AusBonsai

My Mum has been taking care of my Bonsai while I was overseas. she's done her best with my two Japanese Maple but for some reason one of them has lost all it's leaves. The other is looking very well indeed so i'm a bit confused as to why the other one has lost it leaves when they were bascially in the same place.

She thought maybe something had eaten it but I can't see anything on it. Any ideas on why it would have lost all it's leaves and is there anything i can do for it now? Will it die or can I keep it going?

thanks

Shaggy

Post a pic so we can have a look at it

Scott.

Is ther any evidence of burning?
Did the leaves shrivel and fall or just fall?
Are the two trees similar size, are the pots same size and colour, is the soil the same?

Hmmm

I had some caterpillars on mine and they ate some of the leaves but I put a stop to them.
Is the trunk and branches still green under the bark?
Give it a nick or scratch with your thumbnail and have a look.
Were you away for long?
Scott is right, some pics would be very helpful.

Two pics. hope they help.

Give the trunk a scratch and see if there is green under there
I think it may have passed, as there is no sign of foliage. You sure it did not dry out?

Ken

I think it is dead . Most likely it dried out from lack of watering.

I fear you are right. I've scraped both the trunk and the root and there's the palest of green if I am trying to be really optimistic but it's pretty brown. i dont believe it's lack of water though, Mum is a real watering fiend and I know she was careful to water both - and the other one is doing really well.

Poor tree, I feel bad now

Dont feel too bad, we have all lost trees from time to time.

If you want to play sleuth, you could take it out of the pot & search thru the roots. Nematodes will make the roots look lumpy, tho usually dont kill a tree that quick. Curl grubs (big & white) can decimate a small trees roots in no time at all. Accidental overspray with weedkiller wouldnt do it that quick either.

It is still possible that it dried out, even tho your mum is really good with watering & they are side by side. If one pot gets more sun or wind it will dry out more quickly. Was it at the end closest to the sun or prevailing winds?

Matt

Sadly this tree look quite dead.
I speculate that there may have been an issue wih the watering for this to hapen so suddenly. Maples are sensitive to wartering and if the routine is disrupted they can suffer a kind of shock. The biggest problem is when a maple dries out its roots may become damaged and so are then unable to take up water properely. What makes this worse is when the tree is wartered again the tree cannot use up all the warter and can then drown in the now sodden soil . It looks to me that the tree may have been dead fo a little while going on the colour if the bark. I think it is too late to expect a recovery.

its dead too dry? too wet could be a disease called canka (pretty much cancer for plants, picked up from soil in the past). but you will probably never know the cause of death

I have the same problem with 6 of 7 of my Japanese Maples .. My first bonsais and only ONE is doing well (has beautiful new leaves and grown considerably, doesn't look to be slowing down either). The other 6, however, pretty much look like sticks in dirt. I'm not 100% whether they're alive or not, but they look like they have really tiny leaf buds (little red bulbs), which have been there for a couple weeks now with no growth or progress.

The only difference between them is the one which is doing well is in a fairly shallow pot, while the rest are double the height.

I'm fairly new to bonsai and I really don't know what I can do to help these little fella's along .

On a side note, I planted a Wisteria almost a month ago which is doing quite nicely, is just about to open up the 3rd and 4th leaf =D. ITS SO CUTE!

Hi MoGanic,
Japanese maples are deciduous and it is autumn???? Not all individuals loose leaves at the same time so it is normal to have some drop leaves early and some later. If they have healthy buds then just be patient and wait for new leaves in spring.

Here they are! My babies!

I thought it made sense for them to drop their leaves! But then why is that one Maple growing NEW leaves ?? It must be super happy haha.

Thank's though, taken a load off my mind buddy .

I shall post up some pics soon! They're all tiny at the moment though!