well, I have to admit that my own story seems a little too "neat",
almost like it really *was* written for television. On the other hand,
probably no one has done a study on "risk factors affecting conifer
bonsai grown in proximity to soybean fields". I'm not going to
speculate unless you send me the next dead conifer you have. Or heck-
you're so close, I'll make a house call! But we need more data before
we can make any broad demands banning soybean production in the US.

I'm going to assume that the key factor here is the heat: in fact, one
of the Wisconsin disease reports I found diagnosed the sick Thuja as
follows: "Stress/Fusarium/charcoal rot", making the assumption, as I
would have, that the stress was a crucial ingredient. Let's remember
where larches grow in natu in bogs. A native larch will never, ever
dry out, even for a day. A bonsai larch is subjected to new and
different stresses.

If I had a forest planting and one tree died, I'd certainly try to
figure out what killed that tree. If it was a soilborne disease, I'd
repot in fresh soil as quickly and carefully as possible. But it
wouldn't be surprising if the other trees had "latent" infections that
didn't become apparent until the next stress.

Nina, waiting to be sued by the Soybean Growers Anti-Defamation League.