot?"

That is not heat stress. It is root stress. Top growth doesn't dry out and wither all at once because of heat stress. The soil is compacted and/or non functioning and is killing the roots. Removing the bad soil removes a lot of the problem and will allow the tree to push new roots. As things stand now, without a repot and aggressive soil exchange, things will remain the same.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

"Not sure why some automatically run to the "repot it now" remedy. Almost without fail, when I lose a tree it's because of something I did to the roots. This one is stressed on top already, what will you gain by stressing it further with a repot?"

That is not heat stress. It is root stress. Top growth doesn't dry out and wither all at once because of heat stress. The soil is compacted and/or non functioning and is killing the roots. Removing the bad soil removes a lot of the problem and will allow the tree to push new roots. As things stand now, without a repot and aggressive soil exchange, things will remain the same.

That's your diagnosis, but considering the lack of leaf drop, it looks like this happened all at once. I can't come up with a scenario whe the soil compacts and roots stop functioning so quickly that the tree doesn't make an attempt to slow transpiration by dropping leaves. This thing looks like it went a week in the sunny window without water.

At any rate, it will be interesting to see what kiani does and how things turn out.

 

[rockm]

I reached my conclusion because the leaves are all the same color (green) and condition (withered). If this were sun scald, there would be some discoloration in the leaves. Sunscalded boxwood leaves can turn yellow or even red as they get too much sun as they stress out. Boxwood tend to hang onto their leaves under stress, even when they're dead.

The shut down of the roots is probably a complication of BOTH soil and location, but the roots are still the problem. Leave them in that soil and they're not going to recover...

 

[Kiani]

I went to Lowes today (didn't have time to drive to the bonsai nursery), and I bought new soil that was a mixture of compost, sand, pumice and organic forest materials like bark and wood. On the soil it said it was soil for cactus and tropical plants but regardless it had the right ingredients for bonsai soil that will offer good drainage. I was also looking for decomposed granite which I have seen a video that it is good for bonsai soil, but they didn't have that.

I took the boxwood out of its pot and it was seriously root bound, especially at the bottom of the pot. There were many white roots going round and round in circles which had covered the entire bottom of the pot, hardly any soil left. So I removed around a 3rd of the roots and re-potted with the new soil, then watered. Just time to wait and see if it improves.

 

[mrt1]

Any update?