What causes this?

[cmeg1]

I feel very fortunate to be 10 minutes from Longwood Gardens.A consevatory owned by the Dupont family.I have a season pass and go there once or twice a week.
I have been going there and looking at the bonsai trees for like 10 years.They have always rotated the same trees practically all the time.I have noticed about the past 4 years some of the trees' leaves start browning about early to mid summer.There was a loose flower hornbeam forest that they finally took off the stand,I wonder if it finally succumbed.So anyway,I took a picture today.Have you ever seen this on leaves?Is it salt burn.

 

[Smoke]

Nope, just not hydrated enough. Needs some afternoon shade also.

 

[JudyB]

Smoke, if you would, please tell me how you can tell the difference??? I have some of that same sort of thing happening, and would love to know if it was due to the weather, or perhaps my new fert. program I started up this year....

 

[Poink88]

Smoke, if you would, please tell me how you can tell the difference??? I have some of that same sort of thing happening, and would love to know if it was due to the weather, or perhaps my new fert. program I started up this year....

I would like to know too since my understanding was under watering/dehydration, over watering, over fertilizing, etc. all causes root damage that manifest to this. It would be neat if we can tell which is which so it can be addressed properly.

Thank you.

 

[Bill S]

I think what Als response might be is listen to your trees and learn. The usual response to this question and picture are at the hot/er/windy/er times of year, is drying out.

Id'ing the issue I think comes more from experiance.

 

[Smoke]

I can only speak for the trident which is in this picture. Different trees respond differently to dehydration than others.

What differentiates this trident from a healthy one is the look of the leaves. First look at the leaves. There are light patches that are dessicated and dehydrated from lack of water. The tree is fighting but is losing the battle. They are papery and thin.

Second, the leaf shows signs of lack of water due to the burnt tips. This is where the transpiration shows first. When a person has a hot breezy day with drying winds the leaf will just turn papery and fall off. that is a sign of "mis watering".

A sign of lack of water is papery leaves with burnt margins. The tree is living but not optimal. The fix is usually a combination of things. soil mix, water habits, and good afternoon shade during the hottest part of the day.

A trident maple year round can look very nice even into the latter part of the year. I used to have trees that looked like this but now I have changed my conditions to better serve the plant. Still in triple digits around here. Supposed to be 101 Sat, Sun and Monday.

August and Sept while not record breaker months, they were close to it. In August we had 28 days straight over 104. I do have some leaves with some minor burning on the margins, but the leaves are plump and hydrated. Not thin and dessicated.

 

[gergwebber]

The fix is usually a combination of things. soil mix, water habits, abd good afternoon shade during the hottest part of the day.

A trident maple year round can look very nice even into the latter part of the year. I used to have trees that looked like this but now I have changed my conditions to better serve the plant. Still in triple digits around here. Supposed to be 101 Sat, Sun and Monday.

So are you moving the trees around the yard, erecting shade, or just relying on the path of the sun with surrounding trees to do the work?

I am always shifting plants around as I have never had an ideal situation for most of them. I am starting to think I need to just find a sunny area and shade it as the trees need it...

 

[jkd2572]

All my tridents look like this. I did not move them to shade early enough this summer. And I have a hornbeam that I did the same too

 

[cmeg1]

I would like to know too since my understanding was under watering/dehydration, over watering, over fertilizing, etc. all causes root damage that manifest to this. It would be neat if we can tell which is which so it can be addressed properly.

Thank you.

Well,the trees have always seemed hydrated from the outside.My gut tells me you guys are right about the dehydration.This has been a gradual process that started a few years ago.These trees seemed to be in pristine health for many years.They are grown in glass house with auto-ventilation and fans and are also with whited out glass directly overhead.No scortching hot breezes or anything.It has got to be a inner soil issue.I was once told by a gentleman holding a bonsai class at the facility that they use plain old 20-20-20 fert on the trees.Maybe they over did it over the years and some trees reacted badly.

 

[cmeg1]

Her are a few other trees they have.All are well except the hornbeam forest in the middle(it had the same dehydration problem).Black pine,zelkova,hornbeam,ginko,chinese elm.I think these photos are from last autumn.