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[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 ************************************************** ****************************** ++++Sponsored, in part, by John Romano++++ ************************************************** ****************************** -- The IBC HOME PAGE & FAQ: http://www.internetbonsaiclub.org/ -- +++++ Questions? Help? e-mail +++++ |
#2
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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 ************************************************** ****************************** ++++Sponsored, in part, by John Romano++++ ************************************************** ****************************** -- The IBC HOME PAGE & FAQ: http://www.internetbonsaiclub.org/ -- +++++ Questions? Help? e-mail +++++ |
#3
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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. 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 +++++ |
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