My interest in Bonsai started this spring (Zone 9b - Yorkshire UK) and I’ve gone through all the phases most of us probably have.
Armed with crappy Youtube advice I murdered a few junipers think I could get instabonsai. I learned a little more and made mistakes as I went along. I over pruned my first couple of bigger JMs and wiring had a lot to be desired but I rectified that 5 or 6 weeks ago and my last few, apart from the Katsura because I thought it had a fungal infection were simply wired and lightly pruned some apical growth and unwanted branches to let in light to the lower canopy taking off up to 1/4 of the foliage but nothing drastic.
Unfortunately I’m seeing similar issues with all of my JMs. My Atropurpureum still looks healthy but growth has stopped - I think it’s just stress from pruning it too hard.
The Katsura maple was beautiful but quickly declined. Over pruned slightly but necessary, removing apical growth due to leaf burn and dead branches - other than that it looked very healthy, it was just not attractive for a garden plant and forgotten about. Now the leaves have all turned this mottled greenish brown and growth has stalled. Believing it was a fungal infection I removed even more foliage and treated it with a fungicide.
I have a summer gold beginning to show similar issues on it’s leaves. I quarantined the previous plant long before this started. I definitely learned my lesson with pruning and simply pruned back some apical branches/wired to let light into the lower canopy. This is the healthiest of the lot.
It has a very strong sacrifice branch I’ve allowed to grow wild but that is currently show different signs of ill health with some dying, deformed and curled up leaves.
My saplings took a bit of a hammering through poor wiring. They were my first plants and my wiring had much to be desired. I rewired them giving them a lot more room to move nutrients. New growth is very small, parts are deformed and generally look unhealthy. I haven’t touched the Orange Dream pictured and it still looks to be in a bad way.
I have checked the plants daily for insects and I have only found a lone weevil and the odd aphid but no infestations. Some have 10mm track marks that could have been eaten from the inside but the marks are few and far between. There’s the odd leaf has been munched but definitely not the cause of all of these problems.
Weather has been variable in the UK since the spring. Scorching hot for a week then dropping 10c, then overcast and we’ve had a few spells of heavy rain.
I definitely overwatered some of them at first but I gradually learning. I keep the root mass damp but not wet. I’ve checked some of the roots and I can’t see any root rot.
Feeding wise I’ve used a very light sprinkling of slow release fertilizer only once they were looking healthy and some very dilute miracle grow on the healthier looking plants.
They are on my back patio - we get sun from sunrise till just before midday then they’re shaded by the house for the rest until sunset where we get 90mins before sunset. Occasionally it gets very windy as we back onto a canal but they are shielded by other plants in the garden.
After my mad initial pruning spree I just want a healthy root system so I can repot them in spring to more suitable media, possibly in a pond basket.
Any ideas what is causing these issues?
