Tropical FAQs
- What is the best temperature to keep a Black Olive tree at?
- While on vacation my ficus bonsai dried out. I have been watering it alot but new growth just withers up.
- I have a tropical bonsai I keep it in is a spot where it is probably in the 60s most of the time. Do you think this will be warm enough?
- I recently got a new tropical bonsai tree. Within a week of getting it home it started dropping its leaves. Help!
- There is a baseboard hotwater heating unit under my New Zealand Tea Tree. I mist it every day, but the moss dry out quickly and some of the leaves feel brittle and drop off.
- The leaves of my New Zealand Tea tree are brittle feeling and the little buds on it are not opening out. Why is this happening and what can I do to it?
- Can you give me advise about training a pre-bonsai ficus? I have read that you should not re-pot it while there is wire on it.
- I recently bought a ficus pre-bonsai. Should I give the tree some time to acclimate to it's new environment before doing any work on it or does it not really matter?
- I got a serissa in spring and now, in November, the leaves are growing sparce. New growth appears but does not open out. It is under a light bulb about 18in. from the plant that is on 24 hrs. I use a liquid fertilizer diluted in the water.
- My Too Little Ficus seems to be doing quite well but when I replaced the moss I found two worms. What should I do?
Tropical FAQs
Q. What is the best temperature to keep a Black Olive tree at?
Black Olives love the heat. The black olive is native to the Caribbean. It hates being colder than 70F at any time - keeping it warm will keep it happy.
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Q. While on vacation my ficus bonsai dried out. I have been watering it alot but new growth just withers up.
Reviving a ficus. If the trunk is still alive the best course of action would be to keep the tree warm and not over water it. Trees with very few or no leaves use much less water than a tree fully leafed out, so water it less frequently until it leafs back out.
It may take 8-12 weeks for the tree to leaf back out. But ficus are pretty tough so have patience.
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Q. I have a tropical bonsai I keep it in is a spot where it is probably in the 60s most of the time. Do you think this will be warm enough?
Tropicals love warm temperatures. Ideal temperature regimes for most tropicals is 68-75F days. Most tropical bonsai trees like the temperatures a bit cooler at night if possible. About 5-10F cooler than day temperatures or around 60+-F nights.
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Q. I recently got a new tropical bonsai tree. Within a week of getting it home it started dropping its leaves. Help!
New Tropical Tree Leaf Drop. Tropical bonsai can be a bit particular. They tend to experience leaf drop, to a greater or lesser extent, for the first 2-4 weeks after being moved to a new location. This move can be between rooms in the same building, or a move to a different building. They are simply discarding old leaves that were acclimated to their previous environment in preparation to growing out new ones acclimated to their new home.
The key here is to find a good spot for the tree and leave it there while it acclimates to its new home. Meanwhile keep giving it the care you know it requires. Repeatedly moving the tree in a well meaning effort to stop the leaf drop will have the opposite effect.
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Q. There is a baseboard hotwater heating unit under my New Zealand Tea Tree. I mist it every day, but the moss dry out quickly and some of the leaves feel brittle and drop off.
New Zealand Teas Like Humidity. New Zealand Teas like high humidity levels, especially when heating systems are running during winter. Use a humidity tray. Place a tray or plate under the tree and put just enough water in it to fill the bottom of the tray, but not enough to touch the bottom of the pot.
Bonsai pots have little feet to keep the bottom of the pot off the surface the pot is placed on, so this is easy to do. Just be careful not to use too much water since the excess will be drawn up into the pot and not allow the soil to adequately dry out. The water will gradually evaporate around the tree over 18-24 hours, providing increased humidity levels around the tree for a much longer time than just misting. Add additional water daily to the tray.
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Q. The leaves of my New Zealand Tea tree are brittle feeling and the little buds on it are not opening out. Why is this happening and what can I do to it?
Dried Leaves on a New Zealand Tea It sounds to me that the tree was allowed to get too dry between waterings at least once. New Zealand Teas are difficult to turn around after they have been moisture stressed, but it has been done. If most of the leaves are brittle, brush them off the tree and see if and how many are left.
Then, do the bark test by scraping a bit of outer bark off a branch or two and check the color of the inner bark. If it is green, the branch/twig is alive. If the inner bark is brown, then the branch is dead at least back to the point you scraped the bark. If you find brown bark, move an inch or so towards the trunk or base of the tree and check again for living wood. Repeat this process until you reach live wood.
If you find live wood, keep the soil lightly moist (don't saturate the soil or allow it to get totally dry), put it in a location with indirect light only, put a humidity tray under it and keep an eye on the humidity. Water when the soil still looks/feels slightly moist (the key word is slightly, not very) - don't let it get bone dry. It may be 6-12 weeks before the tree decides if it will live or not.
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Q. Can you give me advise about training a pre-bonsai ficus? I have read that you should not re-pot it while there is wire on it.
Training Pre-bonsai Ficus. In my experience with ficus, it doesn't really matter. We will either prune, wire and repot all at once or will prune and wire together and repot later. Unlike some trees, with ficus it is more a matter of convienence than any thing else.
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Q. I recently bought a ficus pre-bonsai. Should I give the tree some time to acclimate to it's new environment before doing any work on it or does it not really matter?
Training Pre-bonsai Ficus. Your new ficus will probably drop some leaves for several weeks while it is acclimating to its new home but it doesn't really matter if you wait or do your tree work now, as the ficus will bounce right back in 4 weeks or so. I would do the training before the new growth starts but after the acclimation period begins, that way you won't be cutting off new growth that has just begun to grow.
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Q. I got a serissa in spring and now, in November, the leaves are growing sparce. New growth appears but does not open out. It is under a light bulb about 18in. from the plant that is on 24 hrs. I use a liquid fertilizer diluted in the water.
Winter Changes in Serissa. I suspect the immediate problem is that the tree is not drying out enough between waterings. The symptom of new growth beginning but not coming out as you say is indicative of this. Trees which have very few leaves use much less water and you need to compensate for this. Do not fertilize the tree until the it has at least 2 sets of leaves on the new growth - just water until then.
The leaf drop you noticed 3 weeks ago is most likely due to our change of seasons and our days getting so short and the tree is trying to adjust to our short days of Maine winter. Most tropical trees exhibit this more or less. Put the tree back in the southerly exposure and supplement its light in the evening so that the tree gets about 13-14 hours of total light per day. Continue this until after the spring equinox. Right now the tree doesn't know quite what to do with 24 hours of light and no dark period.
Watch your watering very carefully allowing the tree to get fairly dry before watering again and put the tree under 13-14 hours of light per day and the tree should come around. The tree may even drop more leaves but should begin to releaf in 4-8 weeks.
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Q. My Too Little Ficus seems to be doing quite well but when I replaced the moss I found two worms. What should I do?
Worms in Soil. Earthworms are no cause for concern regarding the well being of trees. They are constantly moving around, aerating the soil and helping to make the soil's nutrients available to the tree.
We have noticed better growth and darker leaf color in trees that have pet worms. The only drawback we've found is that they make a bit of a mess when they come to the surface at night.
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