crab apple stump

Bonsai21

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Picked up this crab apple stump. I have seen Si's crab apple in the archives and seems to be the same veriety.plan was to let it grow this season in this pot. Please give me some direction on what to do with my stump. Thanks
 

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JudyB

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Can you take some shots of the tree straight on, instead of from an overhead angle? Also take one of each side. Better pictures = better advice.
 

Bonsai21

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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.
 

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jquast

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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.

Unfortunately that is likely the case, I had a similar thing happen to me this year. Fortunately it was the back side of the tree and it will now go back in the ground for several years to try to fix it.
 

JudyB

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If that is the case, and it looks like it might be, then I see a lot of carving in this ones future. Crabapples can be nice with carving.
Scratch the bark and see if it's green underneath, that will tell you the answer.
 

jk_lewis

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If this were mine, I'd wait until spring, then cut that trunk back to a REAL stub, fertilize it well and see what develops.
 
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This is from Mach5's thread - Shohin crabapple with fruit

image.jpg

Beautiful tree and great carving.
 

JudyB

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I almost put Mach5's crab up too, as this one could work well in that vein.
 

Bonsai21

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Thanks for the replies. Gives me some hope. Mach5s is beautiful. Its tough for me to visualize my tree looking anything. Yeah, I'm pretty sure its half is dead. Bad thing is I bought it this way. Noob move again. Thanks for the inspiration.
 

Si Nguyen

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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!
 

Bonsai21

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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!

Hey Si, thanks for the advice. Happy that you responded, since your down the street from me you know exactly what is going on in this area. I cant even tell if my plants are growing, dormant or dying with the weather we've been having. Not knowingly, I bought it half dead. So the cause is unknown. What would be a good soil mix to use in this situation in our area. I've seen that you use some cactus mix from Armstrong's and pumice? Is this something I should repot all my trees in when I buy them? I figured I would change out all my soil in the spring. I only have one maple in a bonsai traing pot and the rest are in 5 gal pots. This is a rough start to a new hobby, but I'm determined to figure it out. Btw you do amazing work.
 

Malton

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Thanks a lot for sharing to this informative sharing and i agree with your reviews.According to me that apple is the
best source of the energy and get good nutrition because an apple a day keeps doctor away so it is so good for
the stomach health.

Foster City Personal Trainer
 
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fore

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It's not terrible half the trunk is dead as the tree has bad reverse taper...both of which can be addressed with carving. I love crabapples btw and that one from Mach is incredible. Good luck bonsai21
 

Poink88

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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? :(
 

bonsaibp

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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.
 

Poink88

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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.

Bob, I'll bare root and check come spring. I know I washed this off really well after collection and I doubt there is root rot. However, it being one of my earlier collected trees...I used about 80% turface as substrate for it. That could be causing or contributing to my problems. We'll see come spring.

Thanks!

Sorry for the thread hi-jack.
 
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