question on tree health for multiple trees.

[moon-fox (Joseph R)]

I have 3 tripod un-styled attempted trunk fusion trees for coast redwood, they got sunburnt a couple months ago from forgetting to water enough one day, I repotted the tripod redwoods about a week or 2 ago during a warm spell in January the buds had swelled slightly, and gave them one dose of vitamin b1 and fertilizer tea during that time, now it is going through a rainy cycle and got kinda cold again, I have a small polycarbonate greenhouse that I could put them in to maybe un-waterlog them and dry them out a bit, any tips?, I would like them to be healthy enough for wiring in the spring, but most important is that I want to keep them alive until they are vigorous again, maybe wrong time repotting and wrong Time fertilizer, along with sunburn? the branches are still flexible and the brown parts are green underneath,
I also have some seed grown redwoods that I recently repotted in a 2 plants in pot way and are kind of brown or yellow?,
I have a repotted Sierra sequoia redwood that is browning near the bottom,
I have a couple seed grown port Orford cedars that are browning a little bit but seem mostly pretty much healthy. - anything I had repotted recently I gave a little diluted vitamin b1 in a watering can.
I have other bonsai plants that seem mostly healthy but I may add them to this thread if I have questions or something, -most of my plants are grown from seen over the past 2-3 years with a pump sprayer, cold stratification in the fridge and a small aluminum and polycarbonate greenhouse, some of my plants like the Italian cypresses in 1 gallons have slight browning but most are fine, also most of them are (or for) starter bonsai with the idea of turning them into weird bonsai over time.

 

[Shibui]

I have a repotted Sierra sequoia redwood that is browning near the bottom,

Lower foliage browning is usually older foliage reaching end of life and dying. We trend to think of evergreen as foliage stays green forever but individual needles do have a use by date. Usually around 3 years. In that time lots of new foliage has grown as the branches grow so there's still plenty of green on your evergreen species when the older needles die and drop off. Take a look at older pines, etc. The inner branches are bare and the ground covered with fallen needles where needles older than 3 years have fallen.
The challenge for us, as bonsai growers, is to make sure there is always new shoots with new foliage back along the branches and trunk so we don't end up with trees with foliage only at the tips.

Another possible reason for lower and inner foliage dying is light - specifically not enough light. Areas that are constantly shaded tend to drop foliage earlier because there's not enough energy return for the tree. Foliage is like solar panels for the tree. It turns sunlight into energy and plant food. Shaded foliage does not repay the tree's maintenance costs. When maintenance cost exceeds energy generated something must go.
We often see this on trees that are not rotated regularly or grown close to a wall or other structure. Branches at the back or on the shady side of the tree begin to deteriorate and die off. Can also happen to lower branches that are shaded by dense upper branching.

I'm pretty confident you have identified dehydration as the correct cause of most of the browning on the other trees. That can happen, even in winter, and only takes a couple of drier than normal days. Now that they are well watered they should begin to grow again in Spring so I would not worry too much.

Not sure how cold it gets in your area but I would also not worry about buds swelling now. They tend to hold on through cooler weather then take off again when it gets warmer. The conifers you've listed should all be cold hardy for your part of the world.

now it is going through a rainy cycle and got kinda cold again, I have a small polycarbonate greenhouse that I could put them in to maybe un-waterlog them and dry them out a bit, any tips?,

It takes many weeks, months of saturated soil to cause root problems. A few weeks, especially in cool weather should be no problem. I would just let them be.

I'm guessing your 'fertilizer tea' is home made? Most organic ferts are relatively weak and highly unlikely to cause any problem whatever time of year you apply it. In my area, most evergreens are never completely dormant so I continue to fertilise at reduced rates right through winter. Far from being a problem, I get better Spring growth on trees that have had winter fertiliser. The worst that can happen is you've wasted that fertiliser application.

I tried vit B1 for a while, many years ago but could never see any difference between plants with and without so no longer bother.

 

[moon-fox (Joseph R)]

Lower foliage browning is usually older foliage reaching end of life and dying. We trend to think of evergreen as foliage stays green forever but individual needles do have a use by date. Usually around 3 years. In that time lots of new foliage has grown as the branches grow so there's still plenty of green on your evergreen species when the older needles die and drop off. Take a look at older pines, etc. The inner branches are bare and the ground covered with fallen needles where needles older than 3 years have fallen.
The challenge for us, as bonsai growers, is to make sure there is always new shoots with new foliage back along the branches and trunk so we don't end up with trees with foliage only at the tips.

Another possible reason for lower and inner foliage dying is light - specifically not enough light. Areas that are constantly shaded tend to drop foliage earlier because there's not enough energy return for the tree. Foliage is like solar panels for the tree. It turns sunlight into energy and plant food. Shaded foliage does not repay the tree's maintenance costs. When maintenance cost exceeds energy generated something must go.
We often see this on trees that are not rotated regularly or grown close to a wall or other structure. Branches at the back or on the shady side of the tree begin to deteriorate and die off. Can also happen to lower branches that are shaded by dense upper branching.

I'm pretty confident you have identified dehydration as the correct cause of most of the browning on the other trees. That can happen, even in winter, and only takes a couple of drier than normal days. Now that they are well watered they should begin to grow again in Spring so I would not worry too much.

Not sure how cold it gets in your area but I would also not worry about buds swelling now. They tend to hold on through cooler weather then take off again when it gets warmer. The conifers you've listed should all be cold hardy for your part of the world.


It takes many weeks, months of saturated soil to cause root problems. A few weeks, especially in cool weather should be no problem. I would just let them be.

I'm guessing your 'fertilizer tea' is home made? Most organic ferts are relatively weak and highly unlikely to cause any problem whatever time of year you apply it. In my area, most evergreens are never completely dormant so I continue to fertilise at reduced rates right through winter. Far from being a problem, I get better Spring growth on trees that have had winter fertiliser. The worst that can happen is you've wasted that fertiliser application.

I tried vit B1 for a while, many years ago but could never see any difference between plants with and without so no longer bother.

-thanks for the information, I hope they pull out of it during the spring, but having the branches be flexible and green underneath is a relieving sign,
I am also thinking that on the Sierra redwood could be slight transplant shock, about 85 percent of the roots are intact from the recent repotting during a warm spell impulse, it went from a 1 gallon to a poly bonsai pot tray so some rearranging was done, I think Im going to start rotating my trees occasionally now, as there is an old solar panel structure and a simple lath house structure in the bonsai zone, that blocks light during parts of the day, my area is up in the mountains so doesn't get as cold as in the valley, the coldest colds that happen is max like 25 degrees, and the hottest hots in summer are up to 100-110 degrees, during the hot summer I tend to move as much as I can under an oak tree and the lath house, the Italian cypress I repotted and styled during the January repot are doing really well, Italian cypress is super tough, the fertilizer tea is made from storebought garden fertilizer soaked for a day or two and strained the solids and then put in a watering can,

 

[Shibui]

I hope they pull out of it during the spring, but having the branches be flexible and green underneath is a relieving sign,

I don't see anything that would indicate imminent death in any of the photos. The damage is past and trees can usually cope and continue. Note that leaf damage is permanent. The brown foliage will not become green again but new shoots that grow will have healthy green foliage to replace the older, damaged parts. I would probably leave it all intact for now and cut back to remove the damaged areas when new shoots are growing. If brown foliage offends you you can carefully trim to remove burnt parts but that will inevitably also remove some healthy foliage a which , in turn, limits the tree's ability to photosynthesise.

my area is up in the mountains so doesn't get as cold as in the valley, the coldest colds that happen is max like 25 degrees, and the hottest hots in summer are up to 100-110 degrees,

Slightly colder winter nights that I get but otherwise very similar temps.

the fertilizer tea is made from storebought garden fertilizer soaked for a day or two and strained the solids and then put in a watering can,

Assuming the storebought fert is organic which is relatively low in nutrients. Organic fert is designed to release nutrients slowly over weeks. Soaking a couple of days will only release a small proportion of those nutrients so very unlikely to cause any harm. Seems like an inefficient way to fertilise plants. Do you use other fertilisers at different times of the year? I certainly would not like to be relying on that fert tea as the sole source of nutrients for my trees.

 

[moon-fox (Joseph R)]

it is organic fertilizer, I could probably scratch the soil surface and apply some of it mixed in as a fertilization method?, maybe in combination with the tea?, I have not applied other types of fertilizer during other times of the year, I do have chicken manure available as well.
I plan to leave the foliage alone on the sunburnt trees until I see more vigor.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Redwoods are pretty darn bulletproof.

Even if one messes up on one it normally comes back, sprouting all over. Treat it right, keep it out of the hot sun during the summer and water frequently.

Last year we cut off all a 6 year old coastal redwood’s branches. Then we took a reciprocating saw and split the tree right down the trunk to its base. A month and a half later there were sprouts all over the tree.

btw. We usually have a 25% bark component in the media to retain moisture.

Cheers
DSD sends