[IBC] Dead or Alive?
 

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?

Gary R. Huff
bonsai student since 2004
Northern Virginia
Zone 7a

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[IBC] Dead or Alive?
 

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.

Gary

Not really a dumb question. If ALL the foliage is brown and dry, then it
is almost surely dead. You should check the buds. Foliage only comes
from buds on pines, new needles don't appear where old needles fall off
(except under conditions of forcing dormant buds which doesn't apply
here). So examine the buds. If they are dry and brown, she's a goner.

Common wisdom is that whenever a pine loses all its foliage, it is dead
or will die, but there are rare instances when that is not true. I had a
black pine, Pinus thunbergii, go through a late spring freeze after it
moved out of dormancy. The needles over the entire plant turned a bright
orange color and fell off. A few weeks later the undamaged buds began
opening and it survived. This, however is a very rare occurrence.

This year I had one black pine go dry because of a water screw up. By
the time I found it, about two thirds of the needles had already turned
brown. Ordinarily, I wouldn't have given odds on this plant surviving,
but it was a valuable grafted tree and so I just stuck it back under the
irrigation for the hell of it. The lower third of the tree that hadn't
died is still hanging on and may survive. This is also a very rare
occurrence. Once most of the foliage has turned brown from drying out,
the entire plant usually dies, but apparently I caught this one just in
time.

Brent
EvergreenGardenworks.com
see our blog at http://BonsaiNurseryman.typepad.com

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++++Sponsored, in part, by John Romano++++
************************************************** ******************************
-- The IBC HOME PAGE & FAQ: http://www.internetbonsaiclub.org/ --
+++++ Questions? Help? e-mail +++++

[IBC] Dead or Alive?
 

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

************************************************** ******************************
++++Sponsored, in part, by John Romano++++
************************************************** ******************************
-- The IBC HOME PAGE & FAQ: http://www.internetbonsaiclub.org/ --
+++++ Questions? Help? e-mail +++++