JoeyBon
Seed
This is my first post, first bonsai.
I have a ~5 year old Chinese Elm from Eastern Leaf. When I bought it last Spring, I almost immediately repotted from nursery soil to a 100% inorganic akadama/lava mix. The tree did very well last summer and only lost about half of its foliage into the winter. This spring, I decided to repot with a new soil mix. I am a huge fungi fan and I wanted to inoculate with a mycorrhizal fungus instead of rooting hormone. Obviously the fungi would need an organic substrate, so I used coco coir and a small amount of vermiculite in my akadama lava mix. Immediately after repotting, I realized I used too much organic matter, as the soil was pooling and not draining at all. About a week later I repotted again to remove some coir and add more akadama lava. It helped, but still very poor drainage. I decided to give the tree about a month to recover before I repotted a 3rd and final time this year. I realize repotting is stressful to the plant, and on top of all that, my girlfriend's cat ATE almost all the remaining leaves after 2nd repotting. With the 3rd repot, I removed most of the organic material, leaving only what I think is necessary for the mycorrhizal fungus to colonize. It has been about 3 weeks since the final repot, and it does drain very well now.
My concern is primarily the foliage. Aren't leaves its only method of respiration? I only fed it a tiny amount of 20-9-9 fertilizer today, because I don't want to feed it until it recovers more. I notice there are a lot of twig clusters on the branches, where leaves would normally develop, but they remain bare.
How can I help it recover?
Would trimming some of the twig clusters help allocate more energy to the surviving leaves?
Or should I just leave it alone and water daily?
It sits in a window sill facing south-east, so it gets plenty of diffused light all day. I only take it outside to water.
2 pictures show how bare it is
….breaks my heart
Outside in the warm rain. I'm worried those 4 leaves are the only thing keeping it alive.
I have a ~5 year old Chinese Elm from Eastern Leaf. When I bought it last Spring, I almost immediately repotted from nursery soil to a 100% inorganic akadama/lava mix. The tree did very well last summer and only lost about half of its foliage into the winter. This spring, I decided to repot with a new soil mix. I am a huge fungi fan and I wanted to inoculate with a mycorrhizal fungus instead of rooting hormone. Obviously the fungi would need an organic substrate, so I used coco coir and a small amount of vermiculite in my akadama lava mix. Immediately after repotting, I realized I used too much organic matter, as the soil was pooling and not draining at all. About a week later I repotted again to remove some coir and add more akadama lava. It helped, but still very poor drainage. I decided to give the tree about a month to recover before I repotted a 3rd and final time this year. I realize repotting is stressful to the plant, and on top of all that, my girlfriend's cat ATE almost all the remaining leaves after 2nd repotting. With the 3rd repot, I removed most of the organic material, leaving only what I think is necessary for the mycorrhizal fungus to colonize. It has been about 3 weeks since the final repot, and it does drain very well now.
My concern is primarily the foliage. Aren't leaves its only method of respiration? I only fed it a tiny amount of 20-9-9 fertilizer today, because I don't want to feed it until it recovers more. I notice there are a lot of twig clusters on the branches, where leaves would normally develop, but they remain bare.
How can I help it recover?
Would trimming some of the twig clusters help allocate more energy to the surviving leaves?
Or should I just leave it alone and water daily?
It sits in a window sill facing south-east, so it gets plenty of diffused light all day. I only take it outside to water.
2 pictures show how bare it is
….breaks my heart Outside in the warm rain. I'm worried those 4 leaves are the only thing keeping it alive.
