Delonix Regia - Flame tree

[Longstar]

Hello all,
I am from Czech republic and I am new here.
I would like to ask you for an advice.

I have Delonix Regia at home in my flat. The flower is approx. 3 years old.

I had it in the flat during winter at the Nort-West window. It lost some leaves during winter, but not big issue. It started to grow up fast a month ago as spring started and it has more light, so I moved the flower at the balcony South-East at the full light from morning to 5 p.m. according to weather. Temperatures during night are not lower than 10 °C

Now the leafs are falling down massively and I am wondering why it doesnt like full sun light??

I am watering approx. twice per week, when the soil starting to be dry.
As a soil I use mixure of sand, Coir and soil approx. 30%,30% and 40%.

The last think, what I was thinking about was the change of the window. Could be the problem change of "light condition"?

Or the temperature peaks? On the balcony I have during the day close to 30 °C and durimg night around 10°C-15°C for few hours specially beforw morning.

Or maybe the wind destroys the leaves?

I am sending some pictures.

Tha k you very much for advice and sorry for my bad English

 

[ECMist]

I would imagine it would lose some amount of leaves after being moved, but not a large amount of leaves. It may not like the drastic temperature changes from 30°C to 10°C. I don't think temperature peaks are a problem, it should be able to tolerate the heat as long as it's getting watered and a good measure of humidity. If the wind is strong, that very well could also be a reason why. Hopefully someone else more experienced can provide their input. I'm somewhat new to bonsai so I may be wrong here.

 

[Longstar]

It is getting worse and worse. Even during night is 20 degrees on the balcony. But I will try to repot the guy during weekend and we will see.

 

[ECMist]

Are you sure it doesn’t have any diseases or pests?

 

[Longstar]

Two years ago there were the small blavk flyes in the soil (not sure about the name in English), but I covered the soil with sand and that killed the pests. Regarding the diseases, I dont think so. I noticed only few white dots on leafes time to time, but it is there from beginning And it was growing quite well even with it. It must connected with relocation of the flower. Temperature changes, time of sunlight, or i dont know. I have two flowers. First one - small (bonsai). this one I moved back inside on the same window as before. The big one (in big pot) is still in thr balcony. And I will see, which one will be better. This flower is like my personal nighmare. I try to grow up this flower since 2018 from the seed and I dont want to kill it now once it is almost 3 years old Last chance to make it survive is... move to Madagaskar

 

[ECMist]

I’m not sure if it’d be the best to repot it just because it’s unhappy (though if it’s that time of year feel free) but if you do end up repotting check for the black flies you saw (fungus gnats I believe) just to be safe. They can complete their entire lifecycle in the soil, but I don’t think that’s the issue. I would move it back if possible or to a better place since it seems it doesn’t like the wind in addition to whatever else it doesn’t like. I myself am growing one as well, I wish you luck and hope it survives.

 

[Longstar]

Oki, I moved both of them back at the previous place, where they were happy before. I hope they will recover soon and then we will see But that is really strange. I am in new flat and I couldnt wait all winter long to place them on the sun and now it looks like they dont like the sun... Really, it is like the flowers are in the age of adolescence

 

[ECMist]

Oki, I moved both of them back at the previous place, where they were happy before. I hope they will recover soon and then we will see But that is really strange. I am in new flat and I couldnt wait all winter long to place them on the sun and now it looks like they dont like the sun... Really, it is like the flowers are in the age of adolescence

I feel the same way with my tropicals right now

 

[Kievnstavick]

I plan on growing some of these trees as I have a few seeds, but I wanted to comment my experience with my other tropicals of the Fabaceae family. Specifically Albizia Saman.

When I transition them from my grow tent to outdoors, they tend to throw a fit and drop almost all of their leaves. This tends to be because the leaves made indoors are used "low" light conditions and are overwhelmed when exposed to the full power of the sun. Think of how your eyes feel when you leave a dark building (like a theater) and go outside. Your eyes get overwhelmed by the amount of light. This is more or less happening to the leaves, but unlike your eyes they can't adapt to these new light conditions quickly.

The best thing to do is do a slow transition of the plant to full sun. A week in full shade, then if the tree still looks good transition to partial shade with morning or late afternoon sun for a week. Finally it can go into full sun.

Doing this gives the plant time to modify its existing leaves and/or grow new ones without too much added stress.

In my experience with certain species of tropicals (Ablizia Saman and Adansonia digitata), they keep their leaves during slight cold spells down to 7.5 degrees C. Prolonged cold spells tend to just create flesh damage on the leaves and soft tissue stems with very minimal leaf drop.

 

[MSGhero]

Mine is indoors, and the leaves semi-regularly drop frond by frond. It's fairly close to my heater and AC, which might be why. But it is growing and thickening up regardless, so I'm not focusing on it too much.

 

[Longstar]

I moved it back indoor. In czech republic should be a low temperatures next week anyway. Now it looks happier inside. I will leave it inside until it recovers and then I will try to adapt to sun slowly. Does your plant have a blossoms? Thats why I try to move it to the sun. I would like to see the blossoms on it

 

[ECMist]

Glad to hear it’s perking up again. Unfortunately it’ll be a number of years before mine blooms, it’s still awfully small

 

[dancing with butterflies]

I think 50f is the magic number for tropicals at night. anything less and you have to be careful, But I'm in zone 4 ST paul MN.

 

[dancing with butterflies]

you might have different results because you live in a tropical climate., Longstar. However Look at minimum temps and be careful. Most tropicals do not like cold.

 

[Cajunrider]

Glad to hear it’s perking up again. Unfortunately it’ll be a number of years before mine blooms, it’s still awfully small

Mine is going into its 5th year. The trunk is 2.5” in diameter. It is not likely to flower this year either.

 

[ECMist]

Wow, 5 years with a great trunk!

 

[Mad Tabby]

I moved it back indoor. In czech republic should be a low temperatures next week anyway. Now it looks happier inside. I will leave it inside until it recovers and then I will try to adapt to sun slowly. Does your plant have a blossoms? Thats why I try to move it to the sun. I would like to see the blossoms on it

I’m not a bonsai expert but have years of experience with gardening. Plants don’t appreciate sudden changes. It’s best to put them out for an hour or so, then a few hours, then for the day, then you can consider putting them out for the season.