AusBonsai

treeman wrote:

shibui wrote:I am amazed that no one here has suggested pine bark adelgid. .

I'm amazed no one here has suggested throwing the damn thing in the garbage!

Mike
Always tactful as usual. Love it but i was trying to identify the pest and maybe a treatment fpr simular future cases however personally i think the tree is too far gone.

Shibui
Spot on that is what i call pine aphids. Thanks for giving the correct terminology

When you say it was at work, do you happen to work in the big green shed? I ask because my local one has all the bonsai against a wall under a roof. No direct sun and they always look underwatered. If you do, maybe advise them to move the bonsai to a better area where there receive better sun and water. I’ve always cringed when I see them there, especially when I see how way over priced they are.

longd_au wrote:I just wanted to share my recent experience with a similar problem though no where near as severe as this one.
I sprayed it heavily with white oil and since then, the tree has just gone from bad to worst.
All the white fluffy stuff has gone but all the young candles have died as well.
I think I over did it with the white oil and I am not sure if the tree will make it.

Never use White Oil or Winter Oil. If you have it in your cupboards throw it out unless you really know what you are doing.

Use only Pest Oil or other light oils and always follow instructions after first reading them.

The tree has Mealy Bug, spray it with Confidor.

Cheers,

Grant

"Matthew"

Mike
Always tactful as usual. Love it but i was trying to identify the pest and maybe a treatment fpr simular future cases however personally i think the tree is too far gone.

I know Matt and I agree we need to correctly identify the problem and shibui is correct about that. I was just trying to cut to the chase. That is...that it's not worth the trouble to bring this particular specimen back. You could grow a better one from seed before that happened.

dansai wrote:When you say it was at work, do you happen to work in the big green shed? I ask because my local one has all the bonsai against a wall under a roof. No direct sun and they always look underwatered. If you do, maybe advise them to move the bonsai to a better area where there receive better sun and water. I’ve always cringed when I see them there, especially when I see how way over priced they are.

I do work in a big green shed. It kills me that they don't look after the bonsai well enough. I generally on buy bonsai from work, because as you say, they are severely overpriced for what they are -- even with team discount. I do however rescue plants from time to time. That's how I got my last JBP.

I'm not going to give up on it just yet, though. I will try using Confidor as suggested by Shibui.

I know this is not the right time to do it, but would it be reasonable to cut branches that are most affected, 1) to rid the tree of the worst of the infestation; 2) it will allow the tree to focus energy on a smaller area.

If the consensus is to throw the plant out, it couldn't hurt to trim it back, right?

Sent from my LG-H870DS using Tapatalk

if you have the time and the space for a sick tree why not treat this tree as a learning exercise? live or die, you'll learn something about trees and that could be useful knowledge in the future!

Good News! You're shortly gonna have a spare white ceramic pot spare for something new

I know this is not the right time to do it, but would it be reasonable to cut branches that are most affected, 1) to rid the tree of the worst of the infestation; 2) it will allow the tree to focus energy on a smaller area.

You may not get the best response from such a sick tree but I think that this time of year is a great time to prune pines so prune away, wrap and bin any pieces to get rid of some of the pests.

I'm with Mike that it will be far better to start with healthy material. This tree is probably only 3-4 years old so not worth lots and it will take easily that long to nurse it back to health. It is also not a very attractive specimen for potential bonsai. Been grown fast without due pruning to keep low foliage so there are few options for growth on the trunk, very little taper and fewer options to prune back to.
As always you have options:
Follow Rob and use it to learn but I can't see a good bonsai in the near future. if you go this way we will be interested to see whether it recovers and what you can do with this.
Listen to Treeman and start with better quality material and have a decent pine bonsai at some stage.

robc wrote:if you have the time and the space for a sick tree why not treat this tree as a learning exercise? live or die, you'll learn something about trees and that could be useful knowledge in the future!

Hi Rob,
Thanks for your comments. I too would encourage to use this to learn from. If we threw out every sick tree, what would we learn? It doesn't matter if the tree will ever become a Bonsai, learn from the experience.

Regards Ray

"

Ray M"]

If we threw out every sick tree, what would we learn? It doesn't matter if the tree will ever become a Bonsai, learn from the experience.

Well one way to learn how to quickly kill the tree - if not dead now - is the advice to ''water each day''

treeman wrote:"

Ray M"]

If we threw out every sick tree, what would we learn? It doesn't matter if the tree will ever become a Bonsai, learn from the experience.

Well one way to learn how to quickly kill the tree - if not dead now - is the advice to ''water each day''

Surely all advice given here is subjective - "learn from experience" to take it or leave it

Keep Calm and Ramify wrote:
Surely all advice given here is subjective

Not all. eg; ''You should partially defoliate zelkovas every year if you don't want die-back of the inner branches''........ how is that subjective

treeman wrote:

Keep Calm and Ramify wrote:
Surely all advice given here is subjective

Not all. eg; ''You should partially defoliate zelkovas every year if you don't want die-back of the inner branches''........ how is that subjective

Would that be "your personal" guidance you are offering here...based on 'your' past experiences perhaps?
You've started the sentence with "You should........" which implies your advice (or someone else's you advocate?)
Regardless of the quality of content given, I personally have an option to choose.
-I can either believe & follow your advice
........or just ignore it based on my own experiences. One things a certain, I really enjoy these emojies!

does anyone remember the song by the great Mark "Jacko" Jackson, bet ya those that do are singing it now

Keep Calm and Ramify wrote:

treeman wrote:

Keep Calm and Ramify wrote:
Surely all advice given here is subjective

Not all. eg; ''You should partially defoliate zelkovas every year if you don't want die-back of the inner branches''........ how is that subjective

Would that be "your personal" guidance you are offering here...based on 'your' past experiences perhaps?
You've started the sentence with "You should........" which implies your advice (or someone else's you advocate?)
Regardless of the quality of content given, I personally have an option to choose.
-I can either believe & follow your advice
........or just ignore it based on my own experiences. One things a certain, I really enjoy these emojies!

Dear KCAR, It's black and white. In other words if you ignore it, your zelkova will lose inner branches.(Not might lose) Nothing to do with anything based on my personal experience. If you do it you will get one outcome, if you don't you get another. Instead of ''you should'' I should have said ''you must''. Of coarse you can ignore it. You could also ignore the advice not to sick a sharp pencil into your carotid artery too.