Sorry in advance if I am posting this thread to the wrong place, this will be my first post here.
I live in Orlando, FL and keep my trees on a West facing, enclosed patio, so they get about 5 hours of sunlight a day.
I recently purchased my second BRT close to three weeks ago. I will try to include as much relevant info as I can from the time I obtained it.
Firstly, when I fell in love with this tree at the nursery, there was mold all over the base of the trunk along with many of the leaves. When I brought it to an employee and was concerned with the mold he said not to worry about it and blasted the tree with high pressure water. This removed a lot of the mold but in the process disturbed the top layer of the soil and even debarked the base of the tree(it seems as if the base is raw). He also took a root rake and heavily raked the top of the soil after I asked him when it was repotted. Typically I see people act rather gently with the rake, whereas this man just went IN. I really liked the tree so I went home with it regardless of my reservations.
The first few days home were fine, and then around day 5-6 the leaves stopped opening in the morning and always look quite sad. One thing I should note is that this tree was not potted with bonsai soil and seems to be mostly the soil I see in nursery pots. Hence I would say the drainage is not that great and it almost always feels damp. I tried letting it completely dry before watering it, which took 4-5 days, but the tree started looking more and more sad. I was so unsure about the amount to water it that I bought a moisture sensor and have now only been watering it when it reads dry. Last things worth noting are I added half a teaspoon of 18-4-10 fertilizer at about week 2, and my other tree had some aphids recently(soaped ‘em’ away but was worried to do so with the weak tree as I didn’t see and aphids on it yet and it is not in the best shape to take on some soap)
So 3 weeks later the poor tree is still sad, the newer growth is all shriveled up, and a lot of leaves are becoming crispy. I’m really worried for my tree! I can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong as my other Brazilian is a healthy king and until issues arose I was treating them equally.
I can’t help but feel like it’s the soil, and can’t shake the feeling that I need to repot it into the same pot with bonsai soil to be sure of drainage. I am scared that if I put it through that much stress that it will give up.
If anyone has any piece of advice as to what I could be doing wrong or what I could be doing better it would be very greatly appreciated. Love this community so much just wish my first post was under better circumstances.
I attached a few photos of the tree below
I live in Orlando, FL and keep my trees on a West facing, enclosed patio, so they get about 5 hours of sunlight a day.
I recently purchased my second BRT close to three weeks ago. I will try to include as much relevant info as I can from the time I obtained it.
Firstly, when I fell in love with this tree at the nursery, there was mold all over the base of the trunk along with many of the leaves. When I brought it to an employee and was concerned with the mold he said not to worry about it and blasted the tree with high pressure water. This removed a lot of the mold but in the process disturbed the top layer of the soil and even debarked the base of the tree(it seems as if the base is raw). He also took a root rake and heavily raked the top of the soil after I asked him when it was repotted. Typically I see people act rather gently with the rake, whereas this man just went IN. I really liked the tree so I went home with it regardless of my reservations.
The first few days home were fine, and then around day 5-6 the leaves stopped opening in the morning and always look quite sad. One thing I should note is that this tree was not potted with bonsai soil and seems to be mostly the soil I see in nursery pots. Hence I would say the drainage is not that great and it almost always feels damp. I tried letting it completely dry before watering it, which took 4-5 days, but the tree started looking more and more sad. I was so unsure about the amount to water it that I bought a moisture sensor and have now only been watering it when it reads dry. Last things worth noting are I added half a teaspoon of 18-4-10 fertilizer at about week 2, and my other tree had some aphids recently(soaped ‘em’ away but was worried to do so with the weak tree as I didn’t see and aphids on it yet and it is not in the best shape to take on some soap)
So 3 weeks later the poor tree is still sad, the newer growth is all shriveled up, and a lot of leaves are becoming crispy. I’m really worried for my tree! I can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong as my other Brazilian is a healthy king and until issues arose I was treating them equally.
I can’t help but feel like it’s the soil, and can’t shake the feeling that I need to repot it into the same pot with bonsai soil to be sure of drainage. I am scared that if I put it through that much stress that it will give up.
If anyone has any piece of advice as to what I could be doing wrong or what I could be doing better it would be very greatly appreciated. Love this community so much just wish my first post was under better circumstances.
I attached a few photos of the tree below
