Gary Huff wrote:
Ok, I want to see if I can ask the dumbest question a newbie can ask, but I'm learning a lot by asking
dumb ones. I received a month ago a Japanese Black Pine which was about 6 to 8 years old. I think I
underwatered it because I was trying to keep it a little on the dry side, but learned the soil should be
a little on the wet side, but all its needles have turned brown and are falling off. Not wanting to give
up too easily on it, is it dead and should I forget it, or is there some remote hope that it will come
back? See I told you it was a dumb question and I would appreciate any dumb answers. Also I have
noticed that some bonsai listings have a "Sunset" zone. Does anyone know where I can find out what
mine is?



If "all" of its needles have turned brown and "all" are
falling off, I'm afraid that the news is bad.

"Wet" and "dry" are very subjective terms. Few pines like
"wet" soil -- spruce pine and slash pine are major
exceptions. Some pines live in the desert where they get
less than 10 inches of rain a _year_. They do fine. Most
are somewhere in between. Subjective. My guess is that you
may have overcompensated and watered too much, but I am NOT
a bonsai pine expert -- or even afficianado.

Get the new Sunset "Bonsai" book. The Sunset zone system is
mapped and described nicely. N. Va. (outside the mountains)
seems to be zone 32. Mountains are 36. _I_ find the Sunset
zones to be quite useful, BUT its developers live in the 10
western states (the base for Sunset Magazine's circulation)
and may have greeater expertise for that area than for the
humid eastern USA.

Jim Lewis - - This economy is a wholly
owned subsidiary of the environment. - Gaylord Nelson

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