Best I can do for now. Its dark. I find it odd that half of the trees trunk is brown and half is green. Hopefully half isn't dead.
Hi there Bonsai21, welcome to BNut and to the OC. There are many good bonsai hobbyists in Irvine so you are in luck.
The tree is at least half-dead, but all is not lost, you can style it with just a good branch or two. The key now is to restore its health before any styling decision. So now the questions to ask should be about what caused it to die back like that and how to restore its health going forward. At least you should consider repotting it into new soil soon. One lesson people don't say often enough is to throw away the old soil on unhealthy trees. In other words, don't reuse the old soil. Don't even put that dirt into your yard. And recycle the old nursery plastic pot or clean it very well with bleach before using it for any other tree.
Good luck!
The tree is at least half-dead, but all is not lost, you can style it with just a good branch or two. The key now is to restore its health before any styling decision. So now the questions to ask should be about what caused it to die back like that and how to restore its health going forward. At least you should consider repotting it into new soil soon. One lesson people don't say often enough is to throw away the old soil on unhealthy trees. In other words, don't reuse the old soil. Don't even put that dirt into your yard. And recycle the old nursery plastic pot or clean it very well with bleach before using it for any other tree.
Good luck!
I need to try this. Of all my plants, crabapple seems to be the most challenging. They grow then die back for no apparent reason ...even when I am not touching them. Could it be fungus?
My experience with Crab Apple growing where it's hot is the the most common problem is root rot. That can come from overwatering but with a good soil mix and pot drainage that shouldn't be an issue. Usually it 's the lack of removing all the old nursery/ field soil that causes the problem. I've seen a bunch of crabs with half dead trunks and upon inspection roots on the dead side were rotting or already rotted.
The rotting roots make it more susceptible to a host of other problems, so I think it's important to bare root them and plant in really good draining soil.