Fukien tea questions- new to bonsai

[tibley]

Hey so I’m new to bonsai and got this Fukien tea for my birthday from my friend. It’s been about 2 weeks and it’s flowering like crazy and overall I feel like it’s doing really well! My question is about these leaves, some of them are a lighter green and I read somewhere that the leaves will tell you if your tree needs more/ less water or sunlight or whatever. Are these leaves an indication of anything bad or is it a normal thing for the leaves to be a lighter green? Thanks!!

 

[BonsaiDTLA]

Those leaves look like new ones. It looks okay to me Don't baby the tree too much or you might kill it with love!

 

[SubJeezy]

The green leaves are just new growth. A good sign that' its well taken care of. The leaves will turn yellow if you're watering is off. Unfortunately, they do it when you water too much, or two little. I keep my Fukien in a very coarse mix pumice, lava and Cal Clay. Makes it hard to over water. I water every two days if its mild and once a day on hot sunny days. Fukiens are very temperamental. Unfortunately once the leaves start to yellow there's really no saving them. They don't wilt when dehydrated like a lot of trees. They just go from green to dead.

 

[tibley]

thanks for the reply, just wondering, in your experience how much does a fukien tea grow per growing season? I think my tree is about 5 years old and it is getting a lot of new leaf growth but no branches are really growing any longer? Just wondering if from your experience if you know how much new shoots grow per year?

Thanks again!

 

[SubJeezy]

thanks for the reply, just wondering, in your experience how much does a fukien tea grow per growing season? I think my tree is about 5 years old and it is getting a lot of new leaf growth but no branches are really growing any longer? Just wondering if from your experience if you know how much new shoots grow per year?

Thanks again!

Unfortunately not much, if at all. With my (limited) experience with my Fukiens new branch growth doesn't often happen on its own. It generally requires hard pruning to stimulate the new buds to grow from the cut. Neither of my Fukiens have put out a single new branch this year on their own.

 

[gfreak]

I have 2 fukiens at the moment. (1 is new and just moved locations). but the other one i havent had any problem getting new branches to spring up.

The tree healths look fine as far as I can tell. I water mine every day, twice a day here during the heat of summer (as it's been 100+ every day recently here lol)

How often are you fertalizing it?

 

[SubJeezy]

thanks for the reply, just wondering, in your experience how much does a fukien tea grow per growing season? I think my tree is about 5 years old and it is getting a lot of new leaf growth but no branches are really growing any longer? Just wondering if from your experience if you know how much new shoots grow per year?

Thanks again!

Update. My Fukiens both put out some very long shoots about 3 weeks ago when it started to get hot. They were in full summer sun with generous water over a humidity tray. Moved them to shady spots with this Colorado heat, but one in particular put out 4 shoots before the heat wave

 

[tibley]

Update. My Fukiens both put out some very long shoots about 3 weeks ago when it started to get hot. They were in full summer sun with generous water over a humidity tray. Moved them to shady spots with this Colorado heat, but one in particular put out 4 shoots before the heat wave

Hey mine also put out a bunch of shoots in this heat wave, probably 15-20 of them or so!

 

[gfreak]

Update. My Fukiens both put out some very long shoots about 3 weeks ago when it started to get hot. They were in full summer sun with generous water over a humidity tray. Moved them to shady spots with this Colorado heat, but one in particular put out 4 shoots before the heat wave

not sure exactly how hot it's been up where you are. But i've had mine in full afternoon sun here in the 100+ every day and they've loved it lol.

 

[SubJeezy]

not sure exactly how hot it's been up where you are. But i've had mine in full afternoon sun here in the 100+ every day and they've loved it lol.

Similar temps for about a week. Its been in the 90s recently so they went back out into the sun, haha